One of them, Daniel Doan, is the author of this story of their week-long adventure. The other, Dr. Claud Sharps, a Laconia veterinarian, was Doan's old friend and hiking companion from childhood. Our Last Backpack recounts in lyrical but direct prose their encounters along the trail, Doan's growing awareness of his own physical limitations, and the clash of cultures between two old-fashioned mountain men and the new age of "backpacking." This book is also a beautiful testament to a deep and abiding friendship between two utterly different personalities who shared a profound love of the woods.