The Trail: A Novel, by Ethan Gallogly, illustrations by Jeremy Ashcroft, Sierra Nevada Press, 356 pages, 2021

When I contacted Ethan Gallogly to get a copy of his 2021 book, The Trail, he made it clear that his book about hiking the John Muir Trail in California was a novel. He explained that a novel is fictional. Of course, I know what a novel is, but it seems many people who had read The Trail didn’t. They thought it was autobiographical or at least true.

Having read the book, I can see why.

It reads like a Robert Bateman wildlife painting appears. Are Bateman’s depictions of moose or bears or whales photos or paintings, I often wonder. As I made my way down The Trail with Gallogly, I had to keep reminding myself that Gil and his terminally ill, late-father’s best friend Syd weren’t real people and they didn’t hike the John Muir Trail together.

The book blends elements of Wild, by Cheryl Strayed; a National Geographic article about the natural and cultural history of the Sierra Nevada; The Alchemist, by Paulho Cuelho; and The Wealthy Barber, by David Chilton. Gallogly cleverly weaves stories about the Sierra Nevada’s place names, it’s origins, geology and myths into his conversations between the pair of hikers and the people they meet along the way. Like Strayed, Gil is on a pilgrimage of sorts in memory of his late father who died an accidental death, and he mimics Strayed in that he is completely unprepared for the journey. Readers also learn a lot about the author’s thoughts on life and the lessons he has learned, many of them absorbed from his time spent exploring and reading about the Sierra Nevada.

It’s not easy for an author to make historical facts sound interesting to lay audiences, and more difficult yet is getting across your ideas about what’s important in life (the value of being outdoors, for example) to readers without sounding preachy. But in the style of The Wealthy Barber, Gallogly metes out an enormous amount of information in The Trail’s 356 pages of 10-point font*. When I think about it, even his explaining to me what a novel was didn’t cause my hackles to bristle. And that’s good writing!

The Trail will appeal to anyone who likes to read about long-distance hikes, whether or not they ever plan to hike them. It would also be of interest to people fascinated by California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, Yosemite and John Muir, who, of course, spent several years living in Canada near Meaford**.

On line descriptions of the book includes an appropriate subheading: A Transformative Journey Along the John Muir Trail.

I highly recommend this enjoyable book.

*A new version of the book is planned for release with a more readable 12-point font.

**If you are interested in knowing more about John Muir’s time in Canada, hike the John Muir Loop de Loop and/or the Trout Hollow Loop in my Collingwood, the Beaver Valley & Blue Mountains Hikes: Loops & Lattes. There is a lot of information about him along these routes and on the latter hike you’ll visit the place where he lived.

Blue-Mountain-author Robert Burcher has written a fascinating book about John Muir’s time in the area: My Summer of Glorious Freedom (2022) and Amy Phelan produced a film: John Muir at Trout Hollow (2019).

About Ethan Gallogly

Ethan Gallogly knows a lot about the Sierra Nevada. The book’s back cover explains: “His boots have covered countless miles, including the John Muir Trail, the High Sierra Trail, the Oregon Section of the Pacific Crest Trail… “He also reviewed guidebooks about the Sierra Nevada published by Wilderness Press and has read “nearly every book on the history of the Sierra Nevada.”