Summoning the Mountains: Pilgrimage into Forty - Softcover

Allen, Amy

3.87

31 ratings by Goodreads

9781936214839: Summoning the Mountains: Pilgrimage into Forty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1936214830 ISBN 13: 9781936214839

Publisher: Lightning Source Inc, 2012

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Hoping to rekindle the spirit of freedom she once knew, a divorced, single mother sets aside family and society's expectations to seek fulfillment by following a lifelong calling. On the eve of turning forty, Amy reaches for her personal goal of hiking the Appalachian Trail. Accepting the name of "Willow" bestowed by her teenage sons, she settles them into new lives at their father's house and departs on a 2000-mile walk. Amy journals of walking through storms, injuries, hunger and doubt. Surprised when her sixteen-year old is suspended from school, Willow bends to this new development to find herself mothering on the trail and learning as much from her son as he does from his adventure. When her son returns to school, Willow must find her place within the hiker community and face her fears alone. Willow transports the reader into the forest, giving the armchair hiker a glimpse into a world of coyotes, butterflies, birds and bears, sharing her determination and frustration as she makes her way from Georgia to Maine on foot. This is a story about what it means to embrace challenge in our lives-a story about change.

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From the Back Cover:

A story of camaraderie, personal goals, relationship dynamics and communing with nature move this narrative along in such a way, the act of reading it is as enjoyable as finding out how Amy's journey ends." ~ Salena Lettera, The Daily Rant salenalettera.com Amy draws on a wealth of spiritual and life experience for her decision to hike the Appalachian Trail, described by some as nature's cathedral. Her descriptions of an ever changing mix of weather, other hikers, magnificent vistas and intricacies of the hike itself shows how the AT experience mirrors our life journey. People spend much time and money looking for that magic "something" that will bring them into a direct and intimate experience with our cosmos. ~Calen Rayne-DMin

About the Author:

Amy Allen holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Appalachian State University (1987) combining Anthropology, Native American Studies and Social Work with an English minor. She went on to study at University of Oklahoma's Field School of Ethnography, living and working with the Southern Cheyenne.

A backpacker for over 30 years, she has built and lived in a debris hut and lived in a tipi. A NC Governor's School graduate in Voice in 1983, she also won the NC Federation of Women's Clubs Literature Scholarship for her poetry at age 16. Journaling since age 12, her enthusiasm for life is apparent in an eclectic resume that includes draft horse logging, baling Christmas trees, tapping maple trees, making rawhide for local drum-makers, as well as long-haul trucking, technical support, human resources, data analysis and teaching yoga.

Amy continues long-distance hiking and has completed the Foothills Trail, Black Mountain Crest Trail, Benton MacKaye Trail and the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. Her trucking blog can be found at opnrds.blogspot.com and her trail journals can be found on TrailJournals.com. She lives in Western North Carolina.

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