The Allure of Deep Woods is an intimate, detailed account of a solitary trek along the Northville-Placid Trail, which meanders for 125 miles through some of the wildest, most remote backcountry of the Adirondacks. While skirting ponds, crossing bogs, and tramping through sprawling, rain-soaked forests during the waning days of summer, the author reflects upon the region's history, the origins of the wilderness preservation movement, and the importance of wildness to well being. The loons and owls calling out at night underscore these thoughts. The few hikers encountered along the way provide valuable insight. And the trail's many delights, as well as its hardships, keep it all in perspective.
Walt McLaughlin is an unrepentant woods wanderer and philosopher of wildness who has written extensively about his backcountry experiences in northern New England, New York's Adirondacks and elsewhere. His stories, essays and poems have appeared in Conservationist, Blueline, Vermont Life, and many other periodicals. He has a dozen books in print, including an account of his solo immersion in the Alaskan bush, Arguing With the Wind (Wood Thrush Books, 2010), a narrative about hiking Vermont's Long Trail end-to-end, Forest Under My Fingernails ( Heron Dance Press, 2006), and one about hiking the Northville-Placid Trail through the Adirondacks, The Allure of Deep Woods (North Country Books, 2013). He is also the driving force behind a small press called Wood Thrush Books. Whenever he isn't hiking, writing, publishing, or scratching his head over the nature of things, he hunts down rare, secondhand books and sells them online. He lives in Swanton, Vermont with his wife, Judy.