Backcountry Treks (Discovery Travel Adventures) [Paperback]

Judith Dunham (Editor), John Gattuso (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000 | Series: Discovery Travel Adventures

This 224-page title leads down the less travelled roads of North America, from iceberg-dotted peninsulas to ancient mountainscapes. Informative essays highlight some of the country's lesser known national parks and wilderness preserves, from Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, to Big Bend National Park by the Rio Grande in Texas. Practical tips sections advise on equipment, preparation and navigation skills required for the adventure as well as information on touring, lodging and camping. The work is lavishly illustrated with more than 250 spectacular photographs as well as 18 specially commissioned maps.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Langenscheidt Publishers (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563319314
• ISBN-13: 978-1563319310
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,388,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unclear audience, unclear purpose (but lots of pretty pictures), December 16, 2006

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Backcountry Treks (Discovery Travel Adventures) (Paperback)

This is a weird book, written for an unclear audience. Its apparent audience is people who want to get off roads on their own power but have no clue how to do this. To help them, it has a chapter on "seeking challenges" that discusses rock climbing, mountain biking, river rafting, and other activities. Oddly this comes *after* chapters on "planning a trip" and "getting equipped." That's odd because I'd have thought that you would need to choose the activity before selecting equipment, but apparently that's not necessary.

The bulk of the book discusses 18 back country destinations in the US and Canada, about half of which are national parks. The rest consist of national forests, state parks, and other kinds of units. These range from the familiar (the Smokies) to the less familiar (Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas and Oklahoma). These destinations aren't organized in any useful way around activities. For example, the chapter on Monogahela National Forest emphasizes mountain biking, but that's not obvious from the title of the chapter or from the organization. As a result, you have to read or skim everything to find anything.

The chapters also lack enough information to do anything. For example, the chapter on Theodore Roosevelt National Park discusses a series of day hikes and weekend backpacks, none of which gets more than a paragraph. That's not enough information to choose among the options, much less plan a trip.

The real strength of the book is the photographs, and these are great. But you can find great photographs of the outdoors in many other books.