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Uphill Both Ways: Hiking toward Happiness on the Colorado Trail
Reading the West Longlist for Memoir/Biography
One grouchy husband. Three reluctant kids. Five hundred miles of wilderness. And one woman, determined to escape the humdrum existence of modern parenting and a toxic work environment and to confront the history of environmental damage wreaked by westward expansion and the Anthropocene.
In Uphill Both Ways Andrea Lani walks us through the Southern Rockies, describing how the region has changed since the discovery of gold in 1859. At the same time, she delves into the history of her family, who immigrated to Leadville to work in the mines, and her own story of hiking the trail in her early twenties before returning two decades later, a depressed middle-aged mom in East Coast exile seeking happiness in a childhood landscape.
On the 489-mile trek from Denver to Durango on the Colorado Trail, Lani’s family traveled through stunning scenery and encountered wildflowers, wildlife, and too many other hikers. They ate cold oatmeal in a chilly, wet tent and experienced scorching heat, torrential thunderstorms, and the first nip of winter. Her kids grew in unimaginable ways, and they became known as “the family of five,” an oddity along a trail populated primarily by solo men. As they inched along the trail, Lani began to exercise disused smile muscles, despite the challenges of hiking in a middle-aged body, maintaining her children’s safety and happiness, and contending with marital discord. She learned that being a slow hiker does not make one a bad hiker and began to uncover the secret to happiness.
One grouchy husband. Three reluctant kids. Five hundred miles of wilderness. And one woman, determined to escape the humdrum existence of modern parenting and a toxic work environment and to confront the history of environmental damage wreaked by westward expansion and the Anthropocene.
In Uphill Both Ways Andrea Lani walks us through the Southern Rockies, describing how the region has changed since the discovery of gold in 1859. At the same time, she delves into the history of her family, who immigrated to Leadville to work in the mines, and her own story of hiking the trail in her early twenties before returning two decades later, a depressed middle-aged mom in East Coast exile seeking happiness in a childhood landscape.
On the 489-mile trek from Denver to Durango on the Colorado Trail, Lani’s family traveled through stunning scenery and encountered wildflowers, wildlife, and too many other hikers. They ate cold oatmeal in a chilly, wet tent and experienced scorching heat, torrential thunderstorms, and the first nip of winter. Her kids grew in unimaginable ways, and they became known as “the family of five,” an oddity along a trail populated primarily by solo men. As they inched along the trail, Lani began to exercise disused smile muscles, despite the challenges of hiking in a middle-aged body, maintaining her children’s safety and happiness, and contending with marital discord. She learned that being a slow hiker does not make one a bad hiker and began to uncover the secret to happiness.
298 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2022
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98 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 5, 2022
She was not a born hiker, but a born naturalist. Great descriptions of birds and flowers as well as scenery. Her husband was not understanding but her young sons added to the enjoyment of her hike and the book.
February 8, 2022
The Colorado Trail has never been high on my radar of trails to thru-hike but I really enjoyed getting to learn a bit about the trail through the eyes of the author. As a thru-hiker who is now embedded into life and a kid, I also really enjoyed the fact that this was a family hike as it is something I hope to eventually do myself in a few years. Other aspects I greatly appreciated were historical and geological information embedded into the story. I know a smidge about Colorado but not enough for me to grasp what is going on with how it interacts with the trail and this really rounded out the story for me from being just another thru-hiking memoir.
Minor gripes that have nothing to do with the writing or author: I hoped she was going to pitch Curry off the side of Mt. Elbert. "Grouchy husband" is an understatement. He came across as completely unsupportive and very selfish. One thing I've learned in my years of hiking, especially if you are out hiking *intentionally* together with someone or a group, the slow person leads. There's always HYOH of course, but there seemed to be a lot of resentment seeping through both of them with the differing hiking styles and sometimes I wondered if the author was actually glad to be out there. She wrote about growing her relationships with her sons as different ones hiked alongside her at various points but I felt none of that with her husband. And maybe that was the point?
Overall, a wonderful addition to the growing hiking memoir book club!
*I received a digital ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for my review*
Minor gripes that have nothing to do with the writing or author: I hoped she was going to pitch Curry off the side of Mt. Elbert. "Grouchy husband" is an understatement. He came across as completely unsupportive and very selfish. One thing I've learned in my years of hiking, especially if you are out hiking *intentionally* together with someone or a group, the slow person leads. There's always HYOH of course, but there seemed to be a lot of resentment seeping through both of them with the differing hiking styles and sometimes I wondered if the author was actually glad to be out there. She wrote about growing her relationships with her sons as different ones hiked alongside her at various points but I felt none of that with her husband. And maybe that was the point?
