According to the author, Conway's childhood gave him the courage and ambition to take on which activities in the nonfiction book, The Last American Man?

Author, Elizabeth Gilbert, states that it was Conway's unusual childhood that prompted him to ride a horse across the United States during which he set a new world record, hike the German Alps in sneakers, hike 2000 miles on the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, , live with the Navajo Indians in New Mexico, kayak across Alaska, and travel to New Zealand to scale the country's immense cliffs.