A Walk Along Land's End: Dispatches from the Edge of California on a 1,600-mile hike from Mexico to Oregon

A saga, a celebration, a comedy and a lament, this narrative ranks with the classics of California travel literature. The intrepid hiker's acute eye notes the heartbreaking beauty, colorful characters and jarring contradictions found on the shore of the sundown sea. Commissioned by the California Coastal Trails Foundation to map out a continuous trail along the Golden State's coastline and through coastal mountains, John McKinney, The Trailmaster, walked from the Mexican border all the way to Santa Barbara before he quit the job-but not the journey. He kept on walking, this time for the sheer adventure of experiencing the contradictions of California. What he discovered was a magnificent borderland that separates the restless civilization from the restless sea. What he learned was that Americans spend too much time building this country, and too little time knowing it. What he gained was a deeper, more spiritual appreciation of a coast-and a country-desperately in need of a new land ethic.

This is an exulting, reflective, and often humorous narrative of the ponderings and perceptions of a naturalist-turned sociologist on a highly personal, long-distance trek. Share the adventure-with McKinney as your guide-into the soul of one of the most strikingly beautiful and historically significant coastlines on the face of the earth.

Originally published in hardcover by Harper-Collins in 1995, this re-publication includes chapters and passages not found in the original volume.