Overall, a wonderful addition to the growing hiking memoir book club!
*I received a digital ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for my review*
February 19, 2022
In terms of trail memoirs, this is up there on the pedestal. Andrea is a fantastic writer, in my opinion, capturing the essence of trail hardships and vivid details of the landscape, all the while interweaving historical tidbits about Colorado and the trail. She hiked the trail in her 20s with her boyfriend (now husband) and in her 40s with their 3 boys (ages 11 & 15), so it was interesting to hear her different perspectives. And not for nothing, I give major kudos to anyone who thru hikes with kids or even dogs … hiking the miles and performing camp chores are trying enough without adding the extra bodies to worry about.
January 11, 2023
Have hiked the CT and enjoyed re-living some places through Lani’s descriptions. I love a good hiking tale! The reason for the 3 stars was a bitterness that seemed to permeate the book through the author’s attitude on the trail. Her overall demeanor is less than positive throughout for a variety of reasons that the reader will learn about. But whether bemoaning the naming of mountains after white men, weaving politics into it, or being critical of the phrase ‘bagging a peak’, it just was off-putting enough for me that I was left with a bad aftertaste. Loved the stories of the kids for sure!
March 7, 2022
"A journey of five hundred miles begins with a single step." So writes Andrea Lani in Chapter 1 of her beautiful memoir, UPHILL BOTH WAYS. Lani has crafted an incredible book, one full of nuggets of wisdom--about life, love, parenting, happiness, nature, family, hiking, and more--and reminders to live in the moment. I loved the nature drawings and the photographs within the book as well as the little snippets of family lore and Colorado history that Lani included. Definitely a must read!
May 26, 2023
Fabulous book! More of my thoughts and details on this book at the following link.
https://wp.me/p1HtNi-eyJ
https://wp.me/p1HtNi-eyJ
May 2, 2022
I love a good travel or adventure memoir. And since I first read Strayed’s Wild many years ago, I’ve been a wee obsessed with thru trail hiking memoirs written by women. Why? Who knows. Honestly, they aren’t that exciting of a read (more about that later). Probably it’s just the armchair adventurer in me. After reading many, I can say with certainty that I have ZERO interest in doing one myself. Well, let me rephrase that. I don’t see myself ever doing the entirety of a trail over the one period of hiking as most of these memoirs do. It does inspire me to complete part of one or a whole one, piecemeal over time. But that has nothing to do with this book. This most recent one might be my favorite for a variety of reasons. First, it is about a family of five doing it together. This creates an entirely different story because much is about family dynamics instead of about relationships developed with other thru hikers. Second, it covers the Colorado Trail, which I knew little about, but is basically in my Southwest backyard so I know the landscape. Third, Andrea Lani is a naturalist who is gifted with excellent skills of observation and the ability to translate that into lovely nature writing. She also did a tremendous amount of research and wove that into her account, so along with her family’s personal ups and downs along the trail, we get a lovely history of Colorado interspersed with descriptions of geology and botany of the regions they are traversing. She also highlights the historic and ongoing environmental damage inflicted by mining and the already noticeable changes occurring due to climate change. I’ve found that thru hiking memoirs often focus on the meditative monotony of the seemingly endless walking to be done and being stuck in your own head 90% of the time with the periodic interlude of interactions with other people and resupply stops along the way. Like all thru hiker memoirs, Lani plans this journey seeking change in her life and hoping for a transformative experience, but everything else she includes in her account combines to provide a much richer reading experience than I ever had in any other thru hiking memoir. *I received a digital ARC via Edelweiss and Bison Books in exchange for my review*
January 16, 2022
The author invites readers to share in the family adventure of hiking 500 miles across Colorado in the summer of 2016. She shares the ups and downs as well as snippets of family history. The epilogue brings readers up to date with the family. For hiker and outdoor enthusiasts, this is a must read. Thanks to bison books and Edelweiss for the advance read.
July 1, 2023
This book was HARD to finish. This author was insufferable at best. Lots of woe is me and complaints, not an enduring story for someone who uprooted her family for this journey to have every complaint during. Was hoping for a more inspiring writing, not a complaint diary. Would not recommend.
April 25, 2026
Uphill Both Ways: Hiking toward Happiness on the Colorado Trail by Andrea Lani is a reflective nature memoir that intertwines long-distance hiking with family dynamics, environmental history, and personal reinvention.
