Raymond Johnson, Final Post

This ending was certainly foreshadowed throughout the book. The most obvious sign of how hopeless their trek really was, is when Bryson looks at an itenarary he had prepared in chapter 13. He realizes that at the rate Katz and he are travelling they will be 500 miles short of Katahdin by winter. Another foreshadowing of their failure to complete the trail, is when Bryson comments on the fact that they are only acheiving fifteen miles a day in chapter 10,despite the fact that they had planned to hike almost twenty five miles a day. This shows that Bryson had been too overzealous in his original planning of their adventure. For what they wanted to put into the trip, Bryson and Katz were just simply not the right type of hikers to complete the entire AT. Eventually they just decide to enjoy the beauty of the trail and it's excitement instead of following a rigourous, suicide pace.

Even though he didnt accomplish the feat of a true thru-hiker, i think Bryson accomplished his goal. Setting off from the visitor's center in chapter 3, Bryson may have had the goal of completing the entire trail. but i think later on, in about chapter 8, he begins to realize that this goal is impossible and instead begins to appreciate the amount that he has managed to complete. Bryson's goal seemed to be on of learning how to survive in nature and experience the thrill of nature's dangers that he elaborately illustrates in chapter 2. I think Bryson more than accomplished his goal, and when he looks back on his accomplishments in chapter 21 he realizes how amazing the fact that he had hiked 870 miles truly is. Also, in his hindsight, he says that "I gained a profound respect for nature and the benign dark power of the woods". I think this quote shows that he had accomplished the goal he set for himself.