Renowned outdoorswoman Nancy East publishes a second book
Nancy East takes a break at a vista along the Plott Balsams. Donated photo
One of the best things about the mountains of Western North Carolina is that even in places we’ve seen a hundred times, we can always find something new and intriguing. This is a lesson Nancy East, an avid hiker and seasoned search-and-rescue operator, learned over and over again as she wrote her second book, “Historic Hikes in Western North Carolina.”
The work details over 30 hikes, ranging from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the West to the high peaks near Boone in the eastern part of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. While the hikes featured in the book are often well-known for their beauty, whether that’s sprawling forests or sweeping vistas, East focuses on the rich history of the area, highlighting old homesteads and cemeteries while also paying homage to the Cherokee who loved this land long before white settlers ever arrived. The book also features a few sections in the beginning that will speak to beginner hikers, including a basic gear list and some things to do if someone loses a trail and gets lost.
East said that a couple of years ago, she was speaking with a couple other nature-loving friends who are also writers. They mentioned that History Press had presented an idea to them to write about historic hikes all over the southeast. The idea piqued East’s interest, but she wanted to stay closer to home. After some back and forth with the publishers, they nailed down an arrangement.
“I said, ‘Sure, why not. I’ll give it a try,’” East said.
The first step was for East to figure out which hikes she wanted to cover. As she looked around to see if anything similar had been done, she was surprised to learn that while there are some guides specific to the Smokies or certain national forests, there was nothing like she was hoping to write, the kind of thing that focuses on the greater Western North Carolina region, particularly one that prioritized historic hikes.
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‘Historic Hikes in Western North Carolina’ is available at multiple bookstores in the region. Donated photo
East hiked each trail, taking everything in through the lens of a guidebook writer, a change of pace for a woman who is more used to the purposeful pace required for search and rescue missions. Not to mention, along with her hiking partner, East set a speed record for hiking the 900-plus miles of trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But for someone who is so used to getting in as many miles as possible during “production hikes,” as she calls them, the change of pace was refreshing.
“Before, it wasn’t so much to sit there and look at every wildflower and take pictures,” she said. “It was nice to hike slower and really notice things, stop and smell the roses, I guess.”
As she hiked, East used her phone to drop pins at waypoints and take notes, something she wasn’t used to. East chuckled as she recalled that editors would sometimes have notes where they asked for specific mile markers and waypoints, which required her to go back and re-hike certain areas — not that she minded. Any excuse to get out into the woods is a good one.
“I made it harder than it had to be sometimes,” East said. “But that’s just my personality. I would get lost in my thoughts and forget that I’m there for this purpose of writing a book.”
Although East enjoyed taking in these beautiful trails with a different goal in mind, she said that prioritizing the historical perspective was a bit intimidating, especially when it came time to sitting down and outlining each section of the book.
Nancy East takes in the scenery near Hickory Nut Gorge. Donated photo
“Once I started to take a deeper dive into beyond what I knew about the history of some of these areas and trails, it was just this mountain of information sometimes,” she said. “Sometimes, it was hard to find more information about certain things, and then sometimes you’d find conflicting sources.”
Next, it was time to sit down and write the book.
“Writing a book is such a long process,” she said, drawing out the last couple of words.
East enjoys that process but admitted that sometimes it can be “soul crushing” when the words don’t come as she’d hope. However, that process was made a bit easier by her familiarity with both the trails and other guidebooks. East has a stack of books she went through, tabbing things along the way that she thought worked.
It also helps that this isn’t East’s first rodeo. In 2021, she published her first book, “Chasing the Smokies Moon: An audacious 948 mile hike — fueled by love, loss, laughter and lunacy,” which documented her record-setting quest to hike every mile of trails in the national park. She said already having one book under her belt did make things a bit easier, if only to understand the challenge that awaited her.
But East isn’t stopping with two books; she’s already working on another project, a young adult novel. While she didn’t go into too much detail, she said it will involve search and rescue and will be based on things she’s seen in the field.
For now, East hopes her guidebook can bring others the joy she and her family have drawn from these ancient mountains and the trails that explore their deepest reaches.
“If that could inspire a family to go and start their own tradition of picnics and throwing a Frisbee up on Purchase Knob … that would be a really cool thing to inspire more families to do stuff together outdoors,” she said. “That’s always been important to me because it was so important to our family as our kids grew up.”
Copies of “Historic Hikes in Western North Carolina” are available at Malaprop’s, City Lights Bookstore and Blue Ridge Books, as well as Amazon. In addition, anyone interested can order a signed copy from nancyeast.com.
