Skywalker Quotes

“It was Christmas-card beautiful—enough to stir the emotions of even the most hard-bit soul.”
― Bill Walker, Skywalker: Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail

“The Allman Brothers were from my hometown of Macon, Georgia, so requesting this song was a small lapse into provincialism. In 1972, the group’s guitarist, Duane Allman, had died when his motorcycle had crashed into the back of a peach truck. They subsequently named the album they had been working on, Eat A Peach. Its memorable lyrics, which came pouring out of Wisconsin’s machine at 9,000 feet in the California mountains, go as follows: Well, I’ve got to run to keep from hiding And I’m bound to keep on riding And I’ve got one more silver dollar But I’m not gonna’ let ‘em catch me, no Not gonna’ let ‘em catch the midnight rider. The song is a paen to freedom and independence, which, come to think about it, is kinda’ what the PCT is. And the God’s-honest-truth is that for the next two days this song carried me a total of fifty miles in an elevated state of morale.”
― Bill Walker, Skywalker: Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail

“Perhaps the moral of the story is that as uncivilized as we humans so often act, we are ultimately civilized beings. The sad thing is that so many of the people who got off the trail in this fashion would have been perfectly happy if they could have just forced themselves to hoist their pack, hitch back to the trail, and take the very first few steps. The challenge simply lay in beginning.”
― Bill Walker, Skywalker: Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail

“Someone—somewhere—pointed out that if you are miserable when you’re alone, then the problem is that you are keeping bad company.”
― Bill Walker, Skywalker: Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail

“Hike your own hike”
― Bill Walker, Skywalker: Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest Trail