If the author’s name sounds familiar, it probably is. Cook is a regular columnist for the Daily Press; his forestry articles draw from his experience as a forester and biologist for Michigan State University Extension. He resides in Wells Township, about six miles northwest of Escanaba.

In 1975, a 17-year-old Cook and partner Tim White graduated high school early, rode a bus to San Diego, and set off on a backpacking adventure that would take them through over 2,000 miles of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges.

The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail — often shortened to Pacific Crest Trail or just PCT — is a challenging route from Mexico to Canada that has a low rate of success by hikers who attempt it. It passes through 25 national forests and seven national parks.

Though the idea of a trail through California, Oregon and Washington was proposed in the 1920s and ’30s, it wasn’t until 1968 that the PCT was designated as a National Scenic Trail.

Bill Cook

It has become a popular attraction, but hiking the trail was a rarer accomplishment during the first several years. Nine people completed the PCT in 1973; in 1975, Cook and White’s names made the honored list among 28 others.

It was a tough year to tackle the trail, Cook said: “Abnormally late winter snows barred much of the route through the fantastic Sierra Nevada of California. Record-setting rain drenched the northern Cascades of Washington. About 600 miles followed temporary routes,” he recalls.

Today, several hundred per year complete the PCT, but a much greater number drop out.

According to the Pacific Coast Trail Association, 11,552 have now completed the route. Cook and White, who made their journey in about five-and-a-half months, were among the youngest and earliest through-hikers to complete the trail in a single season.

“We subsequently hiked sections for three decadal anniversaries,” Cook shared. “And in 1976, my brother Brian and I hiked the Sierras. My cousin and I hiked a piece of the Sierras in 2005. I’ve also hiked short parts of the Appalachian Trail, the Superior Hiking Trail, and (much) of the North Country Trail … and then in other parts of the world including the Alps, Ecuador, Alaska, and Malaysia.”

In 2004, Cook decided to write about his experience on the PCT in essay form and shared it with his kids and other people who supported the further development of Cook’s account.

“I mulled the full-blown book idea over for a long time.  Mostly procrastination,” Cook said. “As I drove 25,000 miles on two trips through Canada, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest, the idea of the book began to gel, based on the 2004 essay. I worked stop-and-start on the book for about two years. I figured the 50th anniversary of completing the trail might be a good time to finish the project.  I was encouraged by my friend Margaret Watry, and by two strangers that I had met in my journeys, including a fellow my age who was finishing his last leg of the PCT at Timberline Lodge. … Several other friends encouraged me to finish the book, including Dirk Wierenga, professional author and photographer.”

After having several friends read his drafts, Cook brought the final proof of “Beyond the Crest” to Richard’s Printing in Escanaba. It was self-published and printed.

“‘Beyond the Crest’ contains numerous reflections on completing the nation’s greatest long-distance trail,” the author shared in a press release. “Lessons acquired provided the ethical framework that bolstered the rest of Bill’s life and career. This book captures some of those threads.”

Gregg Bruff, local resident and Park Service retiree stated, “(Cook’s) experience reveals a tough, single-minded approach to the dauntingly austere but beautiful 2560-mile Pacific Crest Trail.”

The book isn’t simply a travelogue, though. “Rather, it is an exploration of how experiences of the long trail influenced a lifetime,” Cook explained. “How does one deal with adversity? Does persistence yield value? How can one not bond with the great mountains of the west? What sorts of wonders leave a young man speechless? When do these experiences weave themselves into everyday life over the next five decades?”

He remarked that characters met on the trail became lifelong friends, kindness from strangers is still remembered, and “robust tales emerged — most of them true!”

Steve Dosh, a veteran of the El Camino de Santiago trail in Spain, had this to say about “Beyond the Crest: A Trail through Time” by Bill Cook:

“Both entertaining and deeply philosophical, it offers rich lessons in resilience, solitude, and the power of nature to shape the human spirit.”

The book is for sale at Canterbury Book Store and Bobaloons in Escanaba, at Superbloom Coffee House in Gladstone, and will soon be available at the Escanaba Public Library.