How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The peaks of the Appalachian Trail are not particularly formidable [...] but they are big enough and they go on and on. (1.1.16)
Bill Bryson knows that hiking the entire Appalachian Trail will be a serious challenge, but he's confident that he'll pull through in the end. After all, he knows as well as anybody that this thing is a marathon—not a sprint.
Quote #2
Every year [...] about 2,000 hikers set off from Springer, most of them intending to go all the way to Katahdin. (1.3.12)
Spoiler alert: very few people actually make it the whole way. In fact, most hikers quit before they've even emerged from the Deep South. No matter which way you slice it, the Appalachian Trail is a bonafide beast.
Quote #3
"I had a guy [...] who shoulda quit but didn't [...] I don't think he'd seen anybody for the last several week. When he came off he was just a trembling wreck." (1.3.19)
This actually raises an important question for us—why are these people expending so much effort on the Appalachian Trail in the first place? Sure, it would be a cool accomplishment to hike the whole darn thing, but so would winning a bowling tournament, and those don't typically end with the winner collapsing into a "trembling wreck."