Journeys North: The Pacific Crest Trail

by Barney Scout Mann

Overview

"There’s anguish, there’s love, there’s Nutella and there are miles and miles to cover." — Los Angeles Times

Banff Mountain Book Competition Finalist

In Journeys North, legendary trail angel and thru hiker Barney Scout Mann spins a compelling tale of six hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2007 as they walk from Mexico to Canada. This ensemble story unfolds as these half-dozen hikers—including Barney and his wife, Sandy—trod north, slowly forming relationships and revealing their deepest secrets and aspirations. They face a once-in-a-generation drought and early severe winter storms that test their will in this bare-knuckled adventure. In fact, only a third of all the hikers who set out on the trail that year would finish.

As the group approaches Canada, a storm rages. How will these very different hikers, ranging in age, gender, and background, respond to the hardship and suffering ahead of them? Can they all make the final 60-mile push through freezing temperatures, sleet, and snow, or will some reach their breaking point?

Journeys North is a story of grit, compassion, and the relationships people forge when they strive toward a common goal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680513219
Publisher:	Mountaineers Books, The
Publication date:	08/01/2020
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Barney Scout Mann has hiked the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails. He is president of the Partnership for the National Trails System. Mann has been recognized with a Lowell Thomas Journalism Award and is the coauthor of The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America’s Wilderness Trail and author of The Continental Divide Trail: Exploring America’s Ridgeline Trail. He and his wife, Sandy, live in San Diego and have hosted more than 7,000 PCT hikers. Visit him online at BarneyScoutMann.com.

Editorial Reviews

Mann easily captures the nature of the thru-hiker community . . . Journeys North put me back on the trail and kept me up reading all night.

author of Great Hiking Trails of the World - Karen Berger

Beautifully crafted and brutally honest, this narrative does justice to the essence of what a thru-hike entails, from the exuberant first steps to the pure grit and determination of finishing fever pitted against nature’s forces, visiting the highs, lows, and pain along the way. This is not a how-to primer, but instead a peek inside the dreams, demons, and aspirations that motivate and drive hikers onward, becoming ‘trail family’ along the way. While this is a snapshot of a handful of hikers in a single year, it is a timeless and true tale.

trail angel and owner of Hiker Heaven - Donna Saufley

Barney Scout Mann has painted an exciting and profoundly moving portrait of a long trail and the quirky humans moved to walk it. A fantastic book!

author of Girl in the Woods - Aspen Matis

Mann’s book tells the story of the big walk with his wife and four others. There’s anguish, there’s love, there’s Nutella and there are miles and miles to cover. What better escape could there be during a pandemic?

Los Angeles Times - Mary Forgione

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is an experience unlike any other due to the landscape, the community, and the internal transformation that takes place on a 2663-mile trail. In Journeys North, Barney Scout Mann weaves together all three components in a captivating narrative.

author, speaker, adventurer - Jennifer Pharr Davis

Here's the next best thing to being on the Pacific Crest Trail yourself!

author of Our Wild Calling and Last Child in the Woods - Richard Louv

Barney Scout Mann speaks of the ‘capacity for surprise’ on the Pacific Crest Trail. For this stunning book, however, hone your capacity for shock—primal intimacy with the lives of Blazer, Dalton, Nadine and Pacha, Tony, many others as well as Scout and Frodo, and the Pacific Crest Trail itself. When someone asks, why thru-hike a long trail, Mann says ‘You have to really, really want to do it.’ Read Journeys North as if your life depended on it.

author of I Promise Not to Suffer - Gail Storey

The long trails teach us the importance of wilderness, value of freedom, and a realization of what’s important in life. It’s about those we meet too, and this is where Journeys North triumphs. The building of new friendships, and nurturing of the existing ones is a delight to read. A truly worthwhile memoir.

long-distance hiker and author of The Last Englishman - Keith “Fozzie” Foskett

Journeys North takes us along on a challenging and rich hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. The year is 2007, when Barney ‘Scout’ Mann and his wife, Sandy ‘Frodo’ Mann, set out to thru-hike from the Mexican border to just over the Canadian border. Scout’s imagery transported me, but most engrossing of all may be the relationships that formed as Scout and Frodo worked their way north while walking their 20-to-30-mile days, with four other hikers—Blazer, Dalton, Tony, and Nadine—and an extended family with dozens more. A rich tale of adventure, freedom, accomplishment, fears and tears—you need to read this book!

