A Walk in the Woods: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

In the 1980s and 1990s, people started reporting mountain lion sightings—in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire—for the first time in almost a century, even though people had assumed they were already extinct. Bryson is walking in the same area now. He wants to hike as much of New England as he can before Katz rejoins him in seven weeks to tackle Maine. Three days into his hike through the Berkshires, Bryson recalls a newspaper article about a mysterious mountain lion that stalks and kills hikers. There’s a lot of woodland around for them to wander in undetected, so they might still exist; he imagines himself being mauled by one. 

The Eastern United States tried to wipe out many large mammals (including the mountain lion) in the 1940s, deeming them a nuisance to society. Pennsylvania even offered hefty rewards for hunting owls and hawks to protect crops. The timberwolf and woodland caribou were wiped out around 1900, and the bear population neared extinction. Many songbirds have also gone extinct, including the Carolina parrot, which was considered a pest because it ate fruit crops. In 1939, hunters killed the last Bachman’s warbler. Between 1940 and 1950, songbird populations dwindled by 50 percent, and they keep falling. Bryson thinks sadly about how much quieter the woods are these days.

In the afternoon, Bryson wanders across a disused logging road and bumps into a famous thru-hiker who goes by the name Chicken John. Bryson is really excited to meet him; he recalls hikers who garner fame for peculiar reasons (like a kid who supposedly had a self-erecting tent). Bryson wonders why people call this man Chicken John—but even Chicken John himself has no idea why. It turns out he’s been hiking since January, and it's taking him so long because he keeps getting lost. Bryson recalls another famous hiker, Grandma Gatewood, who also spent much of her hiking time lost.  Chicken John isn’t sure how he keeps getting lost, but he’s met lots of nice people along the way.

The next day, after a night in a motel, Bryson hikes on to Cheshire. It’s only nine miles, but the blackflies viciously torment him by flying into his ears, mouth, and nose. He’s relieved when he gets out of the woods and arrives in Cheshire: a friendly town with a free hostel for hikers. Bryson doesn’t feel like sleeping in a bunkhouse, so he hikes on to Adams, where there’s a motel. He spends a pleasant afternoon idling in Adams’s thrift stores. Tomorrow, he’s hiking Mount Greylock, and he’s excited for the trek. 

Mount Greylock has something of a literary pedigree—for instance, Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick while gazing out into Mount Greylock from his window. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edith Wharton also set many of their stories at Mount Greylock. By 1920, Mount Greylock’s landscape was all but destroyed for logging. The landscape recovered by 1960, when state officials decided to build a ski resort there. Luckily, that plan didn’t materialize. Bryson thinks that Mount Greylock is stunning. It’s a steep climb, but he enjoys it in the sun. Oddly,  there’s a lighthouse at the summit, though there’s no coast nearby.

After lunch, Bryson hikes along a ridge connecting Greylock and Mount Williams. The views of rolling hills are amazing, but it’s stiflingly hot. When Bryson reaches Williamstown, he realizes that he’s been hiking in 97°F heat. He heads into Burger King, where he enjoys the cool wash of air conditioning and orders a Coke, feeling very happy with himself. He’s hiked 17 miles today.

Around 1850, 70 percent of New England was forests—now, only 30 percent is. Farming used to be very popular in the area, until railroads and the invention of the mechanical reaper (which was too large for the New England landscape) drove the farming industry into the Midwest. Bryson walks up Stratton Mountain in Vermont, which used to be covered in orchards but was abandoned to nature. This is where Benton MacKaye formulated his vision for the Appalachian Trail. This part of the route also coincides with the Long Trail, which leads to Canada. The summit is underwhelming in the dull weather, and everything looks flat.

Bryson spots another hiker who proudly shows off an expensive device that measures all sorts of weather readings. Unimpressed, Bryson asks if it bakes cookies as well. The man cautions Bryson that a device like this could save his life. Bryson notices the man has no waterproof gear and no pack, meaning that if the weather turns, he’d be in trouble. Bryson hates technology on the Trail. He recalls a newspaper article about one man who hiked to the summit of Katahdin and then called the National Guard for a helicopter because he was too tired to hike back down. Another hiker did the same because he was late for a business meeting.

Bryson hikes across Vermont with packed lunches and his car. He remembers how many times he and Katz would have killed for proper food on their hikes. He hikes through several summits, past the for er location of Happy Hill shelter, the oldest and prettiest shelter on the Trail until it was torn down by officials. Bryson recalls Alden Partridge, who was born in Norwich in 1755. He set up a military academy, coined the term “physical education,” and he would take his students on hikes through Vermont. He’d regularly hike 100 miles in a few days. Bryson wishes there was a plaque commemorating him to inspire hikers on the Trail, but there isn’t one. 

Norwich and Hanover, which are a mile apart, used to be connected by a beautiful leafy backroad, but highway officials replaced it with an ugly six-lane wide freeway. Of course, this entailed clearing a lot of woodland. Bryson estimates it saves people about 8 seconds of time on their drives. Bryson walks along it, imagining it was the leafy road it used to be.