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The Good Hike: A Story of the Appalachian Trail, Vietnam, PTSD and Love
In 1967, Tim Keenan grew to loathe the impenetrable jungle of Vietnam during his one-year tour of duty as a combat soldier. For 47 years, he couldn’t shake his dread of the woods, until he confronted his fears head on and began a thru-hike of the 2,178.3-mile Appalachian Trail.
The Good Hike is Keenan’s story of finally coming to peace with himself, buoyed by the healing powers of nature and his fellow hikers.
His story weaves in the beautiful towns and mountains of the great Appalachian trail with the jungle and battle zones around Dak To, including the infamous Hill 1338.
Keenan also tells a story of love. His trail partner helped him face his PTSD and cope with the trail’s intense rigors. Most importantly, she taught him how to love again.
The Good Hike will make you smile and laugh. And it will make you cry.
“War made Tim Keenan afraid to go into the woods. All 2,178.3 miles of the Appalachian Trail helped heal him. A brave journey into the wilderness of PTSD, with beauty and love on the other side.” —Mardi Jo Link, author of The Drummond Girls and Bootstrapped
“The Good Hike is the story of an epic journey that helped the author confront his combat related PTSD issues while experiencing the beauty of the wilderness and love and support of his hiking partner. It is the blend of a hiking story, a war story and a love story.” —Mike Lawton, 1st. Lt. A company, 3rd battalion, 12th infantry, 4th Infantry Division, 1967/68
The author is the subject of an award winning documentary, NANEEK, directed by Neal Steeno.
www.naneek.com
The Good Hike is Keenan’s story of finally coming to peace with himself, buoyed by the healing powers of nature and his fellow hikers.
His story weaves in the beautiful towns and mountains of the great Appalachian trail with the jungle and battle zones around Dak To, including the infamous Hill 1338.
Keenan also tells a story of love. His trail partner helped him face his PTSD and cope with the trail’s intense rigors. Most importantly, she taught him how to love again.
The Good Hike will make you smile and laugh. And it will make you cry.
“War made Tim Keenan afraid to go into the woods. All 2,178.3 miles of the Appalachian Trail helped heal him. A brave journey into the wilderness of PTSD, with beauty and love on the other side.” —Mardi Jo Link, author of The Drummond Girls and Bootstrapped
“The Good Hike is the story of an epic journey that helped the author confront his combat related PTSD issues while experiencing the beauty of the wilderness and love and support of his hiking partner. It is the blend of a hiking story, a war story and a love story.” —Mike Lawton, 1st. Lt. A company, 3rd battalion, 12th infantry, 4th Infantry Division, 1967/68
The author is the subject of an award winning documentary, NANEEK, directed by Neal Steeno.
www.naneek.com
- GenresNonfiction
258 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 2, 2016
27 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 29, 2025
Rec from my dad. A good read if you’re interested in the AT. Enjoyed the way he wove in experiences in Vietnam with the journal entries from the trail.
April 4, 2021
If you're a hiker or want a good story, get this book. This man, 62-63, hiked the entire Appalachian Trail to help deal with his PTSD from his experiences in Vietnam. And it helped it did:
"I would recommend this extreme hike to all ex-soldiers with PTSD. Reflection is part of the cure. Forgiveness is part of the cure. Both can be found on the AT.
Anyone that has hiked can tell you that your spirits lift when you get outside and drop the outside world for a while. He did it for a long while. From March to mid-September 2009. Anyone doing a long hike, and it doesn't have to be as extreme as a 2,200-mile hike can tell you that Mother Nature will draw everything out of you to experience and deal with. Hiking can really heal some demons and it isn't easy physically or mentally at times, but you come out better for it whether alone or with others:
"We will see each other's emotions run high and low. This is the ultimate test in patience and compromise in a relationship. Who we are mentally, physically, and emotionally will become clear to both of us. Together twenty-four hours a day. Stinky, ornery, happy, physically hurting, thinking, impatient, patient, understanding, stubborn, nurturing, and not so nurturing."
"...He gave me inspiration with his hiking technique way back when. He said to relax and enjoy. Take the good with the bad."
"Word was that this is supposed to be an easy hiking day, but I have heard this before. In fact, I have heard this many times. Most of the time, the "easy hike" that people speak of is actually far from the truth."
"...hiking is like life; mild mood swings can make for a challenge. We make life what it is. If I want to be miserable, I can pull it off. I don't consciously think to be miserable, but just the attitude of the day can dictate the results."
"One day I feel great, and think I have this down. The next day I feel like I am just beginning my hike, feeling fatigued from beginning to end. The only philosophy to have is to just keep walking; all the body parts and mind will eventually "kick in," just like in life. The first 20 minutes are always the hardest. Keep smiling."