author of We’re in the Mountains Not Over the Hill - Susan“Backpack45” Alcorn

Journeys North is a masterclass in story telling. Barney Scout Mann invites readers into his trail family to experience a journey in goosebump-inducing detail. This book hits at the core of what makes a thru-hike such a profoundly beautiful experience—the people you meet along the way.

editor in chief of The Trek - Zach Davis

Few things are more innately human, rooted deeply in our shared history, than storytelling and traversing land masses on foot. In Journeys North, master storyteller Barney Scout Mann invites us to gather around his campfire as he weaves the narratives of ordinary people hiking thousands of miles across desert and mountains. The unfolding of their stories against the backdrop of nature at her most sublime, and her most fierce, reveals their primal humanness in powerful relief. Their interactions, with nature and with each other, prove that we are more connected and wildly capable than we believe.

adventurer and author of Thirst - Heather “Anish” Anderson

The long trails teach us the importance of wilderness, value of freedom, and a realization of what’s important in life. It’s about those we meet too, and this is where Journeys North triumphs. The building of new friendships, and nurturing of the existing ones is a delight to read. A truly worthwhile memoir.

Keith “Fozzie” Foskett

Journeys North takes us along on a challenging and rich hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. The year is 2007, when Barney ‘Scout’ Mann and his wife, Sandy ‘Frodo’ Mann, set out to thru-hike from the Mexican border to just over the Canadian border. Scout’s imagery transported me, but most engrossing of all may be the relationships that formed as Scout and Frodo worked their way north while walking their 20-to-30-mile days, with four other hikers—Blazer, Dalton, Tony, and Nadine—and an extended family with dozens more. A rich tale of adventure, freedom, accomplishment, fears and tears—you need to read this book!

Susan“Backpack45” Alcorn

Few things are more innately human, rooted deeply in our shared history, than storytelling and traversing land masses on foot. In Journeys North, master storyteller Barney Scout Mann invites us to gather around his campfire as he weaves the narratives of ordinary people hiking thousands of miles across desert and mountains. The unfolding of their stories against the backdrop of nature at her most sublime, and her most fierce, reveals their primal humanness in powerful relief. Their interactions, with nature and with each other, prove that we are more connected and wildly capable than we believe.

Heather “Anish” Anderson

Few things are more innately human, rooted deeply in our shared history, than storytelling and traversing land masses on foot. In Journeys North, master storyteller Barney Scout Mann invites us to gather around his campfire as he weaves the narratives of ordinary people hiking thousands of miles across desert and mountains. The unfolding of their stories against the backdrop of nature at her most sublime, and her most fierce, reveals their primal humanness in powerful relief. Their interactions, with nature and with each other, prove that we are more connected and wildly capable than we believe.

Heather Anderson

Journeys North is a masterclass in story telling. Barney Scout Mann invites readers into his trail family to experience a journey in goosebump-inducing detail. This book hits at the core of what makes a thru-hike such a profoundly beautiful experience—the people you meet along the way.

Zach Davis

Barney Scout Mann speaks of the ‘capacity for surprise’ on the Pacific Crest Trail. For this stunning book, however, hone your capacity for shock—primal intimacy with the lives of Blazer, Dalton, Nadine and Pacha, Tony, many others as well as Scout and Frodo, and the Pacific Crest Trail itself. When someone asks, why thru-hike a long trail, Mann says ‘You have to really, really want to do it.’ Read Journeys North as if your life depended on it.

Gail Storey

Beautifully crafted and brutally honest, this narrative does justice to the essence of what a thru-hike entails, from the exuberant first steps to the pure grit and determination of finishing fever pitted against nature’s forces, visiting the highs, lows, and pain along the way. This is not a how-to primer, but instead a peek inside the dreams, demons, and aspirations that motivate and drive hikers onward, becoming ‘trail family’ along the way. While this is a snapshot of a handful of hikers in a single year, it is a timeless and true tale.

Donna Saufley