4.0
Mud, Rocks, Blazes
ByPublisher Description
Despite her success setting a self-supported Fastest Known Time record on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013, Heather “Anish” Anderson still had such deep-seated insecurities that she became convinced her feat had been a fluke. So two years later she set out again, this time hiking through mud, rocks, and mountain blazes to crush her constant self-doubt and seek the true source of her strength and purpose.
The 2,180 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Maine to Georgia, did not make it easy. Anderson struggled with its infamous rain, humidity, insects, and steep grades for 54 days. But because she had to fight for every step, she knew when she reached the summit of Springer Mountain, the AT’s southern terminus, that she had fully earned the trail. Of greater value, she learned to love herself and her body, and to feel the depth of her power. Examining emotional scars as well as her relationship with her mother, Anderson’s deeply internal yet highly physical journey in Mud, Rocks, Blazes is an essential story.
The 2,180 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Maine to Georgia, did not make it easy. Anderson struggled with its infamous rain, humidity, insects, and steep grades for 54 days. But because she had to fight for every step, she knew when she reached the summit of Springer Mountain, the AT’s southern terminus, that she had fully earned the trail. Of greater value, she learned to love herself and her body, and to feel the depth of her power. Examining emotional scars as well as her relationship with her mother, Anderson’s deeply internal yet highly physical journey in Mud, Rocks, Blazes is an essential story.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesMud, Rocks, Blazes Reviews
4.0
“Wholesome read and inspiring journey from the author”
“Such an inspiring story!”
“This book is more about the author's mental health than about the hiking of the trail. The overall arc is meant to be a redemptive one where she starts out very self abusive but releases some of that by the end, but the releases are unclear and she's still very much self abusing by the end.
Honestly- I don't feel comfortable praising this book. It's not really tenacity to drive yourself with days of no sleep, no water, urinating blood, and living off of soda, ice cream, and caffeine. There's a difference between tenacity, which is overcoming difficulty when it's necessary, and abusing yourself by denying yourself medical care, nutrition, etc. This person doesn't need extreme spots. She needs therapy. The fact that in the book she's able to trace her self-rejection to specific childhood traumas but she's not releasing them tells you that. By the time she admits to struggling with an eating disorder we already know that because she's abusing herself through food and restrictions all through the book. I feel like attaching more conditional praise to the results of her self harm is how we get dead athletes.”
“Very good for a thru hiking book. It was a bit clunky with the writing since the transferring of days just felt a bit jarring.
Loved the story behind it all and vulnerability Heather wrote about. It was very relatable even when you're not an fkt athlete like her.”
About Heather Anderson
Heather Anderson is a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, avid mountaineer, professional speaker, and author. She holds several Fastest Known Times and was the first woman to complete the Triple Crown of thru-hiking in a calendar year. Follow her adventures at anishhikes.wordpress.com and on Instagram @AnishHikes.
Other books by Heather Anderson
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