Townsend embarks on a 700-mile walk along the spine of Scotland, the
line of high ground where fallen rain runs either west to the Atlantic
or east to the North Sea. Walking before the Independence Referendum of
2014, and writing after the EU Referendum of 2016, he reflects on nature
and history, conservation, rewilding, land use and literature, and
change in a time of limitless potential for both better and worse. He
writes regularly for TGO Magazine and has written 22 books on the
outdoors, including the award winning The Backpacker's Handbook;
Crossing Arizona; the story of an 800 mile walk along the Arizona Trail;
Walking the Yukon, the story of 1000 mile walk through the Yukon
Territory. His recent publications with Sandstone feature two
long-distance walks he undertook in the USA, Grizzly Bears and Razor
Clams, about the PNT, and Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles, about the PCT.