I am not a thru hiker, but I would imagine any hike that lasted months and spanned over 2000 miles to have its ups and downs. But whoa, there was a lot of drama that happened. Which wasn't a bad thing at all! This book does a wonderful job of documenting the internal challenges that Ben crawford went through while hiking the Appalachian Trail. As well as the thoughts of his wife and their 6 children (all of whom completed the trail with him) dispersed throughout the book as well. I was expecting more descriptions of nature, but instead got a glimpse into the amazing relationships that can form when a bunch of strangers are trying to accomplish a shared goal!