As a freelance writer and podcaster, I get emails every week asking me to review a product (NO), or write about some poll or survey about the “best trails” in Colorado, or promoting some vacation resort (still NO), but my favorites are from publishers asking me to look at a new book. Sometimes, the book isn’t really outdoor recreation related, so I take a pass, and then there are the books that grab my attention. They might be trail guides, or survival and preparedness books, or as in this case, a great story about how an outdoor recreationist overcame some kind of tremendous adversity to pursue their favorite activity.
Jo Giese was an avid hiker, splitting her time between homes in California and Montana, while also hiking all over the globe. She especially liked hiking to waterfalls, a passion I also share, so I immediately felt a connection. An accident – not on a trail but doing something mundane as answering the doorbell at her home – left her with a completely severed Achilles tendon.
Achilles tendon injuries, such as strains or partial tears, are already significant injuries, making walking painful and requiring rehab periods of many months, depending on the severity.
A completely severed Achilles is an injury in a world of its own, requiring surgery and longterm rehab. For Giese however, things took a turn for the worse when her first surgery was botched, subsequent surgeries were unsuccessful, and she was left with a dead tendon, with no hope of ever having a functional Achilles. 
Giese’s book, “You’ll Never Walk Alone: A Hiker’s Memoir of Adventure, Tragedy, and Defying the Odds” details her struggle to find a way back to hiking. Finding a medical professional who didn’t dismiss her chances outright – she relates how one physical therapist told her early on that she “would never hike again,” a prognosis she strongly rejected – was in itself a significant challenge. Finding someone who knew how to get her back on the trails was even more challenging.
I’m not giving anything away by revealing that Giese is back on the trails, although she admits she’s moving a bit slower these days, but her story is partly nostalgic as she writes about her years hiking before the injury, part travelogue when she mentions the places she’s visited, but mostly it’s inspiration.
In an interview I did with Giese, she told me that one doctor has referred to her as a “medical outlier” and that most people who didn’t have an Achilles tendon would be doing well just walking around their living room, let alone hiking in the wilderness.
Anyone who has been frustrated with the American health care system and struggled to find the right doctor to address their issues or had to travel long distances to get to someone in their insurance network, or waiting weeks or months to be seen by a specialist will also relate to her story.
Outdoor recreationists will appreciate and admire her grit and determination not to collapse under the heavy mental, psychological and physical weight of an injury that would sideline the rest of us mere mortals.
Giese is a Peabody winning journalist, so her story, as you would expect, is well-written, engaging and often humorous, and at a bit over 200 pages, a great weekend read that I highly recommend.
“You’ll Never Walk Alone: A Hiker’s Memoir of Adventure, Tragedy, and Defying the Odds” by Amplify books will be released on Feb. 10 and can be pre-ordered now at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and at bookstores nationwide.
Be Good. Do Good Things. Persevere.
Check out the podcast Outdoors With Hiking Bob for great interviews with notable people in outdoor recreation, plus tips and news about outdoor recreation in the Pikes Peak region and beyond.