This book is a true story about a 347-day trek by foot covering
well over 5,000 miles, from the Cliffs of Forillon, Cap
Gaspé, Quebec Province, where the St. Lawrence meets the
sea, to the southernmost point on the eastern North American
continent in Key West, Florida.
Interestingly, the journey doesn’t end there, but returns
north again, all the way to the island of Newfoundland,
to continue among the Long Range Appalachian Mountains
as they rise to meet the tundra, clear to the tip of the
Great Northern Peninsula where the Vikings first landed
over 1,000 years ago. Journey’s end is on Belle Isle,
the remaining mountaintop, the final bastion along the
majestic Appalachians to hold its head above the Labrador
Sea.
As part of this adventure, and as a distinction, this
is the first known trek to cover the entire Appalachian
Mountain Range, at least as we know it to exist on the
North American continent.
This odyssey is narrated in first person (journal entry)
format, in hopes you might enjoy journeying along from
day to day. Though vicarious your quest, be prepared to
experience the joy, feel the pain, and test the loneliness
and toil that only a trek of such magnitude could ever
offer up. As it has been for the Nimblewill Nomad, it
is hoped this adventure will also prove a journey of inspiration
and discovery for you. Indeed, the eastern North American
continent is grand, such an expansive and magnificent
place, with its natural beauty, its beautiful people.
The delight of such discovery can be neither realized
nor least understood by those comfortably riding along.
One must walk to truly see and understand.
Where Less the Path is Worn will take you along that way.
A warning, though. This journey, unfortunately, will require
that you endure the doggedness of it, the seemingly countless
miles, the countless days, the countless journal entries.
You, too, must endure, as did the old Nomad. But your
reward, your payoff, it’s here, the magic of discovery,
it’s here among these pages.
[N. Nomad]
He who rides and keeps the beaten track studies the fences
chiefly.
[Thoreau]
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