A Vintage Store, the Appalachian Trail, and a Cast of Unforgettable Characters is a subtitle that barely begins to hint at how funny/sad/touching/irreverent this book really is. The former owner of Mountain Crossings outfitters/hostel just 30 miles up the Trail from Springer slips eight years of stories under your skin. Our publisher's opinion: "Puts Bryson to shame."

From the back cover:

…But like many people, he stared out the window a lot, wanting something different.So that’s why he cashed in his 401k and ransacked his bank account to become a backpack-purging, tent-selling, hostel-running, first-aid-dispensing, lost-kid-finding, argument-settling, romance-fixing, chili-making shopkeeper deep in the Georgia woods, smack on the Appalachian Trail.

Winton Porter. 2009.