On April 27, the Pacolet Area Conservancy (PAC) and Walnut Creek Preserve (WCP) invite the public to attend a presentation by Paul Molyneaux and his son, Asher. The two will present on their experience hiking the entire 2,200-mile Appalachian trail.  The program will be held at the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center at Walnut Creek Preserve at 10:30 a.m.

Paul Molyneaux, author of A Child’s Walk in the Wilderness: An 8-Year-Old Boy and His Father Take on the Appalachian Trail, and his son Asher will be in town and will take a break from their travels to do this special presentation. Paul and Asher will share some of their experiences and adventures from the journey, as well as some of their pictures taken along the trail. If you’ve ever daydreamed about hiking the AT, this is a must see presentation, for ALL AGES!

Imagine a 7-year-old child asking to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, and then imagine his parents saying okay. In “A Child’s Walk in the Wilderness,” former New York Times “Outdoors” columnist, Paul Molyneaux shares a 2,200-mile, seven-month trek with his son Asher, who turned 8 on the trail. Asher experienced bears, rattlesnakes, and a bull moose up close, and became the youngest Mainer to thru-hike the AT.

For author Paul Molyneaux, the hike was about parenting the way he wanted to in an increasingly complex and technology driven world; it was about keeping his marriage together and focusing on his priority: family.

Together with Asher’s mother and 10-year-old sister, who joined them for hundreds of miles, Asher and Paul infused their hike with the philosophy of AT visionary Benton MacKaye. Embracing MacKaye’s description of the trail as a “Barbarian Utopia-a counter movement to the metropolitan invasion of our wilderness,” they became known as “the Barbarians.”

In an illustrated 40-minute presentation followed by Q & A, Asher and Paul will describe the highlights of their experiences, hiking the trail, writing and illustrating the book and bringing the lessons of the trail back to their daily lives.  Books will be available for sale and signing on the day of the event.