As told by Liz Menten

Holly and I began writing this book in a library in Salisbury, Connecticut, one perfect fall afternoon while awaiting an interview at The Hotchkiss School, a New England boarding school that plays a major role in our story. She was 12 years old, going on 21. From her vantage point on the brink of adolescence, life could not unfold fast enough. I had been dragging her around on Appalachian Trail hikes for years and now she was dragging me around on boarding school interviews.

Ironically, Holly is really quite a homebody. And they don't come more loyal. A whimsical free spirit from the start, Holly hated elementary school with a passion. Too much structure! She pleaded for home schooling for years and was notorious for cooking up ailments to stay there. My favorite, to which Holly confessed years later, was smelling the Lubriderm skin cream until it gave her a headache. I actually had serious concerns about the number of headaches she seemed to get. And this is the child who decides to go to boarding school?

Holly came alive in the kitchen and in the woods. Her current interest in Environmental Sciences is probably a natural outcrop of the years Holly spent either climbing trees and exploring the gorges behind our home or brewing edible and non-edible concoctions in the kitchen. It was hard back then to envision what path lay ahead of her.

Holly's intrepidness, independence and freethinking were qualities that I admired but also feared in the context of her adolescence. So I came up with a hiking quest as a mechanism to keep her well connected with me. The hiking angle served as an excellent mechanism for keeping Holly close. But it also inspired other changes I never anticipated but ultimately embraced (her departure for high school among them).

Maybe because we stayed so close or maybe because of Holly's nature, the passage through adolescence followed an easy course. Holly's independence and curiosity have served her well. Still, I am glad I took her hiking when I did because time with her these days is hard to come by. Meanwhile, Holly has become a strong and fast hiker and I eat her dust. But seeing as it's her dust, it's okay.

College looms ahead, another world apart. Holly may take a year off between Hotchkiss and college. Her creative nature craves some free space and time. Certainly there will be many more adventures for Holly, mostly without me. But we will have our share as well.