No comments about Rand McNally Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont Easyfinder Map (Rand McNally Easyfinder).

No comments about Maines Paper & Foodservice - SWOT Analysis.

1 comments about You won't get to Maine unless you walk in the rain.

1. I picked up this book in Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire, the mecca of hikers in New England. I read every book from any thru hiker that I can lay hands on, so Newell's book was a "must read."
   
   Buddy is a likeable and upfront type of man, sort of the Jimmy Stewart of thru hikers. He had initially planned to hike the trail with his son, Randy, but Randy was felled by MS and confined to a wheelchair. Never one to give up, Buddy substituted his daughter, Dianne and away they went.
   
   The Newells start out from Springer Mountain in April and don't quite make it to Maine, aborting the hike in late August because Dianne must return to work. Buddy returns to the trail the next year to complete the journey.
   
   The book is written in diary format, which is a common method of writing AT books, but in my opinion, not the wisest choice. Inevitably, there are many non-scintillating days and this resuts in some plodding sections of the book. Newell does stick to the subject, doesn't meander (the bane of almost every other thru hiker book), and is observant of his surroundings. He is especially adept at describing the various shelters he stays in and the odd range of fellow hikers he encounters.
   
   I was displeased that Buddy attempts to kill a rattlesnake he encounters on the trail with the ridiculous reasoning that he didn't want "an angry snake on the trail." It's a terrible shame that a hiker would ever attempt to kill any creature they encounter on the trail, unless in self defense. The hiker is visiting the home of the snake who threatened no one, he should respect it as such (and now I will descend off my soapbox).
   
   There are many better thru hiker books out there, but if you are into collecting all titles, this is a moderately entertaining and well-written account of a 1989-1990 thru hike.

5 comments about We took to the woods.

1. Louise Dickinson Rich is a star! A truly wonderful and gifted writer. You can't put her books down.



2. A friend gave me this book when I was at a very low point in my life. My wife and I read it together, over a long weekend, and packed the car Monday morning. By Wednesday we had our old house listed and Friday we put in an offer on 40 acres with an old farm. We haven't looked back since; but we have given copies of this book to all of our old friends for Christmas.



3. "We Took to the Woods" is as charming and delightful a book as you will ever find. It's the story of a city woman living on a remote Maine river with her husband and children. She's not poor, nor a rube, nor does she display the eccentricities one associates with people who flee to the wilderness. Rather, she seems happy, well-adjusted, and full of sympathetic tales about the few -- very few -- people she comes into contact with in the course of her daily life. And she really did live in the woods --the nearest store was a long boat ride away and she didn't go "outside" for a four year stretch. Her township of Upton had a population of 182.
   
   The book is set up in chapters that answer questions: "Isn't housekeeping difficult?" or "Aren't you ever frightened." One of the better stories in the chapter, "Aren't the Children a Problem" tells about her husband delivering the author's baby in the dead of winter -- and greasing it with olive oil which he kept to dress his trout flies. The new parents discuss what they are supposed to do with the hot water always called for when a baby is being born -- and they decide to make coffee.
   
   For the modern reader, the highlights of the book are probably tales of the trials of living without conveniences. The Rich houses -- they had a winter and summer house -- had no plumbing. Heating and cooking were with wood. What you needed for groceries was delivered by boat once a month; the Sears catalog supplied the rest. For anyone who has ever thought wistfully of fleeing civilization, this is a humorous primer of both the rewards and hardships of such a life. It deserves a permanent place on the short shelf of Americana classics.
   
   Smallchief



4. This book is a great read for anyone who's ever had the desire to just chuck it all and head for the woods (a desire that seems to wax and wane like the tides, popular one decade [1970s, for example], totally passe the next). Today taking to the woods for many means building a $500,000 "rustic retreat" with pool, hot tub, and wine cellar included. For Louise Rich, back in the 1930s (the book was published in 1942), things were much different.
   
   For one thing, her house had no plumbing. Water had to be hauled to the house in buckets. Supplies and the mail came by boat. Life was no picnic for her and her family. But, of course, there were trade offs. The beauty of the place, for one. The living as one with nature. The need to be resourceful, and the feeling of pride and accomplishment that goes with it. Trade offs worth the hardships, Rich makes perfectly clear.
   
   Rich captures the flavor of her idyllic spot in the Maine woods a few miles east of Upton along the Rapid River (the swiftest river east of the Mississippi, even though it is only about four miles long). She describes what life is like there, how the busy summers are a prelude to the slow, long winters. She talks about her neighbors, the loggers, the animals they encounter, how one endures and enjoys life in the woods. She describes the effects of the hurricane of 1938 and the havoc is caused even there, so far inland. Her prose style is clear and direct, and she truly makes the reader jealous of her situation rather than sympathetic. It's an excellent book, one that I've read a number of times, always with an I-wish-I-was-there enthusiasm. Highly recommended.



5. It's hard to believe that Louise Rich's "We Took to the Woods" is decades old.
   
   Absolutely charming and totally original, Rich is the sort of author you wish you could meet in person. Her observations are fascinating, her writing is wonderfully engaging, and her point of view goes far beyond the usual country folksiness found in most books of this type. Most importantly, Rich doesn't preach. The book is simply a well written, entertaining account of her life in the Northwoods with her family. The writing is so timeless, I rarely remember that I am reading about a family from 60 years ago.
   
   I enjoyed "Woodswoman" books, and thought that in so specific a genre, I would find little else of quality. However, after reading this book, I realize that Rich is the original item, and the standard to which "I want to live in a cabin" books should be judged. It's just plain excellent.

No comments about Maine: A geography.

No comments about Mountain Guide: The White Mountains of New Hampshire and Maine.

No comments about Thoreau's Maine Woods: Yesterday and Today.

1 comments about Reluctant Hero: A Snowy Road to Salem in 1802 (Walker's American History Series for Young People).

1. I thought that the book " Reluctant Hero" was an excellent book for a sneak peak at the United States around 1802. Although some of the wording was rather unusual, it also help to add to the reader's view of the time in which this book was set. The author could have gone a little bit more into some of the unfamiliar objects and places in the book, but what he did was ok.

No comments about New England: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine (Fodor Shell travel guides U.S.A).

No comments about Dartmoor.