The author and main hiker in this book, Tim Keenan had to struggle with demons from long ago, in the late 1960s, when he had his year-long tour in Vietnam:
"Racism is another effect of war you don't read about in the newspaper or see on television."
While I wish he discussed how he dealt with those moments of dreadful history and PTSD, I know it was his own personal journey. I often thought as I was reading what hiking like this with my father would have been like. PTSD wasn't even a recognizable condition until decades later, after Vietnam. There was no real widespread treatment. He did enjoy the outdoors a lot, and maybe this is why too. Mother Nature has a way of healing through trials, tribulations, and beauty. A physical therapy session if you will.
The story also brought out all the good one could experience along the trail. It reminded me that there are good people in this world that will do things not for any large extrinsic reward, but because they believe in helping out those in need and comradeship. It is nice to know that this kind of altruism still exists in the ever more maddening world today.
Overall, this book left you with a warm fuzzy feeling that things will be okay. Just go outside. Enjoy your existence. Let the demons and thoughts long pent up run out. Let them be stomped out under your feet as you continue to walk. We all deserve inner peace and many of us have found that in the woods, even if the woods were once a place of terror and death.
Go, get out, we got some healing to do.
5/5
"I would recommend this extreme hike to all ex-soldiers with PTSD. Reflection is part of the cure. Forgiveness is part of the cure. Both can be found on the AT.
Anyone that has hiked can tell you that your spirits lift when you get outside and drop the outside world for a while. He did it for a long while. From March to mid-September 2009. Anyone doing a long hike, and it doesn't have to be as extreme as a 2,200-mile hike can tell you that Mother Nature will draw everything out of you to experience and deal with. Hiking can really heal some demons and it isn't easy physically or mentally at times, but you come out better for it whether alone or with others:
"We will see each other's emotions run high and low. This is the ultimate test in patience and compromise in a relationship. Who we are mentally, physically, and emotionally will become clear to both of us. Together twenty-four hours a day. Stinky, ornery, happy, physically hurting, thinking, impatient, patient, understanding, stubborn, nurturing, and not so nurturing."
"...He gave me inspiration with his hiking technique way back when. He said to relax and enjoy. Take the good with the bad."
"Word was that this is supposed to be an easy hiking day, but I have heard this before. In fact, I have heard this many times. Most of the time, the "easy hike" that people speak of is actually far from the truth."
"...hiking is like life; mild mood swings can make for a challenge. We make life what it is. If I want to be miserable, I can pull it off. I don't consciously think to be miserable, but just the attitude of the day can dictate the results."
"One day I feel great, and think I have this down. The next day I feel like I am just beginning my hike, feeling fatigued from beginning to end. The only philosophy to have is to just keep walking; all the body parts and mind will eventually "kick in," just like in life. The first 20 minutes are always the hardest. Keep smiling."
The author and main hiker in this book, Tim Keenan had to struggle with demons from long ago, in the late 1960s, when he had his year-long tour in Vietnam:
"Racism is another effect of war you don't read about in the newspaper or see on television."
While I wish he discussed how he dealt with those moments of dreadful history and PTSD, I know it was his own personal journey. I often thought as I was reading what hiking like this with my father would have been like. PTSD wasn't even a recognizable condition until decades later, after Vietnam. There was no real widespread treatment. He did enjoy the outdoors a lot, and maybe this is why too. Mother Nature has a way of healing through trials, tribulations, and beauty. A physical therapy session if you will.
The story also brought out all the good one could experience along the trail. It reminded me that there are good people in this world that will do things not for any large extrinsic reward, but because they believe in helping out those in need and comradeship. It is nice to know that this kind of altruism still exists in the ever more maddening world today.
Overall, this book left you with a warm fuzzy feeling that things will be okay. Just go outside. Enjoy your existence. Let the demons and thoughts long pent up run out. Let them be stomped out under your feet as you continue to walk. We all deserve inner peace and many of us have found that in the woods, even if the woods were once a place of terror and death.
Go, get out, we got some healing to do.
5/5
March 21, 2017
This was a very compelling read. In full disclosure, I am an avid hiker (who wishes to find the time to hike the Appalachian Trail) and my professional life is helping others make the connections between early childhood trauma/adversity, PTSD and those things that can become triggers or quarks for us later in life.
With that said, I thought this was an honest story of perseverance and the ability for the human mind to overcome so much of what often holds us back. The author's ability to share his war story, and intertwined it so beautifully into his hike was amazing. I thought it was interesting, that it took his companion joining him on the trail, for him to see the beauty that was surrounding him (literally and figuratively) on the trail.
