The Divide: a 2700 Mile Search for Answers, by Nathan Doneen

The Divide: a 2700 mile search for answers by Nathan Doneen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Several years ago, I got hooked on reading about hiking the Appalachian Trail. I had wanted to hike the AP ever since I'd heard about it in my early teens, to the point of mentioning it to my parents.

Fast forward more than two or three decades: Life happened, and, of course, I never got around to that grand hike. Even now, it would be a splendid idea, except...well, you get the idea.

(And for the record, I have read Ben Montgomery's wonderful book, Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail, so while I'm quite a bit younger than Grandma Gatewood was when she made her walk, I realize that age is no excuse.)

Recently, I stumbled across The Divide: a 2700 mile search for answers by Nathan Doneen. While it was somewhat different from hiking the AT books (it involves biking the Continental Divide), I was still intrigued. Then I made the mistake of starting to read, and was hooked from the start.

After finishing college, Nathan decided to bike the Continental Divide from Alberta, Canada to Mexico before settling down. The Divide describes his trip, beginning with the first major problem, two miles into the trek. He intersperses his ride with an occasional flash-back to his college studies, and other scenes from his past. While this could have been a distraction, he does it so that it rounds out his story, showing us glimpses of how he got to deciding to ride.

There were only a couple of things here that I found a little distracting. Early on, the word "here" was used for "hear;" however, this may have simply been a glitch, as I was reading this on a Kindle. (I've noticed glitches of wrong words in other books on e-readers, knowing full well that the correct word was used in the hard copy of the same books.) The other was using "that" instead of "who/whom:" "She was someone that loved books;" "He was someone that thought..." I'm sure someone would say that I'm being picky here, and that's fine. But when these are basically the only two things that detract from the book, I can hardly complain.

If you're looking for your next good read, I definitely recommend Nathan Doneen's The Divide: a 2700 mile search for answers.

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