THE TWENTY

In this memoir, retired middle school teacher Bohr recounts how she and her husband celebrated their upcoming 60th birthdays by hiking across the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

It was 2016, and in past years, the author and her spouse, Joe, had backpacked around Europe, and they figured a stroll along Corsica’s mountainous footpath GR20 (“Grande Randonée number 20”) would recapture some of that youthful magic: “We would rough it for two weeks, for at least eight hours a day on the trail, up and down elevation changes of over sixty-two thousand feet. The numbers were daunting but guaranteed magnificent vistas from sunbaked summits….” They trained for months to complete the 124-mile hike, hoping they could challenge conventional notions of how 60-year-olds should spend their golden years. The author documents each day of the trek over the island’s rugged terrain, and the couple’s Corsican odyssey effectively becomes her meditation on growing older—both as an athlete and as one-half of a couple that’s been married 35 years. Bohr is a talented nature writer, capturing the landscapes she traversed in painterly prose: “Above the steep path, stooped, centuries-old pines look down like old crones gawking from the crest to the east. After an hour and a half in the heat-radiating couloir, alder trees appear and bring longed-for shade.” The overall narrative isn’t quite as dramatic as the mountains through which it weaves, nor is Corsica so wild that there isn’t always a good meal and a picturesque village within a few pages. Still, Bohr shows herself to be a natural storyteller, and her diaristic account is appealingly escapist. It’s a poetic reminder of the trails still left to tread, regardless of one’s age. Like all great travelogues, it will have readers itching to travel somewhere remote and outside their comfort zones.

A poignant and immersive remembrance set on one of Europe’s greatest hiking trails.