We should all hope to have this type of adventure in our lives, and we should all hope to find time to leave our day-to-day ruts and routines to find this type of peace and adventure out on the trail.
With that said, I thought this was an honest story of perseverance and the ability for the human mind to overcome so much of what often holds us back. The author's ability to share his war story, and intertwined it so beautifully into his hike was amazing. I thought it was interesting, that it took his companion joining him on the trail, for him to see the beauty that was surrounding him (literally and figuratively) on the trail.
We should all hope to have this type of adventure in our lives, and we should all hope to find time to leave our day-to-day ruts and routines to find this type of peace and adventure out on the trail.
July 1, 2017
Eye- opening trek from Georgia to Maine by way of late 60's Vietnam
This is no feel good story of the glories of thru hiking the 2200 miles of the AT. Tim is brutally honest about the highs and lows, the people he met and traveled with, the physical pain of hiking 15-20 miles a day, and the much loved trail magic which quenched his thirst and satisfied his sweet tooth. But while climbing mountains in New Hampshire or swimming rivers in West Virginia, Tim relives his 12-month tour of duty in Vietnam and takes us back with him. It is an eye-opening account for those of us who lived thru the Vietnam-era in the safety of a college campus.
This is no feel good story of the glories of thru hiking the 2200 miles of the AT. Tim is brutally honest about the highs and lows, the people he met and traveled with, the physical pain of hiking 15-20 miles a day, and the much loved trail magic which quenched his thirst and satisfied his sweet tooth. But while climbing mountains in New Hampshire or swimming rivers in West Virginia, Tim relives his 12-month tour of duty in Vietnam and takes us back with him. It is an eye-opening account for those of us who lived thru the Vietnam-era in the safety of a college campus.
August 19, 2017
This was a fascinating read as it grabs onto one of my life dreams. Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. The passion to do this has been re-ignited and also gave me the confidence to do it at any age. Sometimes trail journals get pretty repetitive and this one definitely does. The added layer of working to deal with his PTSD from Vietnam made this particularly engrossing. Getting his flashbacks to the war intermixed with his everyday thoughts was a fantastic way to read. Recommend this read for anyone that has in interested in the A-T or an outdoor enthusiast in anyway.
April 13, 2019
Excellent reading!
As a reader who loves both books about through hiking the AT and just as much books written by soldiers that served in Vietnam I have immensely enjoyed reading this story. Between the two subjects I have read no less than two dozen books. The way Keenan weaves the two stories together is just great! This is the first book I've read combining the two and I couldn't stop reading and really didn't want it to end. Great read!
As a reader who loves both books about through hiking the AT and just as much books written by soldiers that served in Vietnam I have immensely enjoyed reading this story. Between the two subjects I have read no less than two dozen books. The way Keenan weaves the two stories together is just great! This is the first book I've read combining the two and I couldn't stop reading and really didn't want it to end. Great read!
February 16, 2017
I love AT memoirs, and I've read many. This ranks right up there. I enjoyed Naneek's description of his thru-hike and also his openness about his time in Vietnam in 1967-68.
July 14, 2025
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever had the itch to hike the Appalachian Trail or likes a good walk in the woods memoir.
Tim, trail name “Naneek” is a 62 year old veteran from Traverse City, Michigan who sets off in the spring of 2009 to hike the Appalachian Trail as a thru-hiker. Many set out to finish and less than half do. Naneek has a special motivation for hiking the trail; to overcome his PTSD lingering from being drafted to Vietnam, which has left him unable to enjoy the woods and nature fully since his return in 1968.
The book has flashbacks that are always relevant to what is happening on the trail and are easy to follow due to well-done formatting. As a therapist, I found his healing journey to be inspiring. His view on war and those who make it happen from afar without getting their hands dirty at the cost of those who do is real and honest.
As for the trail journals, you can envision what Naneek sees, savor each in-town ice cream run, and may find yourself wincing when he finds himself at odds with slippery rocks and steep slopes. I enjoyed his voice in his writing.
My withholding of a full five stars comes perhaps from some personal bias here. Naneek is a 62 year old man on this journey and as he was on the trail I was partying it up at CMU in 2009. I found myself distracted by the frequent criticism of other hikers and thought pretty often “more curiosity, less judgement” (he calls himself out for being judgemental often but then doesn’t change?)and sometimes the superficial description of women’s physique (it was not rare to mention a woman was either thin and fit or large and huffing) while he tended to write a more positive and humanized view of men on the trail. At times it was a bit boastful as well, but I can see how that would be hard to avoid having accomplished something like thru-hiking at 62. So not a hard one to forgive.
