From Trail to Page: An Author’s Journey
Join us at Fivesparks to see a presentation about Kathy Elkind’s walking journey through the heart of Europe on the GR5 (Grand Randonnée Cinq). Hear the story of how the adventure became the book, To Walk It Is To See It. Kathy will share writing as a craft and the pros and cons of hybrid publishing. Wine and cheese will be served.
Kathy Elkind is a long-distance walker, writer, and eater. Along with her husband she has walked the GR5, the Andalusian Coast to Coast Walk in Southern Spain, and parts of the Cammino Materano in Italy. She can be reached at www.kathyelkind.com. Kathy and Jim raised their two children in Harvard for twenty-eight years. She now lives in the Mad River Valley of Vermont. To Walk It Is To See It is her first book.
In 2018, Kathy Elkind and her husband decided to take a grown-up “gap year” in Europe and walk the 1,400-mile Grande Randonnée Cinq (GR5) across The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
At fifty-seven, Kathy has chosen comfort over hardship: she and Jim get to indulge in warm beds and delicious regional food every night and croissants in the mornings. But the GR5 is not all comfort. Walking day after day for ninety-eight days brings sickness, accommodation struggles, language barriers, and storm-shrouded mountains in the Alps. As the days unfold, however, she discovers her own wise strength and comes to the gratifying realization that a long marriage is like a long trail: there are ups and downs and it takes hard work to keep going, but the beauty along the way is staggering.