Nancy East, Author
Nancy East’s interest in hiking and backpacking began while she was a student at Auburn University. “I headed to the Smokies as often as I could,” she said, “and ended up taking my first job out of veterinary school in Waynesville.” Today, among other accomplishments, she is a founding board member of the WNC Wilderness Fund, a Haywood County Search and Rescue team member and, she says, “a firm believer that you’re never too old to be what you might have been.”
Her debut book Chasing the Smokies Moon is an account of a challenge she and a friend took on in 2020: to improve the speed record for hiking all 900-plus miles of trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The tragic death of a hiker in 2018 inspired the hike as a way to raise money for search and rescue. “I hope readers take away a deeper understanding of how a hike can quickly turn fatal if they’re not equipped with basic skills and minimal gear; that no matter their age or athletic abilities, they are stronger than they may feel or believe; and that walking through the woods is one of the best forms of meditation and therapy out there.”
East began outlining the book in her head as she hiked, taking brief notes on her phone. “But,” she adds, “the majority of what I wrote in the book was indelibly etched in my heart.”
Chasing the Smokies Moon, November, 2021, nonfiction, softcover, $17.95, by Nancy East, and published by Headlamp Publishing, NC. The book is available at Blue Ridge Books, City Lights Bookstore and other regional bookstores, or by visiting NancyEast.com.
