Category: books and magazines

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book review – The Cactus Eaters

How I Lost My Mind–And Almost Found Myself–On the Pacific Crest Trail

Excellent.

Traversing broiling deserts, snowy mountain passes and dank rain forests on its crooked way from Mexico to Canada, the Pacific Coast Trail is an epic challenge for die-hard backpackers. White and his girlfriend, Melissa, set out, late in the season and bereft of experience, to tread all 2,650 miles of it, leaving behind lousy reporting jobs and hoping to find self-definition and a deepened relationship. (They call their trek the Lois and Clark Expedition.)

Hilarious greenhorn misadventures ensue—including the author’s ill-advised chomp, while dizzy with dehydration, into a reputedly moisture-laden prickly-pear cactus—that tested their survival skills and commitment as a couple. …

Amazon

This book reminded me of both A Walk in the Woods and A Blistered Kind of Love: One Couple’s Trial by Trail.

It confirmed the certainty that I would never do a thru hike with any partner.

The biggest question I had as the sorry tale unfolded … Will Melissa come to her senses and finally dump this loser?

related – Brad Wieners and his wife Mary – Couple’s Therapy via Adventure Racing

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why children need wilderness

Frank ties together some very interesting and entertaining links on this topic.

Just one of those is a book by Richard Louv:

… Last Child in the Woods is the first book to bring together a new and growing body of research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults. …

Click through for the details and more links – Our Hiking Blog – Nature Deficit Disorder? Kids at risk without “wild places”?

This is 11yr-old Zach Bonner finishing his 600mi trek from Atlanta to Washington, DC on July 9, 2009

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sinister hiking author out on bail

What!

Are there no work camps? Are there no prisons?

Another drug kingpin buys himself out of trouble.

Tom Stienstra, 55, who covers hiking and camping for the Chronicle, was arrested with his wife March 25 after authorities served a search warrant at their house in the town of Weed.

Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said members of a county narcotics task force uncovered a “sophisticated marijuana cultivation operation” in a barn on the property.

She said officers seized 31 mature marijuana plants and 21 immature plants, 11 pounds of dried marijuana, packaging materials and scales.

Stienstra, his wife, Stephani Ann Cruickshank, and their 18-year-old son all have medical marijuana recommendations, authorities said. …

… Stienstra was released last week from Siskiyou County jail after posting $75,000 bail.

No charges filed against journalist Stienstra in pot case

photo from Northern California Hiking Trails

No American taxpayer would begrudge the cost of locking up this guy:

… an average of $10,400 for each pot smoker plucked off the streets by police. Of this more than $7 billion annual total, police costs totaled $3.7 billion, court costs $853 million, and prison costs $3.1 billion. In the nation’s two most populous states, California and New York, taxpayers are faced with an annual marijuana enforcement bill of more than $1 billion. …

Just because Stienstra has twice been named National Outdoor Writer of the Year, doesn’t excuse his heinous crimes.

I’m tempted to chuck my copy of his guidebook, Moon California Hiking in protest. … But it’s so bloody good. And funny.

You must be outraged to see the Get Outdoors blog turn him into a folk hero. The police should raid their offices, pronto.

And, to be on the safe side, invade the homes of Tom Mangan and Tom Chandler. All Toms are suspect dopers.

I weep for the outdoor community to see Noriega North still roaming our trails.

UPDATE: At least the cops have nabbed master criminal Stephen Lovejoy.

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California Hiking author a doper?

Moon California Hiking is the guidebook sitting beside me on the passenger seat.

Author, Tom Stienstra, has just been arrested.

… Stienstra, 55, was arrested March 25 after sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at his home in Weed and found a “sophisticated cultivation operation” in his barn, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said in an e-mail.

Deputies allegedly found 31 immature marijuana plants, 29 mature marijuana plants and 11 pounds of processed marijuana …

Redding.com

That’s one way to support your hiking habit.

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best books on California desert hiking and climbing

I checked into the Needles California office of the Bureau of Land Management. They gave me some excellent advice on “best hikes” in the region.

Two books are recommended and sold there:

Hiking California’s Desert Parks, 2nd edition: A Guide to the Greatest Hiking Adventures in Anza-Borrego, Joshua Tree, Mojave, and Death Valley by Bill and Polly Cunningham

I’ll be using this one over the next couple of months.

Deserts Summits: A Climbing & Hiking Guide to California & Southern Nevada by Andy Zdon

Both are recommended.

Click on either book cover for more information and links to other available books on Amazon

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trekking Japan – 88 Temple Pilgrimage

We’ve added a category of walks called “spiritual”. This is a perfect example.

For example, one adventure recommended by Aasmund Midttun Godal, the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

… Neon Pilgrim (2009) is a rollercoaster account of an Australian woman’s 1200km trek around the island of Shikoku, the famed 88 Temple Pilgrimage performed in honour of the ninth-century monk who brought Buddhism to Japan. Depressed, unemployed and overweight, 28-year-old Lisa Dempster undertook the epic walk to cure her body and mind ….

