Hiking Nebraska features detailed hike descriptions, miles and directions, trailhead GPS coordinates, and informative maps for 45 of the greatest hikes in the cornhusker state. Hikes will take readers through the wide-open grasslands, rugged cliffs and canyons, and towering buttes that comprise the diverse natural beauty of Nebraska. From the wooded bluffs near the Missouri River to the badlands of the western half of the state, discover the plethora of hiking trails that might just be Nebraska’s best kept secret.

An account of the author's 2016 thru-hike of the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail.

79-year-old Mary-Triple Crown long-distance hiker-Hikes Again!The American Discovery Trail is a trail for discovery. It's different kind of trail. And a different kind of hike. And this is a different kind of book. Mary holds nothing back as she pours onto the page rich narrative of life experiences and her reflections on fear and overcoming fear. Up close and colorful, she recounts her solo-hike along the ADT from the Atlantic Ocean to Omaha, Nebraska.What makes this trail so different?The ADT is not all wilderness trail, though it does cross through some wilderness areas. There's no long string of mountain ranges to follow like on the National Scenic Trails. A walk across the middle of the USA requires meeting people, interacting with strangers to find resources: campsites (sometimes in people's yards), water (when natural sources contain possible chemical contamination), and other necessities of life.As on any long-section hike, there are challenges, new sights, and tons of beauty. One mile at a time, Mary discovers America, and shines a mellow, engaging light on its real people and its delight-for-the-senses scenery. Sometimes Mary Feels AfraidMary reflects on fear, her own and others' fears for her. She often challenges the fear-no matter whose it is.Mary may challenge you too: what you think about hiking and your assumptions and fear of other people, who may be different from you. She may even challenge you to think about faith and what that word means to you.So, come along with Mary for the hike through Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Discover this trail across America, ponder your own thoughts on fear while reading hers, and, possibly, even consider your own faith, whatever it may be.

Reading the West Longlist for Memoir/Biography One grouchy husband. Three reluctant kids. Five hundred miles of wilderness. And one woman, determined to escape the humdrum existence of modern parenting and a toxic work environment and to confront the history of environmental damage wreaked by westward expansion and the Anthropocene. In Uphill Both Ways Andrea Lani walks us through the Southern Rockies, describing how the region has changed since the discovery of gold in 1859. At the same time, she delves into the history of her family, who immigrated to Leadville to work in the mines, and her own story of hiking the trail in her early twenties before returning two decades later, a depressed middle-aged mom in East Coast exile seeking happiness in a childhood landscape. On the 489-mile trek from Denver to Durango on the Colorado Trail, Lani's family traveled through stunning scenery and encountered wildflowers, wildlife, and too many other hikers. They ate cold oatmeal in a chilly, wet tent and experienced scorching heat, torrential thunderstorms, and the first nip of winter. Her kids grew in unimaginable ways, and they became known as "the family of five," an oddity along a trail populated primarily by solo men. As they inched along the trail, Lani began to exercise disused smile muscles, despite the challenges of hiking in a middle-aged body, maintaining her children's safety and happiness, and contending with marital discord. She learned that being a slow hiker does not make one a bad hiker and began to uncover the secret to happiness.

From the founder of the Fat Girls Hiking community, this inclusive and inspiring guide to the great outdoors will inspire people of all body types, sizes, abilties, and backgrounds.

With nearly fifty featured trails, Iowa's verdant countryside is an excellent place for a hike, and this guide covers the state's varied terrain with a focus on the state parks and recreation areas.

The Chicago & Northwestern railroad’s “Cowboy Line” was active for more than one hundred years—delivering gold from the Black Hills, transporting livestock from the ranches in the West, and carrying passengers through northern Nebraska. Now the 321-mile-long rail line is being remade into Nebraska’s first state recreational trail which, when completed, will become the nation’s longest rail-to-trail conversion. Nebraska’s Cowboy Trail: A User’s Guide is the essential companion for anyone planning to hike, bike, or ride horseback on the Cowboy Recreation and Nature Trail, which currently extends from Norfolk to Valentine and will eventually stretch all the way to Chadron. The trail runs through numerous communities, accommodates multiple uses, and provides an up-close look at the ecology of the Great Plains—a view too easily missed when speeding by in a car. Keith Terry’s guidebook enhances appreciation of the trail’s natural advantages with descriptions of the region’s flora and fauna and with pointers for food, lodging, and camping. He also provides brief narratives about historical events that occurred along the route. This guide illuminates a historical corridor of the Great Plains and will heighten the trail user’s experience.

If, as Wallace Stegner said, the national park is “the best idea we ever had,” the rail-trail is certainly a close runner-up. Part transportation corridor, part park, the rail-trail has revolutionized the way America creates high-quality, car-free pathways for bicyclists, runners, walkers, equestrians, and more. It was only a few decades after railroad barons had run roughshod over America’s economy and politics that they began to shed nearly one hundred thousand miles of unneeded railroad corridor. At the same time, bicyclists were being so thoroughly pushed off ever-more-intimidating roadways they came close to extinction. Through political organizing and lawyerly grit, an unlikely, formerly marginalized advocacy arose, seized on seemingly worthless strips of land, and created a resource that is treasured by millions of Americans today for recreation, purposeful travel, tourism, conservation, and historical interpretation. From Rails to Trails is the fascinating tale of the rails-to-trails movement as well as a consideration of what the continued creation of rail-trails means for the future of Americans’ health, nonmotorized transportation networks, and communities across the country.