Excursion Guides Books - Page 5

The Backpacker's Handbook

Chris Townsend

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The most up-to-date and comprehensive guide to equipment and technique available anywhere."—Backpack (UK)

This enormously practical guide includes everything from essential techniques such as map and compass work to the skills needed for more remote wilderness journeys—such as how to ford rivers safely and how to choose a route through untracked terrain. As a gear advisor, this book is unequaled. You'll find the last word on:

• How to choose packs and footwear—and make sure they fit
• What clothing to take on the trail
• Tents, tarps, stoves, water purifiers, and other gear
• GPS, cell phones, and other electronic devices
• And much more

Now in its third edition, The Backpacker's Handbook also covers desert hiking, ultralight backpacking, and adventure trekking in distant corners of the globe. Indeed, there is little about backpacking Chris Townsend does not cover. This trusted reference will prepare you for the challenges and excitement of backpacking the wilderness.

"A clear and comprehensive primer on backpacking gear. Townsend's knowledge is immense."—Sierra

"Belongs in every bookcase dealing with outdoor topics. . . . Chockablock full of useful, practical, commonsense info. . . . If you tramp the outdoors, get this book."—Maine Sportsman

"For those thinking of taking a backpack journey, The Backpacker's Handbook is required reading."—Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)

Hiking Death Valley: A Guide to Its Natural Wonders & Mining Past

Michel Digonnet

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent guide to many hikes 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Be aware that Digonnet omits a few common destinations in this book. But it's by far the best guide to the huge number of hikes that he does include. Rely on this book for the majority of your destinations, but get another guide to fill in the gaps. Also keep in mind that areas described as "easy scrambles" for someone with a technical climbing background like Digonnet may be more difficult for flat-ground hikers.

Need more stars for this guide. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

A rare guide that is so complete i can stop looking further. I don't know how he has covered so much ground in one lifetime. Digonnet's love of Death Valley shines through. A pleasure to read but heavy for the backpack...i am ordering a fresh copy cuz the old one is beat up and has many pages torn out. Also, take care to assess your idea of strenuous against his to avoid finding yourself in over your head.

Hiking Death Valley: A Guide to Its Natural Wonders & Mining Past 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a really good comprehensive guide that doesn't give away too many secrets. All the standard destinations are well covered, plus many out in the sticks, but it leaves plenty for you to discover on your own. Will definitely stay in my library, get loaned to friends, get destroyed or lost...all signs of a worthwhile guide.

Hiking North Carolina, 2nd: A Guide to Nearly 500 of North Carolina's Greatest Hiking Trails (State Hiking Series)

Randy Johnson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A good starting point... 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This was a good book for a general description of several trails in North Carolina, but didn't give many details. I think I was looking for something that would give me enough information to pick one trail out of them all to visit, but the brief descriptions didn't give me enough to go on. If you already know which trail you want to trek and it is one of the trails covered in the book, you're pretty well set. You will, however, need another map to know exactly how to get to that particular trail...the book has a map with a general location but no specific driving information.

A Hiking Guide for Hikers by a Hiker 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Mr. Johnson's "Hiking North Carolina" is a guide for hikers by a lifelong hiker in the North Carolina High Country. North Carolina has hundreds of miles of hiking trail, and Randy has hiked most of them himself. The one risk of writing a guide about something you love so much, is to ruin the sense of adventure by including too much information. On the other hand, I have been hiking long enough to remember guides that would allow you to barely find the trailhead, much less give you good information about the trail and what you will encounter. There is a fine balance between a guide that tells too much, like the Appalachian Trail guides, and a guide that says too little, like some I see in popular magazines. I believe that Mr. Johnson's guide strikes a good balance between the two; telling you what you need to know while preserving the sense of adventure in the experience. It's the adventure that draws us into the woods after all. I recommend this guide for anyone who is interested in hiking in the state. His maps are quite detailed and well drawn, and his trail descriptions are enough to get you where you want to go without spoiling the fun of discovery. It is an excellent work and well worth including in your outdoor library.

Robert Branch
Burnsville, NC

The Appalachian Trail Food Planner

Lou Adsmond

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

AT Food Planner 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This book helped me know where to start and how to plan my hiking trip and what foods to take and how much I may need.

Must Have 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is will worth the money!!! One of the books every thru-hiker needs to plan and create good food choices.

