Trespassing Across America: One Man's Epic Never-Done Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland

Ken Ilgunas (2016)

THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

In September 2012, Ken Ilgunas strapped on his backpack and set off on a 1,700 mile walk along the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.  This wasn’t a designated hiking route, so his route took him through miles of open but private property across the Great Plains.  His travel memoir, Trespassing Across America, is a story about a remarkable journey and an experience that taught him much about both global warming and a person’s physical and mental limits.  Some of his main struggles came with cows, a more dangerous animal than one would think, but the best parts of the book are his funny interactions with the people he meets along the way and his perceptive insight into the economic challenges of these communities.  His reflection on climate change is balanced, bringing up important questions on what really can and should be done to help drive solutions for all. 
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ABOUT KEN ILGUNAS

Ken Ilgunas is an up-and-coming Canadian-born author who was raised in Niagara Falls, NY.  His adventure travel career is already notable having hitchhiked 10,000 miles across North America and canoed across Canada.  He also worked as a tour guide in Alaska and as a backcountry ranger at the Gates of the Arctic National Park, and perhaps just as adventurously, as an elementary school tutor.  His most well-known book is Walden on Wheels, a compelling account of his quest to live frugally to avoid  piling up student loan debt while attending Duke University.

GREAT QUOTES:

"But in addition to panic, I felt something else: the jolt of a raw encounter with an unforgiving wilderness, the exuberance of having a firsthand experience with the world, a wild gush of emotions that made me feel, though scared and panicky, overflowing with life.”
- Ken Ilgunas, Trespassing Across America

INTERESTING LINKS:

  • Read the LA Times 2016 review of Trespassing Across America
  • 10% of the author royalties go to the Prairie Plains Resource Institute, an educational fund dedicated to the preservation and care of native prairies.  Learn more here.   
  • Learn more about the Keystone XL pipleline here at Wikipedia.

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