We may skirt a full-fledged hurricane this weekend, but it will be wet and blustery. What does that mean for your weekend adventuring?
It means you should try it vicariously, at least if you live at the coast or in the central Piedmont. With wind and rain now forecast, at least periodically, through mid-day Sunday, what could be better than encamping on the couch with a good adventure, either in video or book form?

Video
On the ubiquitous Netflix, you will find:

• Jaws (1975) Plan this one early in the day — and after you take a bath.
• Into the Wild (2007) If you’ve missed out on the Chris McCandless cult, here’s your chance to catch up.
• The Road (2009) Not the type of adventure most of us envision.
• Deliverance (1972) See above.

• 

  The Way (2010) If you’re contemplating the El Camino de Santiago.

• Touching the Void (2013) Based on Joe Simpson’s classic tale of survival.
• Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) Hey, we’ve got a thing for 1950s cruisers.
• Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) You kids need to meet Pat Boone.
• Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2014) An internet reviewer thought it focused too much on winter. Hmm.
• Valley Uprising (2014) The well-told story of Yosemite’s first dirtbag community; move it to the top of your list

More of a reader, are you?

Since we first stumbled across it, we’ve been slowly pecking away at Outside magazine’s canon of epic adventure tales. It’s divided into 18 categories; following, is our favorite selection from a few:

The World’s Great Places  | Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, by Tim Cahill. An Outside editor and long-time columnist, this is a collection of some of the Livingston, Montana, writer’s more … eclectic observations. From the jungles of Peru, where he searches for the ruins of a lost civilization; to the cloud forests of Rwanda, where he follows gorillas; to the icy waters of Alaska, where he kayaks among orcas, Cahill is remarkable for his powers of observation, even more so for his ability to explain, often with great humor, those observations. Vintage Books.

Journeys to Hell |  A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, by Eric Newby. Says Outside: “Near the end of this epic mountaineering misadventure in Afghanistan, Newby passes a group of lepers. “That’s about all we’ve got left to catch,” comments his ever-wry sidekick, Hugh. Written in 1958, Newby’s story of dysentery, ill-fitting boots, and failed climbing is a comic masterpiece.”

Discoveries of America | Great Plains, by Ian Frazier. Frazier, a writer for The New Yorker, is “a rare satirist who understands the difference between real humor and hip smugness,” Outside accurately notes. “He drives 25,000 miles up and down and across the often overlooked region between Montana and Texas. His account, which take us from the spot where Sitting Bull’s cabin stood to a house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde to an abandoned Cold War command center, is equal parts absurdity and profundity.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Natural History | Coming into the Country, by John McPhee. Ever wonder who moves to the back country of Alaska? McPhee answers that question brilliantly in this 1977 look at Alaska environmentalism in the mid 1970s. A sample: ”I’d kill the last pregnant wolf on earth right in front of the president at high noon,” declares one of the many unforgettable characters in this even-handed look at environmental issues. Noonday Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Manifestos | Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America’s First National Park, by Alston Chase. Says Outside: “Chase, a leading ‘optimist,’ infuriated everyone from environmentalists to Reaganites with this hand grenade of a book. An attack not only on National Park Service policies but on the popular ecological beliefs that inspired them, Playing God in Yellowstone may make you mad, but it will also make you think.” Harcourt Brace,

Nature and Culture | Wilderness and the American Mind, by Roderick Nash. Even if the concept of wilderness doesn’t engage you outright, this look at the country’s ever-evolving feelings toward untamed nature is a comprehensive and fascinating insight into man and his relationship with the natural world. Yale University Press, $18.

And if there’s a break in the cloud, you can use the following resources to help find an adventure near you.

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When Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” came out in 1998, the popular writer’s account of his ill-conceived, ill-fated attempt to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail was met with derision by purists in the hiking community. Bryson and buddy Stephen Katz’s cavalier preparation was deemed disrespectful, their decision in Hot Springs to rent a car and drive for a spell after realizing just how far they had to go was a flat-out slap in the five-days-growth face to those who approached the trail with reverence and respect.
Most of us, though, could identify with the eager, if lacking, duo and found the adventure pretty funny.

For the film version of “Walk,” which opens in local theaters today, both camps are likely to find more common ground.
On screen, Bryson, played by a significantly older Robert Redford (more about that in a sec), is contemplating his mortality after the death of an acquaintance. Then he happens to notice, seemingly for the first time, that the Appalachian Trail runs through his neighborhood in New Hampshire.
Hmmm …

After calling everyone he knows in search of a hiking buddy — wife Catherine (Emma Thompson) won’t let him go alone — he gets a call from an old pal he tromped around Europe with 40 years back. Through the grapevine, Katz has heard Bryson needs a wing man and offers his services. Despite the outcome of their European adventure (“We didn’t end up despising each other,” Bryson corrects his wife, “we started out despising each other. We ended up hating each other”), Bryson is desperate and agrees.
Katz’s gravely, whiskey-soaked voice over the phone is a clue that he might not be thru-hiker material; when he stumbles out of a puddle-jumper from Des Moines, rheumy-eyed, pot-bellied, trick-kneed and with a tendency toward seizures if he doesn’t eat (preferably out of a vending machine) on the hour, the stage is set for disappointment.
And yet … .

From the start, at Springer Mountain, Ga., there are challenges.
Katz: How far do you think we’ve gone?
Bryson: (Surveying the landscape) Oh, about a quarter mile.
They encounter the inevitable know-it-all (a delightfully ditzy Kristen Schaal) who advises them that not only do they not have the right gear and have no idea what they’re doing, they don’t even have their birthdates right (wrong Zodiac sign). There’s the righteous REI sales associate (given the right amount of gear righteousness by Nick Offerman). And there’s the thru-hiker gear geek who condescendingly asks Bryson why he bought that backpack (“Because I thought it would be easier than carrying my stuff”).
And, of course, there are bears, because as everyone (in Hollywood, at least) knows, there’s a bear lurking behind every tree waiting to have you for dinner.

Still, on they plod. They catch up on life since Europe, Katz a bit intimidated by Bryson’s success, Bryson baffled by what makes Katz tick. They accuse each other of not living the life they want. They talk about girls.
In the book, what irritated the hiking elite most was the pair’s flippant decision following their “You-are-here” moment in Hot Springs to hop in the car. How dare they!
On screen, this moment occurs in northern Virginia and the outcome isn’t the same.
Does it matter whether they press on? Like so many thru-hikers, they’re both looking for something. And, like so many thru-hikers, they aren’t sure what. It’s the journey, not the destination, as most of us who hike know.

When the film was announced, there was considerable head scratching over the casting of Redford and Nolte, who are twice the age of the characters they portray. The book dealt with midlife malaise, the film with mortality. Both, though, offer suitable — and common — motivation when it comes to taking a walk in the woods.
In vastly different ways, the intellectual Bryson and the hard-scrabble Katz bring to the trail an introspection most hikers will appreciate.

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The post Review: Bryson’s long ‘Walk,’ this time on screen appeared first on GetGoing NC!.