Natalie Gilbert: Outside Reading

I was given the book 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Richmond written by Nathan Lott as a high school graduation present in 2006. The family friend that gave me the book told me of his love for hiking and nature. He also said that that even though I would be attending a school in somewhat of a city environment that close by there were places to escape to and enjoy. I hadn’t looked too much at this book since my graduation, but it was upon signing up and attending the first week of classes that made me open it up. Although I haven’t had the time to go any of the places in this book with the exception to the Noland Trail I plan on hiking some this summer. The book itself offers an array of different kinds of hikes. While being purely informational, it provides great detail and description to each hike. It breaks these hikes up categorically by the environment, continuants in that environment, and through the sacred elements that each trial contains. I believe this book will be very useful in allowing me to experience and apply the learned concepts of this class to by hiking some of these trails.