Finding Mount Guyot

the long version

"A laugh-out-loud backpacking story about a whiskey-drinking, blue-collar kid from the flatlands of Cleveland, Ohio who gets it into his head that he wants to be a mountain man. Beginning in 1977, the book follows Johnny Rez and a cast of quirky companions through fourteen rollicking adventures in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Along the way, Johnny tangles with hungry bears, raging white water, sultry Southern women, a host of cops and rangers, and even a creature called a "snot otter". The story culminates with a series of attempts to climb the most elusive Smoky Mountain of all, Mount Guyot (pronounced "GEE-oh"), where few people ever set foot. After three decades of booze, dope, and broken dreams, can a newly-sober John Reznick finally find Mount Guyot and claw his way to the top? The years are working against him, but faith and love are on his side."--Amazon.com