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On the Beaten Path: An Appalachian Pilgrimage

robert alden rubin

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The author, an overweight burned-out journalist, records his physical and spiritual journey as he travels the two thousand-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine--a six month pilgrimage that, ultimately, renews his life.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2000

This edition

Format
256 pages, Paperback
Published
September 1, 2001 by The Lyons Press
ISBN
9781585743971
ASIN
1585743976
Language
English

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About the author

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robert alden rubin

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Robert Alden Rubin was born in 1958, in Roanoke, Virginia, and grew up in Chapel Hill. His education includes a B.A. in Studio Art from Kenyon College, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University, and a Ph.D in English Literature from UNC-Chapel Hill. He has worked as editor of Carolina Quarterly and as senior editor at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Professionally, he's been a journalist, editor, and writing teacher at The George Washington University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Meredith College. Published creative work by him includes two edited anthologies of poetry (Poetry Out Loud [1993] and Love Poetry Out Loud [2006]), a book of literary nonfiction (On the Beaten Path: An Appalachian Pilgrimage [2000]), and a smattering of poetry in literary magazines. He won the 2015 Allen Tate Poetry Prize from Sewanee Review. He presently works as a freelance writer/editor, and lives in Fuquay-Varina, NC, where he serves on the vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 73 votes)
5 stars
25(34%)
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21(29%)
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27(37%)
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73 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
namename1
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A well written miserable book

If you’re looking to convince your spouse to not walk the AT I guess this works. It’s fairly well written. It may even be an accurate portrayal of a common experience.
It is also a story of a midlife crisis where a man abandons his wife for months while she holds her world together. It’s long on misery and short on wonder. Long on dates and mileages and wandering digressions, short on humanity.

There are a lot of books on the AT you can read. Try another.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
fetti___
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Robert Rubin works at a publishing company in North Carolina. After struggling with his career for a number of years, he decides to quit his job and hike the Appalachian Trail. While it sounds like a reasonable idea, the fact that Rubin has a wife, dog and a mortgage muddies the water some. This is the story of his own personal struggles and how he seeks to work them out on the AT.

Having read 7 other memoirs of the Appalachian Trail, I still found this book a wonderful read. The writing is outstanding. The author does an great job of weaving together the components of his own story with facts about the trail. He is fairly open and honest (without giving out any real details that might take the focus of the hike) about some of the struggles of his personal life - the thing that has drawn him to the trail.

Super story!
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
TIIC123
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The guy can write, but for me, his book was that of an observer rather than a participant. Too often, he seemed to step back and watch the experience, rather than open himself to the experience itself. I found this off-putting. Too often, his stance had a pinch of superiority to it. I suppose it was only that he was trying to analyze situations, but I didn't invest enough in the author to appreciate his insights.

Perhaps my enjoyment of this book was tempered by the fact that I didn't find the author to be a likeable fellow. Other readers might have a different reaction.
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lovelove
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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the story of a man who was kind of "beaten down" by his career as an editor in NY; subsequently finds that becoming immersed in the arduous task of thru hiking the appalachian trail helps to replace one mindset with another. The trek becomes not only a strong goal but a form of therapy.I especially liked the book because it was always more about the trail.
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umemazshui
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Well written account of a thruhiker's journey. His question was not answered. But the search gives one pause for thought.
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SNSMMRIKEN
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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It's another hiking narrative of a guy's trip up the A.T. This one's got a little more going for it than many. He has an on-going stressful relationship with his wife that the distance doesn't seem to help. And also he weaves in a lot of local history, geography, ecology and so on. He worked in publishing before hiking in 1997 ... and he's worked for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy since 1999. So that could hint that he knows about writing and about the Trail, too. It's a good and thoughtful read.
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