Editorial Review:

Long-distance hikers on the Appalachian Trail need 4,000 or more calories a day to keep on walkin'--and have to carry most of it on their backs! Before the husband and son of Lou Adsmond of Grand Rapids, Michigan, set out to hike the whole trail, then 2,169 miles, she was determined that they would eat well. From that experience, she has laid out how to plan "food drops" by mail and prepared recipes for home preparation of variable meals (not EveryNightNoodles), adding tear-out tabs with cooking instructions to be dropped into the ingredients' baggies. Illustrated.

Trailside Guide: Hiking and Backpacking, New Edition

Karen Berger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Comprehensive and fun to read ... 4 out of 5 stars.
26 of 26 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book recently to expand on what I know about hiking and backpacking. I mainly do day hikes, and living in the desert of the southwest, I obviously end up doing a lot of desert hikes.

This book is very comprehensive, but by no means an all-inclusive description of what you need to know about hiking and backpacking.

It puts great emphasize on backpacking and not so much on hiking, although both activities are very similar in their nature. The book puts its main focus on backpacking in the Northeast of the USA, and talks a lot about the Appalachian Trail, which the author has hiked from one end to another.

The book contains all types of useful and important details about equipment, behavior on the trail, personal safety etc. Personally, I would've liked for it to mention more about travelling by foot in the desert, but that said, you can still find the most important information about desert hiking scattered around the book.

Pros:
* Very comprehensive - Contains information about most things you need to know about hiking and backpacking
* Easy and fun to read - very nice format
* Contains checklists
* Author is very knowledgable on the subject and an accomplished hiker/backpacker
* Good value for money

Cons:
* Not enough information about desert hiking/backpacking
* Very heavy - not something you'd want to bring in your pack unless you had to. On the flip side, it makes it more durable than your average book.
* Not all that good as a reference - best read from beginning to end.

All in all, I would rate it a 4 since it's a quite well written and comprehensive book. It covers what most people would expect to find in this type of book. It falls short of a rating of 5 mainly for the reasons mentioned in CON above.

(This review is of the February 2003 edition)

Editorial Review:

Norton proudly reissues these best-selling guides with fully revised "Sources & Resources" sections (including where to find the Web sites, gear, services, books, clubs, and organizations that make for foolproof outings); updates to reflect the latest in gear technology, wilderness medicine, and first aid; and advances in techniques. It's a big world out there. Get into it with the Trailside Guides.

RICH JOHNSON'S GUIDE TO WILDERNESS SURVIVAL

Rich Johnson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A Great Survival Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The emphasis in this book in on prevention, followed by the do's and don't's of staying alive if something does go wrong. Given the recent history of disasters in this country, the book is a must read. It's not a book about how to live in the woods. It's about prevention, staying alive and getting rescued. He does go into some recent events that could have had better results, if the victims had followed the rules of survival. There's lots of great photos, nice sketches and wonderful advice on staying safe until your searchers find you. Johnson isn't preachy or pedantic, he writes in a breezy style with a bit of humor. I'm really interested in that hot rock bed!

Editorial Review:

Expert advice on staying safe in the outdoors from one of America’s best-known survival writers

The best way to survive an extreme situation in the wilderness is to avoid it in the first place, says Rich Johnson in this refreshing new guide to outdoor survival skills. Avoiding both the rigid "primitive skills" ideology and macho, military/survivalist posturing, Johnson focuses on proven, easily implemented methods to handle emergency situations in an easy, low-stress manner.

The Complete Walker IV

Colin Fletcher, Chip Rawlins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For the first time since 1984, we have a new edition of the classic book that Field & Stream called “the Hiker’s Bible.” For this version, the celebrated writer and hiker Colin Fletcher has taken on a coauthor, Chip Rawlins, himself an avid outdoorsman and a poet from Wyoming. Together, they have made this fourth edition of The Complete Walker the most informative, entertaining, and thorough version yet.

The eighteen years since the publication of The Complete Walker III have seen revolutionary changes in hiking and camping equipment: developments in waterproofing technology, smaller and more durable stoves, lighter boots, more manageable tents, and a wider array of food options. The equipment recommendations are therefore not merely revised and tweaked, but completely revamped. During these two decades we have also seen a deepening of environmental consciousness. Not only has backpacking become more popular, but a whole ethic of responsible outdoorsmanship has emerged. In this book the authors confidently lead us through these technological, ethical, and spiritual changes.

Fletcher and Rawlins’s thorough appraisal and recommendation of equipment begins with a “Ground Plan,” a discussion of general hiking preparedness. How much to bring? What are the ideal clothes, food, boots, and tents for your trip? They evaluate each of these variables in detail—including open, honest critiques and endorsements of brand-name equipment. Their equipment searches are exhaustive; they talk in detail about everything from socks to freeze-dried trail curries.

