Hiking Alone: Trails Out, Trails Home

Mary Beath

In this collection of personal essays, Mary Beath often does follow trails in solitude--both literally and metaphorically. With the focus of a scientist, the attention to detail of an artist, and the lyrical language of a poet, she recasts a classic American tale: travel from the East westward and remake your life.

Beath lived for ten years in New York City's East Village in the 1980s before she moved to New Mexico. Whether on a solo hike in the San Juan Mountains weighing risk and choice in unexpected encounters, diving in the Sea of Cortez hoping to make peace with traditional biology, or lobbying for wilderness on Capitol Hill, she never fails to engage the reader on multiple levels, within a natural world that includes humans. This book will resonate with anyone who values self-reliance and celebrates the West's rich and complex landscapes.

"Whether navigating the fields of Zuni, the halls of Congress, or simply her own ruminations, Beath takes the reader on a journey through the wonders of the West."--U.S. Representative Tom Udall, NM

"I loved trekking with Mary Beath, her sweet song and vision leading the way through both dark and sun-drenched vales of soul-making. Hiking Alone is a generous and reflective book, lovely in language, sharp in observation."--Garrett Hongo, author of Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai'i

Hiking Alone: Trails Out Trails Home received the first ever Zia Chair Award from the New Mexico Press Women's Association in 2009.

"...thoughtful...wise, warm and a nice addition to the literary exploration of life in the Land of Enchantment."--Local IQ, Albuquerque

"...[Beath's] honest respect and love for the Western landscapes she experiences and shares inspire thought as well as pleasure."--High Country News

"Hiking Alone is always intense reading...filled with beautiful jewels of insight about family, land, sex, water use, physics, plant physiology, and grazing rights."--New Mexico Magazine

"Beath's memoir in essays...unfold[s] in a complex way, moving through time and place in a wonderfully non-linear fashion....This story of Beath's life examines capital 'L' life: who we are, why we're here, how we live, and how we learn to live."--Story Circle Book Reviews

"The generous sharings of a multi-faceted, intelligent mind, a woman who hikes with equal candor and courage along the knife edges in the Weminuche Wilderness and the political ones on Capitol Hill, a woman at home with her solitude as well as with environmental movers and shakers....One of the best books I've found in a long time."--New Mexico Woman Magazine

Mary Beath, an artist, naturalist, and writer, lives in Albuquerque.

6 x 9 368 pages 12 line drawings