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.
