74 pages 2 hours read

Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1998

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapters 5-6

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

For the next two days, Mary Ellen continues to tag along and camp with Bryson and Katz, but they devise a plan to hike a fast 14 miles the following day to where they can get on a highway and hitchhike into the tiny town of Hiawassee and stay in a motel. Their plan works, and they’re able to outpace Mary Ellen by the time they reach the highway. Their hitchhiking plan works too: A drunken young couple on their way to get married picks them up and drives them to Hiawassee. Bryson recalls that the 1970 novel Deliverance (as well as its film adaptation)—in which four city men are stalked by depraved mountain men—was set in the region and admits that “Hiawassee did feel palpably weird and unsettling” (92). They check into a motel, shower, and go to a restaurant but began feeling guilty about ditching Mary Ellen. Back on the trail the next day, they ask another hiker if he has seen her. He responds that he camped with her the previous night and tells them that she referred to them as “overweight wimps who didn’t know the first thing about hiking” (98).

Related Titles

By Bill Bryson

Study Guide

logo

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

Plot Summary

logo

In a Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson

In a Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson

Study Guide

logo

Notes From A Small Island

Bill Bryson

Notes From A Small Island

Bill Bryson

Study Guide

logo

One Summer: America, 1927

Bill Bryson

One Summer: America, 1927

Bill Bryson

Study Guide

logo

The Body: A Guide for Occupants

Bill Bryson

The Body: A Guide for Occupants

Bill Bryson

Plot Summary

logo

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Bill Bryson

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Bill Bryson

Plot Summary

logo

The Lost Continent

Bill Bryson

The Lost Continent

Bill Bryson

Study Guide

logo

The Mother Tongue

Bill Bryson

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

Bill Bryson