Book reviews

The Real Grandma Gatewood

Grandma Gatewood

Grandma Gatewood is often cited at the first ultralight backpacker because she thru-hiked hiked the Appalachian Trail using a shower curtain as a shelter with only 12 pounds of gear. I doubt that’s the reason for her success. More than anything, she …

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Trekking the Southern Appalachians

I was going through my hiking bookshelves the other day and I came across Trekking The Southern Appalachians published by Backpacker Magazine. I don’t remember every buying it and anything published by Backpacker Magazine is, well, suspect. Boy, was I ever surprised …

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Dan Doan and the 50 Hikes Series

Dan Doan. There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I came across a few of his hiking guides on Sunday as I was going through my bookshelves, weeding out books I haven’t used in a long time, for donation …

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NOLS Wilderness Guide: A Book Review

NOLS Wilderness Guide

The NOL’s Wilderness Guide (National Outdoor Leadership School) is a great book to read even if your are an experienced hiker and backpacker. The book provides in-depth instruction on a wealth of topics including: expedition planning how to dress for the backcountry …

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Sky Islands and Desert Canyons

This post is about writing and hiking. I’ve been reveling this week in Chris Townsend’s hiking memoir, Crossing Arizona: A Solo Hike Through the Sky Islands and Deserts of the Arizona Trail Here’s a short excerpt that I keep returning too. “A …

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Great Hiking and Outdoor Memoirs

I really like reading hiking and outdoor memoirs because they combine personal insights and emotions with the writers’ experience of everyday routine, physical trials, town encounters, and natural wonder. There’s a richness in them that you don’t often find in autobiographies or …

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Exploring New Hampshire’s White Mountains

The Wilderness Map Company, publishers of the Green Mountain Club’s Vermont’s Long Trail Waterproof Hiking Map, has just released a new Tyvek map called “Exploring New Hampshire’s White Mountains.” This map is not available online, but I got a first edition copy on …

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How to Read the Forested Landscape

I just finished reading an incredible book called Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England, authored by Tom Wessels, an ecologist and environmental biologist who teaches at the Antioch New England Graduate School in New Hampshire. This book teaches …

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