Nature of the Appalachian Trail: Your Guide to Wildlife, Plants, and Geology
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"Offers much that will keep the casual naturalist busy for years."
The Roanoke Times
"All in all, Adkins' volume is a long, cool drink of water in a landscape of dry writing."
The Charleston Daily Mail
There are tons of "I Hiked the Appalachian Trail" books, and just as many "How to Hike the Appalachian Trail" books, but this is the only one that tells (and explains) what you are going to see while you're out there. Why does a particular flower grow here and not there? What kind of forest am I walking through? How can I tell the difference between bear scat and fox scat? Why are there no trees on the top of this mountain when there is no true treeline in the South? Then there are the little tidbits like why a box turtle is called a box turtle, how rhodendron grows in such dense thickets, and how bogs come to be.
Nature of the Appalachian Trail: Your Guide to Wildlife, Plants, and Geology contains all of the esssential information about the trail--from it's fascinating history to detailed information on the geology, trees, flowers, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals of the Appalachian Trail. Leonard even shares a number of suggested hikes.
No longer do you have to lug dozens of guidebooks into the field with you. Nature of the Appalachian Trail: Your Guide to Wildlife, Plants, and Geology is all you need.
The first edition of the book was a winner of the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation's Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award for best new guidebook.