They end as they began, with a philosophical and literary disquisition on the reasons to walk, capped off with a delightful collection of quotes about walking and the outdoor life. After a thoughtful and painstaking analysis of hiking gear from hats to boots, from longjohns to tent flaps, they remind us that ultimately hiking is about the experience of being outdoors and seeing the green world anew.

Like its predecessors, The Complete Walker IV is an essential purchase for anyone captivated by the outdoor life.


From the Hardcover edition.

Colorado's 14ers, 2nd Ed.: From Hikes to Climbs

Gerry Roach

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Colorado's Fourteeners 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have climbed two of the Fourteeners listed in this book and I wish I had this book before doing so. The book is simply, in my opinion, the best, most complete guide to climbing these mountains that I could possibly imagine. I'm doing four more this month and I've used this book to do all the planning, including which TOPOs to buy and which trailheads to use and which routes up the mountains to take. He provides excellent maps in the book itself and great descriptions of each ascent. He also carefully describes the different levels of difficulty a climber/hiker will encounter and applies those definitions systematically throughout his book. It's a first rate guide and worth every penny paid.

Editorial Review:

An accurate, complete guide to climbing the 55 peaks over 14,000 feet in Colorado--covering routes for all levels. Each route's difficulty is rated according to the Yosemite Decimal System. Includes round-trip mileage and elevation gain. Roach has climbed every peak in this guide. Photographs and maps.

Classic Hikes of the World: 23 Breathtaking Treks

Peter Potterfield

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great overview of scenic hikes 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book provides both a high level overview of 23 hikes from around the world, and some planning details such as transportation, dangers, seasons, etc. Highly recommended for people interested in hikes that are both scenic and challenging. The book is a little weighted toward north american hikes.

Editorial Review:

This book will help readers realise their dreams of hiking among the world's highest peaks and most scenic valleys, discovering wilderness far from the clamour of civilisation, encountering rare birds and animals, glorying in sunsets over glacier-clad ranges, and feeling the joy and achievement of hiking in some of the world's most spectacular places. Peter Potterfield has selected the great treks of the world from personal experience. Features include details on conditions, levels of difficulty, best seasons, approach strategies, hazards and maps. Hikes include: from Wonder Lake to McGonagall Pass in Alaska; Tour de la Vanoise in the French Alps; Kungsleden in Swedish Lapland; K2 Base Camp; the Grand Canyon from rim to rim; Mount Kilimanjaro; Cerro Fitz Roy in Argentina; the John Muir Trail in California and Shackleton's South Georgia Crossing.

Hikernut's Grand Canyon Companion - A Guide to Hiking and Backpacking the Most Popular Trails Into the Canyon: Bright Angel, South Kaibab & North Kaibab Trails

Brian J. Lane

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR ANYONE WANTING TO HIKE INTO THE GRAND CANYON

AWARD-WINNING FINALIST:

National Best Books 2007 Award in the Travel:Guides Category!

2008 Benjamin Franklin Book Award in the Recreation/Sports Category!

Best First Book by New Publisher in the Arizona Book Publishing Association's 2008 Book Awards!

2008 Next Generation Indie Book Award in the Travel/Travel Guides Category!

Have you ever wondered just what it takes to hike into the Grand Canyon? It is one of the most spectacular natural wonders in the world, and the only way to really see it in all its splendor is by going below the rim. On a partly cloudy day when the clouds cause shadows to undulate in, out, and around the multi-colored rock formations it is incomparable in its beauty. To venture and explore into the canyon is to gain a fresh perspective that very few of the nearly five million visitors each year ever dare to undertake.

This book is a common sense guide written especially for the first time day hiker or backpacker wanting to explore the Grand Canyon. It includes information on the kind of equipment one needs, how to apply for permits, rules and restrictions, trail descriptions, and other tips - all geared to the most popular, easily accessible, and only maintained trails into the canyon - the Central Corridor Trails (Bright Angel, South Kaibab and North Kaibab Trails). All other trails into the canyon are considered wilderness (unmaintained) trails, require advanced route finding skills, and are not recommended for first-time canyon hikers. Currently, no other hiking book focuses exclusively on these most popular and accessible trails. Information in the book is presented by first time author Brian Lane in a clear, concise, and entertaining manner, featuring full color maps and over fifty photos, providing the reader with a real sense of what it takes to hike the canyon.

Hikernut's Grand Canyon Companion is a must read for anyone thinking about hiking into the canyon!

Also...be sure to visit the author's Grand Canyon Hiker's Blog for updated information at: aSenseofNature.com