Customer Reviews

Appalachian Trail Guide to New York-New Jersey

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I've used previous editions of this guide, but the 16th edition includes validated GPS data and is certainly the best of a very good lot. The package includes a guidebook, with detailed trail descriptions for the 174 miles from Kent, Connecticut, to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area on the New Jersey-Pennsylvania line. There are also four waterproof color maps (scale: 1 inch = 1 mile) which show the A.T., other trails in the area, and roads used to access the trails.

My favorite hike in this book includes the Agony Grind on the west side of the entrance to Harriman Park, just off Old 17. There's a short, fairly steep scramble up to a long ridge walk above Greenwood Lake with great views -- you can often see hawks flapping across the lake far below you, and then rising effortless just out of reach on the thermals formed by the ridge. It's a rewarding out and in hike, of whatever length you have time for. Save a little energy for a careful descent at the end of the hike.

There are other excellent local guides to New Jersey and New York trails. The New Jersey Walk Book: A Companion to the New York Walk Book and the New York Walk Book: A Companion to the New Jersey Walk Book are the pick of the litter.

Nonetheless it is romantic to use one of a series covering the entire Appalachian Trail. One can pretend to be an End to Ender of this most famous of our trails.

Robert C. Ross 2007 2008

You've got to be serious that this is selling for over $400 on amazon! You can buy the SAME guidebook and maps from PATC.net (Potomac Appalachian Trail Club)'s website - the creator of the guidebook/maps for $16.00. I've bought several states maps and guidebooks from PATC. It's absolutely INSANE that someone is charging over $400 for the same freaking thing you can buy for under $20. REI sells these maps/guidebooks for $16 as well!!!!

DO NOT BUY THIS GUIDEBOOK AND MAPS FROM THIS SELLER!!!!

This is a well organized guide. I wish it had more pictures of landmarks. Shipped quickly. Durable map.

Wellp, I've used these maps a few times. I don't know if its because they were outdated, or not compiled very well, but the markings for local trails and shelters was wrong!

At once time it led me to not know where I am for a portion of the day as the trail I was supposed to be on was drawn completely innacurated.

Another time I spent a very cold hour on top of an exposed mountaintop in the dead of winter, because the shelter was marked as being on the wrong peak. Not fun!

If you are just using this to hike through the appalachian trail, I'm sure these maps will do you fine. But I wouldn't trust them to show the local trails and shelters.

As many other AT guidebooks, the 16th edition of the NY/NJ guide consists of a set of maps (4 on 2 sheets) and lists of mileage points and services along the trail in the guidebook. The detailed waterproof maps include an elevation vs. distance chart at the bottom (which is a rather rough approximation, but still nice). For my personal tastes, the maps are a bit too colorful; they are quite different in appearance from the other 3 AT guides I own.

A great feature of this guidebook is very detailed information on public transportation to various points on the trail (who could have thought there would be a 1-mile side trail descending from the NY/NJ border on the AT to a NJ Transit bus stop, with the bus going to NYC!). The information on local accommodations, as well as taxis, is less detailed, but suffices for planning from home. There is no information on tenting opportunities at the shelter sites and little for the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (there is a map at their website). The maps by themselves are more than sufficient to follow the trail, but the accompanying book is great for pre-trip planning.