Amazon

I checked out a review by Andy Hayes. His summary:

… this book has a terrible cover and an even worse title.

But it was probably the best ‘travelogue’ I’ve read all year. …

Indie Travel Podcast

I’ve added Neon Pilgrim to my books-to-read list.

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book – The Great Divide

Sarah of Trail Cooking was given a hard-to-find copy of this book.

The Great Divide: A Walk Along the Continental Divide of the United States (1987) by Stephen Pern

Sarah recommends it, saying on Facebook:

As you get into the heart of the book my mind thought of another book, Dances With Marmots – A Pacific Crest Trail Adventure. George’s book has a similar flow. If you liked Dances, you will enjoy this book.

The Continental Divide Trail (CDT) is a wild trail even today. I cannot imagine his walking it even in the 80’s, picking a path of his own to beat the weather and to be able to get food drops. There wasn’t much of a trail back then.

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hiking guidebooks – Kathy and Craig Copeland

Andrew Breen suggested I give a shout out for Kathy and Craig, popular hiking guidebook authors from my part of the world.

BestHike links to many of their guidebooks, but I’ve not mentioned them lately.

Kathy and Craig Copeland are dedicated to each other, and to hiking, in that order. Their second date was a 32-km (20-mile) dayhike in Arizona. Since then they haven’t stopped for long.

They’ve trekked through much of the world’s vertical topography, including the Himalayas, Patagonian Andes, Pyrenees, Swiss and French Alps, Scottish Highlands, Dolomites, Sierra Nevada, North Cascades, Colorado Rockies, New Zealand, and canyons of the American Southwest. In 1989, they moved from the U.S. to Canada, so they could live near the Canadian Rockies—the range that inspired the first of their refreshingly unconventional guidebooks.

authors

Here’s their list of current guidebooks:

Bear Safety
Bears Beware! (audio book)

Hiking
Done in a Day: Banff
Done in a Day: Jasper
Done in a Day: Whistler
Don’t Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies
Where Locals Hike in the Canadian Rockies
Where Locals Hike in the West Kootenay
Hiking from Here to WOW: North Cascades
Done in a Day: Moab
Hiking from Here to WOW: Utah Canyon Country

Cycling
Done in a Day: Calgary

Vehicle Camping
Camp Free in B.C.

It was news to me that they now offer mini-ebooks. I could download these to my iTouch.

Don’t Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies
Where Locals Hike in the Canadian Rockies
Where Locals Hike in the West Kootenay
Hiking from here to WOW: North Cascades

Everything is linked from their attractive, fast and easy-to-navigate home page: HikingCamping.com

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Beartooths traverse, Montana

Peter Potterfield was searching for the best hike in Montana:

The state is so rich in extraordinary wilderness that it’s actually hard to choose: Glacier or Yellowstone? The Bitterroots? The Bob Marshall Wilderness? One can hardly go wrong, but I was determined to find something special. For expert input, I asked fellow writer Mike Harrelson, a gung-ho climber and skier based in Bozeman, to help me decide. He was up for the challenge and after a few weeks of research called me with the verdict.

“We’re going to do a traverse of the Beartooths,” he said, “right down to the northern boundary of Yellowstone.

Potterfield’s trip report sounds great: “outrageous wildflower gardens”, a scramble of 11,480ft Mt. Dewey, the Fossil Lake plateau, fly-fishing for Cutthroat trout”, …

Oboz

Bozeman is the gateway to Yellowstone country, but for the Beartooths, Billings is a viable option for staging. The drive to East Rosebud Lake will take approximately three hours from either city. For information on conditions and regulations in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness, contact the Ranger District in Big Timber, Montana, 406-932-5155. or the Custer National Forest, 406-657-6200.

For a one way hike, you’ll need to stash one car at the Clarks Fork Trailhead near Cooke City before driving to the trailhead at East Rosebud Lake, or arrange a pick up. At the end of the hike, when you walk out of the Beartooths out to the trailhead on Highway 212, lodging options await a few miles to the west in Cooke City.

Read the trip report on Great Outdoors – Across Montana’s Beartooths

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South American trekking – best books

As usual, the best place to start is Lonely Planet.

Trekking in the Central Andes is brilliant, but has not been updated since 2003.

Lonely Planet Patagonian Andes has been updated:

This vast, varied region is home to some of the world’s great treks, with trails that take you through pristine forests to the rims of glaciers, under granite monoliths and over rickety suspension bridges, well beyond the crowds. Our expert author has chosen the best of Patagonia’s trekking, from the luxuriant rainforests of the Lakes District to the spectacular wildernesses of Tierra del Fuego.

Trekking in the Patagonian Andes (updated November, 2009)

Val Pitkethly’s book was updated, as well, September, 2008.

26 treks and 18 climbing peaks in the Andes, with coverage of the range from Venezuela in the north to Patagonia in the south. The treks included will introduce you to all aspects of the Andes, from the simmering volcanoes of Chile and Argentina to the high altitude Inca cities of Peru. Ranging between four days and two weeks, there is something for everyone.

The Andes: Trekking + Climbing

Leave a comment if you have other faves.