Adventure Fuel: Books & Movies To Enjoy This Fall - Trek Light Gear

Adventure Fuel: Books & Movies To Enjoy This Fall

As chilly temperatures become a staple in the weather pattern, many of us are less inclined to gather our hiking gear and hit the trail in search of adventure.

Instead, we bundle up, hunker down, and enjoy all the great indoors has to offer (ahem @ board games and roaring fires).

But, who’s to say that adventure has to take a back seat until the crisp air warms up?

Adventure is a state of mind and there are countless ways to find it.

Fuel your wanderlust and hunger for the world by diving into books or watching a film. Here a few fun suggestions...

 

Best Books for Fall 

 

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, by Erik Larson

Written in 2015, this book tells the captivating story of ocean liner, the Lusitania’s last voyage. Sunk by the Germans during WWI, it was carrying a record number of women, children, and infants and is one of the greatest disasters of maritime history (outside the Titanic).

Larson takes the story many may know and gives it life. Through a complicated cast of characters and dark drama, the story is like a deep, electric sink into the past.

If you’re a fan of nonfiction that reads like an action film, add this to your book list.

 

The River, by Peter Heller

College friends and adventure buddies, Wynn and Jack set out on a canoe trip along the Maskwa River in Northern Canada. Paddling their way through the wilderness, they spend their time stargazing and reading old Westerns by the campfire.

But after a chance encounter with another traveling couple, their heart-warming vacation becomes a tale of survival. With an ending twist that’ll surprise readers, this book is delightful read, full of visually stunning prose and delicious drama. 

 

The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride

John Brown was a radical American abolitionist who championed the violent overthrow (i.e. with brute force) of slave owners and the slave system. This is the fictional story (though inspired by very real events) is told from the POV of Henry, a young boy who accidentally encounters Brown in a tavern and ends up riding with him on his quest to free and takedown pro-slavery forces in the Deep South.

Humor, passion, and humility come together to form a true adventure tale – one that takes on race and history with a fast clip and eagerness. McBride is a capable storyteller and he takes this tumultuous and decisive period of time and brings it to life with precise details and comic plot twists.

If this book sounds good but you’re more of a TV person, you’re in luck—Showtime is turning it into a series.

 

Sense of Adventure Films 

 

Leave No Trace

Will and his daughter, Tom have lived in isolation and off the grid for many years. Taking shelter in the Pacific Northwest forests, they live a life that’s fueled by searching for food, protecting themselves, and staying on the lookout for predators (both human and non).

When the outside world uncovers their camp, both are put into social services and forced to become a part of the world they’ve avoided. A stunning film that gracefully and beautifully explores the relationships we have with nature and ourselves. Where we call home truly depends on who we are.

 

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Forgive us, but if Indiana Jones were a real person, we have no doubt that he’d be a Trek Light Gear fan.

With that in mind, the final installment in the Indiana Jones franchise is the perfect film to fuel your adventure fire and get cozy to. 

It’s 1938, and Indy’s father, Professor Henry Jones has gone missing while pursuing the Holy Grail. Indy sets out on a crusade to find him and uncovers more than he expected (Nazis, catacombs, and his father’s crusty & trusty journal).

With its delightful banter, whip-cracking plot, and nostalgic effects, this is a classic you should visit or re-visit this fall.

 

Meru

Made in 2015, Meru is a documentary about the first ascent of the “Shark Fin” route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas. Sitting 21,000 feet above the Ganges River, the Fin is a towering range that beckons the world’s toughest climbers and offers no easy (or even discernable path) up. As many have said before, it’s not a mountain but a wall.

And yet, Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk try to tackle it. Meru follows their journey, their failures, their physical demands, and their innate desire to conquer something so menacing and impossible.

It’s a documentary that gives us a powerful and inspiring glimpse of determination in action, and of human potential dangling above death, just able to grab hold of a ledge and haul itself up.

 

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