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The Unlikely Thru-Hiker
- An Appalachian Trail Journey
- Narrated by: Derick Lugo
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Sports & Outdoors, Outdoors & Nature
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Summary
Derick Lugo had never been hiking. He certainly couldn't imagine going more than a day without manicuring his goatee. But with a job cut short and no immediate plans, this fixture of the New York comedy scene began to think about what he might do with months of free time. He had heard of the Appalachian Trail, but he had never seriously considered attempting to hike all 2,184.2 miles of it. Suddenly he found himself asking, Could he do it?
The Unlikely Thru-Hiker is the story of how a young Black man from the city, unfamiliar with both the outdoors and thru-hiking culture, sets off with an extremely overweight pack and a willfully can-do attitude to conquer the infamous trail. What follows are lessons on preparation, humility, and nature's wild unpredictability. But this isn't a hard-nosed memoir of discouragement. What sets Lugo apart from the typical walk in the woods is his refusal to let any challenge squash his inner Pollyanna. Through it all, Lugo perseveres with humor, tenacity, and an unshakeable commitment to grooming - earning him the trail name "Mr. Fabulous" - that sees him from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine.
What listeners say about The Unlikely Thru-Hiker
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jonathan T
- 30-05-22
Cool story
Interesting tale, nicely narrated by Derick which makes it a very personal and involving journey.
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- Ms. V. R. K. Houghton
- 19-01-22
almost want to go hiking... almost!
This is a great story with so much to enjoy. A new fav book.
Read it, its good.
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- bannedbum
- 21-08-21
On My Feet All Day
I have listened to several of the application trail thru hiker audiobooks. I work 12 hour shifts on my feet and sometimes I pretend I’m a thru hiker to get through my day. I probably never will hike the trail, but for one credit I get the next best thing to it in my opinion. I have returned several hiking books due to foul language or them using their hiking journey to share their political, religious or non religious and social views. I buy these books for the hike, the stories and the experiences they have along the way with the characters they meet. I never get tired of hearing the loses and wins of each day, trail magic and good food. Setting up camp, tearing down and the fun of zero days. This is one of the books I will keep and even listen to again and again to get through my work day.
Has anyone ever returned an audiobook, because there was no foul language? I mean, what’s the deal. If I wanted to listen to people swear and cuss all day, I’d just unplug and listen to my coworkers! Audible definitely needs a rating system like movies and video games have. If nothing else, just to save us time and help those people who want to spend their hard earned money on swear words weaved into a hiking story. Just to be clear, this book was good, but I returned 3 hiking audiobooks before this one due to the issues listed above.
10 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 19-12-21
Captivating start to finish
Having just turned 59, I have this "fantasy" of getting on the AT and doing a through hike. It has occupied my mind over the 5 years that I have accompanied my wife through her terminal condition. Now that my journey with my spouse is over, I have re-engaged the notion of accomplishing this spiritual quest. Thank you for re-engaging my dreams.
2 people found this helpful
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- Irene Thomas
- 11-05-21
Good but monotone
I loved the story but the performance was very monotone. There was lack of excitement at some points.
2 people found this helpful
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- G
- 03-08-22
Typical Thru Hiking Book
It's pretty much your typical kind of thru hiking book. I like thru hiking books but the genre might not be for everyone. I like reading different authors on the subject to get different perspectives. And this one gave a different perspective than most.
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- dion campbell
- 23-07-22
Wonderful personal thru hike story
I honestly read every thru hiking memoir I can get my hands on, and I love how they’re all different even though they’re about the same journey. This one is less about the technical minutiae of the hike and more about the hiker’s internal personal experience, which was wonderful. He’s so genuine and humble, he gives off this youthful innocence that’s really refreshing. Like the opposite of cynical. I’m so glad he took the time to share his adventure with us through this book.
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- Maggie Geoghegan
- 27-06-22
Great story but monotoned
I really enjoyed the story, however I felt it was monotoned as if completely being read by the author.
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- RYAN GUDGEON
- 25-06-22
might be a DNF...
This book is mainly a lot of "This happened, then this happened"; a ton of fluff and no substance. there's dozens of books and accounts of people thru hiking the AT but the author fails to convey anything that sets it about from the rest of them. The drab delivery of the author/narrator doesn't help at all. All in all, props to him for completing the trail but I failed to get anything out of this one.
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- msrj920
- 23-06-22
Go with the flow
So enjoyable to listen to. So causal and gentle. I loved hearing a novice hiker's experience.
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- marie Gallagher
- 20-06-22
Awsomesauce!!!!!
I absolutely loved reading this book.... It was well written and very easy to get into..
To the author.... thank you for doing all the "leg work" and allowing to feel like you took me along with you on your AT thru-hike!!!
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-06-22
Awesome story
This was the absolute best story of any thru hiker books that I’ve read. Thank you for sharing this adventure