Take a Hike with Jeffrey Ryan on July 12th at the Thos. Moser Georgetown Showroom
Former L.L. Bean catalog writer, Falmouth, Maine resident, author and speaker Jeffrey Ryan will begin his 40-plus-stop book tour for his new book Appalachian Odyssey, A 28-Year Hike of America’s Trail at Thos. Moser’s Georgetown Showroom at 1028 33rd Street NW on Tuesday, July 12 from 6:00-8:30 pm. The book signing and discussion is open to the public.
Fittingly, as a fellow Maine-based business, Thos. Moser, Handmade American Furniture, is Ryan's first stop on his five-month book tour to discuss his 28-year trip that he says encourages setting goals, chasing dreams and achieving them one step at a time.
Traveling in his 1985 Vanagon wrapped in the Appalachian Odyssey book cover, Ryan will also stop at 30 L.L. Bean stores from Maine to Colorado to discuss hiking the Appalachian Trail that runs from Maine to Georgia. He hiked each trail one at a time with each section of the book presented as a self-contained story, modeled loosely on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Ryan was born and raised in Maine where he grew up exploring the Maine coast. As an adult, Ryan adopted hiking as his favorite mode of exploration and in 1983, he went on his first long-distance hike, a six-and-a-half month adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Upon his return from the PCT, Ryan climbed Maine’s highest 50 mountains in one year. In 1985, Ryan’s friend, Wayne Cyr, joined him for a one-day hike on the Appalachian Trail that inadvertently began their 28-year adventure.
During the July 12th book signing, where his van will be parked in front of the Thos. Moser Georgetown Showroom, the author will recount some of his adventures shared in Appalachian Odyssey, published by Down East Books and released July 1. This Thos. Moser Showroom, one of six across the US, is an ideal setting for Ryan's discussion as the 44-year-old company also speaks to the wonders of nature and celebrates the natural beauty of wood.
A photograph of the Allegheny Plateau of Pennsylvania, where Thos Moser's American black cherry is harvested, is one of the backdrops in the showroom to emphasize the simple, unadorned and graceful lines of the forests as well as the furniture. Since cherry trees must be given 75 to 125 years to mature and are a renewable resource, Thos. Moser harvests them with care so that the furniture they make from this wood lasts at least as long as it took the tree to grow.
