Category: books and magazines

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new – Scottish National Trail

The Scottish National Trail is an 864 kilometre-long long distance walking route running the length of Scotland from Kirk Yetholm to Cape Wrath.

Devised by outdoors writer and broadcaster Cameron McNeish, the Trail offers very varied walking, following long-established footpaths for much of the distance but becoming progressively more difficult as it heads north, finishing with a tough stretch of backpacking – with some pathless and demanding terrain – on the final stretch of the Cape Wrath Trail. …

ScottishNationalTrail.co.uk

map

Click PLAY or watch a teaser on YouTube.

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Lonely Planet Trekking in the Patagonian Andes

trekking Patagonian AndesThe 2009 edition is longer available from LP. Not even as a digital version. 😦

I highly doubt it will ever be updated.

You can still find used versions on Amazon at high cost.

I searched until I found one in a used book store. I’ll hang on to it. There’s nothing better for the region, in my opinion.

A 2015 Spanish language guidebook is closest – Trekking por Chile by Compass, the map company.

If you only need to see some of the Lonely Planet guide, check the version archived on Google Books.

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1001 Walks you must take before you die

Published 2015.

1001 WalksAt 960 pages this hard cover coffee table publication looks impressive. But it’s ultimately fairly useless for the serious hiker.

All 1000 hikes get 2-3 paragraphs whether a 10 minute climb up the Cologne Cathedral. Or the 14,000mi (23,000km) Trans-Canada Trail.

There are few links or references.

It’s grouped in these sections:

Overland
Urban
Mountain
Heritage
Coastal & Shoreline

Two index sections are valuable:

Walks by Country
Walks by Distance

The longer walks selected are good. The authors do know hiking. But with 1000 chosen, it would be difficult to miss the best of the best.

They did somehow miss a couple of our top 10:

#4) Ausangate Circuit, Peru

#5) Sunshine to Assiniboine, Alberta, Canada

You can give this 1001 book a miss.

Or … skim it for inspiration. Some of the photos are wonderful.

 

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book review – Dances With Marmots

Dances with MarmotsKiwi George Spearing is a fireman who decided to hike the PCT long before the book WILD became a hit with the general public.

It’s charmingly amateurish. George is a hiker, not a writer.

Still … I feel most hikers will enjoy this lightweight read. 🙂

Pacific Crest Trail veteran John Manning:

… The element of challenge was greater simply because fewer people had managed a thru’ hike; the information available for planning wasn’t so easy available; and lightweight gear hadn’t evolved to the same extent (George hiked with a 60lb pack on some stages) as it has today. Therefore, it’s true to
say that when George hiked the PCT there was a logistical challenge that today might seem to be on the wane.

Yet there’s no chest beating here. George recounts his PCT odyssey with humour, self-deprecating glee and a real feel for the camaraderie of the trail, even though he encountered only a handful of characters route (compare that to the hundreds I met in ‘04). As I read this book I was able to imagine myself back among the forests, scaling passes, crossing rivers and relishing George’s company and his sardonic Antipodean style of humour along the way.

Some of  the tales herein will be familiar to many hikers – the bear encounters, the occasional “temporary displacement”, the varied battles with the weather – but in a way they’re all the richer for the matter-of-fact way they’re recounted.

Dances isn’t intended to be a blockbuster; it was written for personal reasons and George was talked into publication by friends clamouring for copies. The layout takes a little getting used to – every sentence starts on a new line but the only indentations come where a fresh paragraph would normally begin; the text therefore seems to have a stop-start nature – but persevere and you’ll be glad you did. What do you want, waymarking?

Amazon

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NOT The West Highland Way, Scotland

Not the West Highland Way

by Ronald Turnbull
Cicerone Press

NOT the West Highland WayThe West Highland Way is one of the UK’s finest long distance walks, but the path runs close to a busy main road and avoids the mountain tops. NOT The West Highland Way describes alternative routes over mountains, smaller hills or high passes to all but one of the Way’s nine stages. With add-on day trips over Ben Lomond or Beinn Dorain.

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Here at besthike we are NOT recommending the West Highland Way. There are plenty of better alternatives

Turnbull’s book details many of those alternatives close to the old trail.

Check it out for sure before deciding on the WHW.

related – Planning a West Highland Way walk

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best treks western Indian Himalayas

September in Leh, Ladakh I found an excellent hiking guidebook by Depi Chaudhry in a bookstore.

Trekking Guide to the Western Himalayas

Collins (2009)

book

It includes 43 treks in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. A quick summary of each along with good maps, altitude charts, colour photos, etc.

Depi has hiked 70% of the routes in the book; the rest put together with information collated from other trekkers. Having completed the best of the bunch already – Markha Valley – I’m finding it a good starting point for deciding where to head next.

So far I’m leaning towards hiking out of Dharmsala and Manali on my next Indian adventure. 🙂

related – Depi each season guides a section of a Trans Himalaya Trek.

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The Trail – Ray Anderson

Scheduled for publication October 27, 2015. I’ll be buying it immediately. 🙂

The Trail Anderson Paul Leroux is a serial killer wanted for murdering women in North Carolina. When the police start to catch up with Leroux, he panics and decides to escape to Canada on the Appalachian Trail, where thru-hikers use trail names and travel anonymously.

Leroux, who is overweight and unhealthy, struggles at first on the trail but begins to relax as he gets stronger and can utilize the physical changes he gains from his intense hiking as a disguise. His urge to kill, however, is invigorated by the nearness of female hikers, and his intention to stay away from them on his trip begins to weaken.

His life is further complicated when Desert Storm veteran Karl Bergman, who is also trying to escape his own failure, becomes suspicious of Leroux and begins to pay careful attention to his every move.

Leroux becomes increasingly panicked as he realizes that both Bergman and the police are close on his tail as he races to the border hoping to find a haven with his Canadian family. In this cat-and-mouse thriller, Ray Anderson dives inside two men’s minds as they struggle to fight their identities and confront their fears and internal turmoil.

Amazon

Ray Anderson is a thru hiker who goes by the name Hamlet. He was inspired to write this book on a dark, stormy night while walking the Appalachian Trail in 2003.

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Shawnte Salabert – on hiking

… The last mile to camp is always a drag. Almost always. Or always. I could be strolling through a wonderland of gold and diamonds and chocolate fountains and unicorns, but moving like an uninspired sloth. My feet are tired. My butt is gently chafed. I need nutrients.

In camp, I immediately engage in some sort of polite battle with fellow tent-pitchers over The Best Spot. “No, you pick first.” “No, no – you pick.” I invariably choose one that seems flat and windless. Seems.

Time for water math. Do I have enough? Should I filter tonight or in the morning? How much should I grab for dinner? …

A DAY ON THE PCT IN THE HIGH SIERRA

tent

Kolby brought this excellent blog to my attention. 🙂 I’m now subscribed.

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Behind-the-Scenes – A Walk in the Woods

Appalachian Trail Conservancy:

Check out this exclusive behind-the-scenes interview from the film “A Walk in the Woods.” Travel writer Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) takes a long-lost old friend (Nick Nolte) for a hike along the Appalachian Trail, which stretches more than 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.