Sticks and Stones

How does a middle-aged wife, mother, and FBI agent pursue her dream of hiking 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine? Sticks Harsha balances her trekking ambitions against the responsibilities of daily life by hiking the Appalachian Trail in sections, one piece at a time. Across a thirteen-year odyssey, Sticks discovers the best of America: the stunning beauty and diversity of nature, the quaintness of small towns, the quirkiness of fellow hikers, and, above all, the generosity of strangers. She also discovers the disorientation of extreme thirst, the unpredictability of feral animals, and the dangers of life-threatening winds across knife-edge precipices in the isolated, mountainous wilds. Follow this brilliantly written saga of one woman's quest to hold onto her dream even as her body ages and her spirit tires, making her question whether she will ever finish her journey. And whether she will truly make it back home.

How does a middle-aged wife, mother, and FBI agent pursue her dream of hiking 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine? Sticks Harsha balances her trekking ambitions against the responsibilities of daily life by hiking the Appalachian Trail in sections, one piece at a time. Across a thirteen-year odyssey, Sticks discovers the best of America: the stunning beauty and diversity of nature, the quaintness of small towns, the quirkiness of fellow hikers, and, above all, the generosity of strangers. She also discovers the disorientation of extreme thirst, the unpredictability of feral animals, and the dangers of life-threatening winds across knife-edge precipices in the isolated, mountainous wilds. Follow this brilliantly written saga of one woman's quest to hold onto her dream even as her body ages and her spirit tires, making her question whether she will ever finish her journey. And whether she will truly make it back home.

Sticks (as she became known on the Trail) was not born into a family of adventurers or a community of outdoor enthusiasts. She discovered a love for hiking in the post-9/11 years, when she sought a sense of balance and serenity away from the demands of her career. From 2005 to 2017, Sticks lived her life with one foot on the Appalachian Trail and one foot off, her heart always in two places but her mind at peace. Now retired from the FBI, Sticks lives in Franklin, Tennessee, where she dreams of future trails.