- Author:
- M. John Fayhee
- Published:
- September 6th, 2023
- ISBN:
- 978-1958870082
- Price:
- $ 26
- Cover:
- Paperback & Hardcover
- Subjects:
- Hiking | Humor | Travel Essays
WHEN M. JOHN FAYHEE first arrived in New Mexico’s rugged Gila Country, he was a naive 20-year-old who didn’t know a javelina from an enchilada. Much has changed in the intervening half century.
In this meandering memoir, Fayhee, with his loyal dog Casey at his side, takes us through the heart of the Gila – once the stomping ground of Geronimo and Billy the Kid and home to the world’s first legally designated Wilderness Area – as he endeavors to hike every day for a solid year through some of the country’s most remote and challenging terrain. “A Long Tangent” explores the process of going from wide-eyed young man to crotchety old fart as he comes to terms with his mortality, with the fact that “There are many more trail miles behind me than there are ahead.”
More than that, though. This is the story of the bond between a man and his canine companion as it evolves through deep canyons, across bone-dry mesas in ninety-five degree heat and toward the cactus-covered mountains that rise above the desert lands of southwest New Mexico.
Along the way, Fayhee reflects upon rattlesnakes, hiking sticks, bears, exploding rocks, mystery mountains, disorientation, poorly worded religious texts, lost pets, marriage, the relationship between hikers and their vehicles, and a past that slips ever further into the rearview mirror.
WINNER of the Southwest Book Design Production Awards 2024.
WINNER of the New Mexico – Arizona Book Awards.
Get your copy at your favorite Indie Bookstore!
Reviews
- Hal Herring, contributing editor, Field & Stream magazine
“The literature of walking is a rich one, from Bruce Chatwin and Paddy Fermor back to Saint Augustine, with his immortal words of Solvitur ambulando (“it is solved by walking”). John Fayhee has penned a worthy addition to the canon, a collection of adventures and memories steeped in sweat and trail dust and cactus spines and the happy reek of his carcass-loving dog-friend Casey. Fayhee was walking deserts and the alpine vastness for decades before he started the hike-a-day project to celebrate his sexagenarian years and defy its limitations. This is a life’s chronicle of revelry and ribald tales, with an undercurrent of joy, like looking up from the second beer in a small-town saloon far from home to see an old friend, utterly unexpected, outlined in the doorway by the fierce New Mexico sunlight. These are indeed the good ol’ days, as Fayhee tells it, “because every day is a future good ol’ day for someone. Hopefully, me, too.” St. Augustine couldn’t have put it better, because St. Augustine missed the American West, the greatest wandering country on this planet. Fayhee missed not a single thing.”
Don't believe a word this man says, just sit back and enjoy it
“John Fayhee is a wandering man, picking up stories along the way. Share a beer with him and listen to some stories and you’ll see what I mean. I may not believe half of it but it’s probably a stone’s throw within the truth, and he’s the perfect person to tell it. His kindness and sense of humor make for a great read, while you’re sitting on your hammock, enjoying a beer. Highly recommend!”
Wonderful
“Be ready to nod your head, laugh out loud or grab a hankie. Life in the woods and with a dog spun in such a way that, even though most of us have been there, John points us in directions that we did not see coming. I love this book.”
The Author
