Get Off the Couch with Joan

What a remarkable woman! I thought that rambling 500 or so miles on my own, with a backpack, over unknown territory was an achievement. However, Joan Young makes me look like a softy!

She hiked 4,395 miles over the North Country National Scenic Trail – despite claiming to have pudgy knees and flabby thigh tops.

She was plagued with mosquitoes – we share common ground there – and we both lugged nice light little tents that were too small to sit up in. And if you are stuck in a tent for 12 hours, not being able to sit up is a considerable handicap.

Joan endured sub-zero nights, hiked through snow for days, and faced encounters with bears and moose, not to mention all manner of biting, stinging and gnawing insect life

I very much enjoyed following her journey which is well written, filled with zest, positivity and lovely descriptive passages. Most particularly, I enjoyed it from the warm comfort of my chair.

Hats off to Joan and her legs for getting up off the coach and getting out to enjoy the wonders of nature. A lovely and inspirational read.

The Robert rates Get Off the Couch with Joan 5 stars, because it won't take long to read, but it will live inside you forever.

(no rating)
Love this book. And I've read and thoroughly enjoyed Joan's humorous but beautiful narratives in "Get off the Couch". At 26 pages, it is more a pamphlet than a traditional travel book, but the photographs are charming in tone with each adventure depicted.
I can confidently say I would buy this book in a bookstore, even though I rarely hike any trail except the well-worn carpet path to the bathroom. This collection of 10 newspaper outdoors/trail hiking essays are nothing less than a pleasure to read.
My favorite of Joan’s 10 adventures is this depiction in episode 4: “East of the Ozarks”, originally published July 4, 2009, Ludington Daily News:

“But hikers know that you rarely get more than one perfect element at a time. I had a hard time feeling that lovely air on my skin since it was coated with five layers of insect repellant, often topped with long sleeves and a head net. I don’t know how a scrap of gauze that weighs less than an ounce turns into a iron mask the minute it is placed over the face, but it does. Oh, did I mention that the mosquitoes had friends? With the reinforcement provided by deerflies, gnats, ticks, and biting ants I was diving into my tent before 7 pm every lovely evening– that little scrap of a tent– 2 pounds, 11 ounces. It’s great, except that I can’t sit up in it. Lying down for 12 hours out of 24 gets tiresome, even with a book. Two hundred mosquitoes lined up on the screen waiting for me and humming tunes they mistakenly believed to be seductive.”

At a digestable 26 pages, this ebook is dressed with some of the most beautiful photographs of the great outdoors amid the humorous and often poetic personal narrative. All hikers and nature lovers will adore this small but gorgeous volume. You will feel like you’re right there with Joan.

So get off the couch and buy this ebook.