Highly praised account of a 51-year-old woman's 1990s thru-hike and the personal and recreational lessons she learned along the way.

    It's not just a story about travel, but also about the human condition, about growth and fulfillment.

    It is the first time the Yosemite Decimal system was applied to Butchart s routes. When Harvey Butchart arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona from Iowa just after the end of World War II, he had only seen pictures of the Grand Canyon in books. Soon, he made his first trip there and was hooked. For 40 years, the mathematics professor from NAU, later called the undisputed king of extreme and obsessive Grand Canyon hiking by Backpacker Magazine, hiked more than 12,000 miles into remote and previously uncharted Canyon territory recording his routes on detailed maps and in journal entries. From Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead, Harvey Butchart was credited with finding more than 116 new approaches to the Colorado River and with summiting 83 of the 138 named peaks in the Canyon, 35 of those being first ascents. In Grand Canyon Treks, Butchart shares his pioneering explorations with entirely new generations of Grand Canyon adventurers.

    Tess the dog flirts outrageously with good-looking farmers and charms unsuspecting toddlers into parting with their ice cream as her apologetic owner follows. From sleepy fishing villages to urban streets, spotting avocets and flamingos along the way, Spud slows life down for a year and experiences the coastline of Britain with its eccentric mix of innovation and tradition as she walks an impressive 4,500 miles to raise money for charity.