Trespassing Across America

By Ken Ilgunas

 

Trespassing Across America by Ken Ilgunas takes one man’s journey of hiking along the proposed XL Pipeline from Canada to Texas and turns it into a deep philosophical journey at the same time. As crazy as Ilgunas’s journey seems, it also has the appeal of a romanticism of the solo journey. The battle of wild threats, territorial ranchers, and the weather alone is enough to read/listen to this book.

Ilgunas, while working in Alaska, gets a wild hair to trek along the proposed XL Pipeline to see what would be impacted by the environmental damage from said project. Along the way he runs into quite a few friendly individuals, hillbilly teenagers shooting their guns around his tent, preachers, and close minded police. One sheriff officer even escorts him outside of the county lines. The star of Trespassing Across America is Ken’s deep thoughts upon the damage the pipeline would cause and how the people and environment would be effected.

Andrew Eiden is the narrator for the entire hike. He does a good job keeping all the stories engaging and calm at the same time. Allowing the listener to focus on the deeper meaning behind the text.

In conclusion Trespassing Across America makes the reader/listener take a deeper look into how America’s greedy thirst for energy consumption could ultimately lead to a fallout of a future. With all the battles that Ilgunas faced during his hike, he keeps his thoughts and opinions very honest. Allowing the reader/listener to take away a different understanding of the environment and everyone’s views.

You can download the audiobook from downpour.com here. Plus the book is DRM free!

Story: 4/5

Narration: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Pros: A brave adventure with a deep philosophical thought process makes the reader/listener think.

Cons: I wanted to hear more about the adventures and the people Ken came across.