American Camino: Walking as Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail

Kip Redick

doi:10.5771/9781666916706

Summary

Hikers have been walking the Appalachian Trail since 1948, when Earl Shaffer completed the first hike. Some hike just to enjoy the scenery, while others experience the trek as a spiritual journey. In American Camino: Walking as Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail, Kip Redick engages in a phenomenological exploration of the relationship between long-distance hiking—in this case, hiking the Appalachian Trail—and spiritual pilgrimage. This book shows the way the Appalachian Trail concretizes existential connections between the hikers’ spiritual experiences and intersubjective relationships with various constituents on and around the trail: mountainous wilderness; its variation of flora, fauna, geology, and watershed; and social interactions with fellow hikers and with communities near the trail. Redick contrasts “spiritual rambling” with other approaches to hiking, such as scenic hikes where an experience of landscape is the focus, or a series of other aesthetic encounters that involve hikers’ connection with nature. This book interprets the Appalachian Trail as a site of spiritual journey and those who hike the wilderness trail as contemporary pilgrims.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2023
Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-6669-1669-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-1670-6
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 346
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Figures No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 6
1. Getting to the Mountain No access Pages 7 - 38
2. Spiritual Journey Versus Aesthetic Tourism No access Pages 39 - 98
3. A Social/Spatial Journey No access Pages 99 - 156
4. Can Wildness Be Found on a Wilderness Trail? No access Pages 157 - 186
5. Wilderness as Sacred Space No access Pages 187 - 232
6. Spiritual Rambling: Walking in Wilderness as Spiritual Practice No access Pages 233 - 282
7. Veterans, Healing, and Long-Distance Hiking No access Pages 283 - 308
8. Summiting Katahdin and Coming Home No access Pages 309 - 324
Bibliography No access Pages 325 - 334
Index No access Pages 335 - 344
About the Author No access Pages 345 - 346