Davis recounted the pain, falls, foot infections and bug bites with complete candor, something I appreciated as I contemplate my own thru-hike. Never did she give the false impression that it was an easy journey, hence the gritty description. Throughout the book, I sensed her growing both spiritually, and as an athlete, as she continued to put one foot in front of the other for hundreds, then thousands of miles. I caught myself laughing out loud while reading about her missteps and breaches of trail etiquette (hint – backpackers really don’t like picking pasta out of the water supply).Īs she put miles behind her, she learned the “ropes,” made friends, attracted a stalker, suffered injury, and witnessed both tragedy and great human kindness. Both humorous and gritty, her writing style doesn’t pull punches.įrom the beginning, she honestly shared her total lack of backpacking experience and many screw-ups as she set out from the southern end of the Appalachian Trail with a borrowed backpack. It is one of the best accounts of hiking the A.T. I just finished reading Jennifer Pharr Davis’ book, Becoming Odyssa, and I’m both humbled and inspired by the account of her 2,181-mile thru-hike from Georgia to Maine in 2005. Now I have a completely new concept of brave.

I’d been backpacking all of my adult life, had good gear, and was in excellent shape, but I still had apprehensions. Let’s face it - it’s different for a chick on the trail than for a guy. I felt brave the first time I stepped onto the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) solo.

Becoming odyssa review