I had also suspected a LARGE age gap between Naneek and his girlfriend/hiking partner, Cosmos, which when revealed later in the book made their ages something like 62 and 27 at the time of the hike. I type this now as a 36-year old woman and it made me feel curious about how that came to be, but from his point of view he was a respectful dude to her so what do I know?
After finishing the book I almost feel like I know Naneek, and think he’s a person that, given the chance to sit down and share a meal and your story with him, he’d see you in a positive light. That redeems some of the quick judgements in the book which make him human and tired, because you know- long trail.
The last 10 percent was especially touching, recalling his trip back home and his reunified with a leader he was at odds with in Vietnam. I found myself getting choked up at the journey.
Overall a solid read that left me inspired, like I walked in another’s shoes, and with a curiosity and appreciation of those who were drafted and came home impacted in ways they don’t talk about.
Tim, trail name “Naneek” is a 62 year old veteran from Traverse City, Michigan who sets off in the spring of 2009 to hike the Appalachian Trail as a thru-hiker. Many set out to finish and less than half do. Naneek has a special motivation for hiking the trail; to overcome his PTSD lingering from being drafted to Vietnam, which has left him unable to enjoy the woods and nature fully since his return in 1968.
The book has flashbacks that are always relevant to what is happening on the trail and are easy to follow due to well-done formatting. As a therapist, I found his healing journey to be inspiring. His view on war and those who make it happen from afar without getting their hands dirty at the cost of those who do is real and honest.
As for the trail journals, you can envision what Naneek sees, savor each in-town ice cream run, and may find yourself wincing when he finds himself at odds with slippery rocks and steep slopes. I enjoyed his voice in his writing.
My withholding of a full five stars comes perhaps from some personal bias here. Naneek is a 62 year old man on this journey and as he was on the trail I was partying it up at CMU in 2009. I found myself distracted by the frequent criticism of other hikers and thought pretty often “more curiosity, less judgement” (he calls himself out for being judgemental often but then doesn’t change?)and sometimes the superficial description of women’s physique (it was not rare to mention a woman was either thin and fit or large and huffing) while he tended to write a more positive and humanized view of men on the trail. At times it was a bit boastful as well, but I can see how that would be hard to avoid having accomplished something like thru-hiking at 62. So not a hard one to forgive.
I had also suspected a LARGE age gap between Naneek and his girlfriend/hiking partner, Cosmos, which when revealed later in the book made their ages something like 62 and 27 at the time of the hike. I type this now as a 36-year old woman and it made me feel curious about how that came to be, but from his point of view he was a respectful dude to her so what do I know?
After finishing the book I almost feel like I know Naneek, and think he’s a person that, given the chance to sit down and share a meal and your story with him, he’d see you in a positive light. That redeems some of the quick judgements in the book which make him human and tired, because you know- long trail.
The last 10 percent was especially touching, recalling his trip back home and his reunified with a leader he was at odds with in Vietnam. I found myself getting choked up at the journey.
Overall a solid read that left me inspired, like I walked in another’s shoes, and with a curiosity and appreciation of those who were drafted and came home impacted in ways they don’t talk about.
March 8, 2018
Very attention grabbing!
I loved this book! It’s a great personal perspective story that would make anyone want to hike the Appalachian trail! I found myself giggling out loud a few times and sad a few minutes later. Great book!!
I loved this book! It’s a great personal perspective story that would make anyone want to hike the Appalachian trail! I found myself giggling out loud a few times and sad a few minutes later. Great book!!
June 24, 2018
You have to admire someone who thru hikes the AT.....especially at age 62!
I enjoyed the insight the author shares with his readers of the AT hike and his time in Vietnam. I would recommend the book to old and young alike. I look forward to his next book.
I enjoyed the insight the author shares with his readers of the AT hike and his time in Vietnam. I would recommend the book to old and young alike. I look forward to his next book.
November 24, 2022
A beautiful and engaging read about a Vietnam veteran seeking solace on his two feet.
February 5, 2017
Naneek hikes the AT
The best account of hiking the Appalachian Trail I have read! Naneek tells of his adventures on the AT as well as his horrific time during the Vietnam war. Thank you, Tim Keenan for your service!
The best account of hiking the Appalachian Trail I have read! Naneek tells of his adventures on the AT as well as his horrific time during the Vietnam war. Thank you, Tim Keenan for your service!
January 27, 2017
Outstanding reading if your a Veteran. Loved the book.
Outstanding reading if your a Veteran with PTSD. Loved the book! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone planning on doing the AT.
Outstanding reading if your a Veteran with PTSD. Loved the book! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone planning on doing the AT.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews