A Walk in the Woods

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1998

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-10

Chapters 11-12

Chapters 13-14

Chapters 15-16

Chapters 17-18

Chapters 19-21

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

For the next two days, Mary Ellen continues to tag along and camp with Bryson and Katz, but they devise a plan to hike a fast 14 miles the following day to where they can get on a highway and hitchhike into the tiny town of Hiawassee and stay in a motel. Their plan works, and they’re able to outpace Mary Ellen by the time they reach the highway. Their hitchhiking plan works too: A drunken young couple on their way to get married picks them up and drives them to Hiawassee. Bryson recalls that the 1970 novel Deliverance (as well as its film adaptation)—in which four city men are stalked by depraved mountain men—was set in the region and admits that “Hiawassee did feel palpably weird and unsettling” (92). They check into a motel, shower, and go to a restaurant but began feeling guilty about ditching Mary Ellen. Back on the trail the next day, they ask another hiker if he has seen her. He responds that he camped with her the previous night and tells them that she referred to them as “overweight wimps who didn’t know the first thing about hiking” (98).

Chapter 6 Summary

The third day after they get back on the trail, it begins to snow, lightly at first but turning heavy by midday as they reach a narrow ledge and wall of rock on Big Butt Mountain. Bryson describes it “like a window ledge on a skyscraper, no more than fourteen or sixteen inches wide, and crumbling in places, with a sharp drop on one side of perhaps eighty feet” (102). After delicately navigating the narrow path for hours, they reach wider ground, but the snow is four or five inches deep and still accumulating. Continuing would entail climbing a mountain in a blizzard, but turning back would mean dealing with the narrow ledge again, so they instead follow an adjacent logging road and hope that it leads them around the mountain and back to the trail where they can find the next shelter. Eventually, they do find the AT again and spot a sign for the Big Spring Shelter, a three-sided wooden refuge from the wind and snow. There, they meet Jim and Heath, a father and son from Chattanooga doing a weekend hike.

In the morning, the four set off together—Jim and Heath hiking three miles to their parked car, Bryson and Katz hiking seven miles to Rainbow Springs Campground. The campground features a store, cottages, and showers—but when they arrive, they discover that “every hiker for twenty miles was already there” (113). The cottages are all rented, so Bryson and Katz must stay in the crowded bunkhouse with other stranded hikers, which Bryson compares to “camping in a garage” (114). In the morning, one of the other hikers makes it to Franklin, North Carolina to rent a minivan and offers to shuttle the others back to the tiny town for a small fee. Franklin is full of other hikers waiting for the weather to clear. While Katz is happy for the break and the opportunity to watch television in a motel, Bryson is itching to get back on the trail after three days in Franklin.

Chapters 5-6 Analysis

Chapter 5 returns to a pure narrative approach but diverges slightly to provide an unflattering depiction of Northern Georgians based on the fact that James Dickey’s 1970 novel Deliverance—and its subsequent Hollywood adaptation—was set in the area. Bryson chronicles how he and Katz shake Mary Ellen loose by hiking at a far faster pace than usual and making it to the nearby highway, hoping to hitchhike into the town of Hiawassee. When they emerge from the woods, Bryson notes that “a half mile down the road there was a clearing in the trees and a drive—a hint of civilization” (85). Stepping from the woods onto the broad shoulder of the highway symbolizes the dividing line between their two worlds—wilderness and civilization. Their success in catching a ride and arriving in the town reinforce the theme of Wilderness and Civilization. It marks the first time that they’ve had the comfort of a bed on their trip.

Chapter 6 begins with a brief vignette and imagery to detail the atmosphere of a hike deep in the woods: “The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret” (100). In addition, Bryson points out that time has no meaning and that things like engagements, commitments, and obligations no longer exist. This unique aspect of hiking reinforces the book’s theme of Isolation and Companionship. During their third day back on the trail, Bryson and Katz face disaster for the first time as it begins to snow heavily and they divert to a logging road to avoid climbing higher in blizzard conditions. The easy availability of a logging road echoes Bryson’s earlier observations about the role of the US Forest Service in not only preserving wilderness but also in building logging roads that contribute to its destruction. Luckily, Bryson and Katz pick up the trail again and find the next shelter. As in several other instances, they hike for miles in quiet solitude but reach a shelter and meet other hikers, whom they always get to know to some small degree. This symbolizes the dividing line between their worlds of isolation and companionship.