Spiked Boots: Sketches of the North Country

Read it in front of a fire on a cold winter's night. Fantastic!

This is a series of anecdotal stories of logging in New England. It is full of old Yankee wit and humor. If you like this sort of thing try any of the North Woods Reader series by Cully Gage, stories of the post logging days (early 1900's) of Michigan's upper peninsular. A more technical view of New England logging, and life back in the day is in Robert Pike's book, Tall Trees and Tough Men. These are all good reads for anyone who wants to learn more about life in the days of logging with axes, two man cross cut saws, and river drives.

I've spent 40 years working in the woods of Vermont and I can say that this book rings true. It has the flavor of a good storyteller as well as being accurate within it's scope of topics. I'll re-read it many times.

Really enjoyed this book. The author captured the flavor of the North Country (where I was born) in a way both entertaining and educational.

great book good reading

Spiked Boots is among a rare breed of books, either fiction or fact, that can take the reader directly into the minds of the characters and places the author is talking about. Robert Pike approaches the tales of Vern Davison, Jack Haley, and a host of others with such clarity you are transported directly back 100 years to the logging industry of the "north country." You sit in your chair reading the book and the words slowly turn into the wind rushing by your face as you are transported into the horse drawn carriage with Vern Davison and Robert Pike, and you find yourself slowly engulfed in another era. Not to be overlooked in the new Countryman Press edition is the foreword added by Helen-Chantal Pike, Robert Pike's daughter. The foreword adds a look into Robert Pike's life that only a daughter could bring into the book, from the tales of the original "peddling" trips, to the meaning of his writings to himself, to the intimate detail of Robert Pike reading a well worn copy of Spiked Boots over and over again during his last years of life. Also added to the new edition are several photographs culled from the Pike Archives featuring a rare photographic glimpse of the scenery and people that the tales of Spiked Boots originates from. One can fully appreciate the men spoken of as they gaze at the picture of Ginseng Willard next to the coffin he slept in for two years to, "get used to it." For fans of America, for fans of history, for fans of self-reliance, the new edition of Robert E. Pike's Spiked Boots is not one to be missing from the shelves of the library. It offers a rare glimpse at a by-gone era, of men and women that no longer exist in this form of ruggedness that made America what it is today.

I strongly recommend Spiked Boots. Now I know why it is considered a Yankee Classic. It is a yarn of the highest calibre, written by a man, Robert E. Pike, who was as fascinating a personality as the characters he wrote about. As I turned the pages, I met men with colorful names like Jigger Johnson and Dan Boss; real people who had worked hard and lived hard in the North Country so long ago. These characters even had their own language, tossing out words like besom, cant dog, wanigan and draw-tub. This new edition has a well-crafted heartwarming preface written by Robert Pike's daughter, author Helen Pike. Through her words, I learned even more about the man who penned this classic, and his fascination with the lost art of logging.

Good read!