title: Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail
author:  Jennifer Pharr Davis 
description: Davis is the record holder for the women's supported hike (2,175 miles in 57 days, with someone carrying her supplies) in the Appalachian Trail, which runs between Mount Katahdin in Maine and Springer Mountain in Georgia. The A.T. is not only a hike, but a subculture: a community where everyone has a trail name, where there are well-placed hiker huts, trail-side towns whose main economy is supporting hikers, complicated trail etiquette, regular occurrences of trail magic, and a recurring cast of freaks and Christians, show-offs and loners, and experts and beginners. Though the book opens the night before Davis's record-breaking hike, this is actually the story of her first thru-hike, undertaken as a new college grad who, despite limited hiking experience, felt "called." It's the story of her becoming "Odyssa," her chosen trail name. These days, the word amateur is usually used disparagingly, and in some ways that applies herethe book feels homemade, and the writing is often clunkybut the root of the word is love: amateurs pursue activities for love, not money, and that's what shines through in Davis's record of a difficult, painful, and exhilarating world. (Nov.)
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  # BECOMING
  
  
  # ODYSSA
  
  
  Epic Adventures on  
  the Appalachian Trail
  
  
  ![image](../images/common.jpg)
  
  
  JENNIFER PHARR DAVIS
  
  
  ![image](../images/pub.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2010 by Jennifer Pharr Davis  
  Illustrations Copyright © 2010 by James Pharr
  
  
  First Edition  
  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
  any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
  retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by
  a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  
  Davis, Jennifer Pharr.  
  Becoming odyssa : epic adventures on the Appalachian Trail / Jennifer Pharr
  Davis.
  
  
  p. cm.
  
  
  ISBN 978-0-8253-0649-5 (alk. paper)  
  1\. Hiking—Appalachian Trail. 2. Appalachian Trail—Description and travel. 3.
  Davis, Jennifer  
  Pharr—Travel—Appalachian Trail. I. Title.
  
  
  GV199.42.A68D38 2010  
  796.510974—dc22
  
  
  2010028097
  
  
  For inquiries ab