Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies [Paperback]

Kathy Copeland (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Voice in the Wilderness Press (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0969801645
• ISBN-13: 978-0969801641
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,760,108 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pulls no punches, and that's refreshing, October 31, 2001

By 

Jonathan Crowe (Shawville, QC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies (Paperback)

For as long as I can remember, my reference to Canadian Rocky Mountain hiking trails has been the venerable Canadian Rockies Trail Guide by Patton and Robinson, which, while easily the standard reference and required reading for every hiker, tends to avoid the question of whether a trail is worth doing or not. Except for masochistic marvels like the notorious Carrot Creek trail (removed from the 7th edition), Patton and Robinson are rather trail-agnostic: some trails are good day hikes, others are backpacking adventures for "explorers" with good route-finding skills. To each his/her own.

The Copelands' Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies isn't like that. The authors have an opinion of what constitutes a good hike: jaw-dropping scenery throughout the hike, and preferably above treeline. They discard lengthy, scenery-poor hikes like Howse Pass and Jasper National Park's boundary trails and rank the rest. They pull no punches and, if you understand and agree with their point of view, you find yourself nodding in agreement. The trails I've hiked have earned the rankings in this book -- for example, Paradise Valley and Helen Lake as "premier", Citadel Pass and Eiffel Lake as "outstanding", Chephren Lake as "don't do" (had I but known ... ).

The Copelands include a few ridge walks and scree scrambles not covered by the Patton/Robinson guide, which aren't my cup of tea. They are also more apt to point out trails that present a higher risk of a bear encounter (e.g. Maccarib Pass and Glacier Lake, and it's one of the reasons why they don't include Banff Front Range trails). On the other hand, there are no trail maps, and I find the descriptions more thorough in Patton and Robinson. As a result, you should get both guides, since each makes up for the shortcomings of the other: you need the raw data and authority of Patton and Robinson as much as you need the opinion of the Copelands.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, August 29, 1999

By 

Jennifer Widom (Stanford, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies (Paperback)

We used this book on a recent day-hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies. While the "rad" writing style isn't exactly our cup of tea, the hike descriptions and ratings are right on. Every "premier"-rated hike we took was an absolute winner. Note that the book does not include any maps at all -- not even sketches -- so getting good hiking maps to go along with it is a must. When we traveled from the Rockies to Southwest British Columbia we were devastated not to find the authors' "Don't Waste Your Time" for that region in any local bookstores or hiking shops we passed. We've used many, many hiking books for various regions around the world over the years, and "Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies" truly stands out as the most useful and fun. Congratulations to the authors.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Opinionated it us, and it is useful for the most part, September 8, 2000

By 

Mark D. Pankin (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies (Paperback)

If you are planning to do much hiking in the area, this book is a valuable resource. Based on the several hikes we took (all but one in the "premier" categogy), we agreed with its evaluations of the scenic worth. Without this book, we would not have made reservations for the bus the Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park where we found the best scenery and hiking of our trip. However, the authors seem to rate difficulty of the hikes based more on the distance rather than the steepness or elevation change. On several hikes we did not agree with these ratings. We (a couple in our 50s in reasonably good condition and experienced day hikers) found shorter hikes called easy in the book to be moderate to somewhat strenuous and a longer hike rated moderate to be fairly easy. The authors' second date was a 20 mile day hike, so they are almost certainly stronger hikers than most of the readers. Make your own evaluations based on the hikes' lengths, elevation changes, and descriptions.