The narrative centers on a 489-mile trek along the Colorado Trail, but the journey functions as more than a physical endurance story. It becomes a layered exploration of personal history, generational legacy, and the evolving relationship between humans and the landscape shaped by industrial expansion and environmental change.
A defining feature of the memoir is its dual timeline structure, contrasting the author’s earlier hiking experience in her twenties with a return decades later as a parent navigating emotional fatigue, marital strain, and midlife reflection. This temporal layering adds depth to the journey, turning the trail into both a literal and psychological passage.
The inclusion of family dynamics, particularly hiking with children, introduces an additional structural tension. The memoir explores how shared adversity reshapes relationships, revealing growth not only in the narrator but in the family unit as a whole.
Environmental history is also woven throughout, particularly the legacy of mining and westward expansion in the Colorado region. This gives the narrative a broader ecological and historical consciousness that extends beyond personal experience.
Overall, the book sits at the intersection of travel memoir, environmental reflection, and family-centered life writing, offering a grounded exploration of endurance, change, and emotional recalibration.
The narrative centers on a 489-mile trek along the Colorado Trail, but the journey functions as more than a physical endurance story. It becomes a layered exploration of personal history, generational legacy, and the evolving relationship between humans and the landscape shaped by industrial expansion and environmental change.
A defining feature of the memoir is its dual timeline structure, contrasting the author’s earlier hiking experience in her twenties with a return decades later as a parent navigating emotional fatigue, marital strain, and midlife reflection. This temporal layering adds depth to the journey, turning the trail into both a literal and psychological passage.
The inclusion of family dynamics, particularly hiking with children, introduces an additional structural tension. The memoir explores how shared adversity reshapes relationships, revealing growth not only in the narrator but in the family unit as a whole.
Environmental history is also woven throughout, particularly the legacy of mining and westward expansion in the Colorado region. This gives the narrative a broader ecological and historical consciousness that extends beyond personal experience.
Overall, the book sits at the intersection of travel memoir, environmental reflection, and family-centered life writing, offering a grounded exploration of endurance, change, and emotional recalibration.
May 30, 2024
I love hiking stories and Uphill Both Ways had me engaged from the first step. I enjoyed following along with Lani, a discontented mom and wife trying to rekindle joy in her life, and her whole family as they hiked the Colorado Trail. As someone who has done long distance hikes, Lani’s daily trail stories brought me back to my own trail days. As a mom, I could totally relate to both the wonder and challenges of raising small humans. As a nature lover, I loved the natural history descriptions that Lani intersperses throughout the book. I highly recommend this book!
August 19, 2022
Big-hearted, warm, funny, and smart--all things I would expect from a book by Andrea Lani and I was not disappointed. This book is part adventure, part family saga, part an environmental eye-opener. I loved how Lani wove what she saw on her family hike along the Colorado Trail with what's happening in the world at large in terms of climate change. The book felt both intimate and personal and I loved it entirely.
September 4, 2022
Andrea Lani's impeccable writing truly transported me out of my home and right onto the Colorado Trail. Her descriptions are so vivid and beautifully detailed I could see and feel the air, wildflowers and mountain views. What a perfect blend of natural history, adventure, family dynamics and personal goals and triumph. This is a wonderful book!
July 16, 2024
I appreciated hearing about the author and her family’s hike across Colorado. It was interesting over all. The thread that that was uncomfortable was the distance that seemed to grow between the author and her husband throughout the book. I’m hopeful they were able to do some deep mending after the hike.
April 25, 2024
Honest account of a family's adventure hiking the Colorado Trail. Lots of detail on the flora and fauna and of course the weather. Got a little long at times and made me feel sure I would not want to do it
September 13, 2022
If you have ever hiked even part of the CT then you will enjoy this. Especially if you have kids.
January 18, 2023
I really recommend Uphill Both Ways, particularly if you are interested in hiking the Colorado Trail or want to hike with kids.
June 25, 2023
Really enjoyed this book. I found Andrea's voice very relatable. Nice mix of travel log and history of the land they traveled through.
June 19, 2022
Andrea Lani relates the story of her Maine-based family (husband and 3 sons) walking the 500 miles of the Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango. They eat mostly cold uncooked food to avoid carrying the extra weight of a stove. They walk at different paces, the author/wife/mother struggling to keep up. I didn’t like the book as much as I had hoped but was impressed that they made it all the way.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews