Customer Reviews

Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I am an "over 50" hiker with more than 30 years of hiking in the North Cascades and have been to the Canadian Rockies four times in the past five years. I have hiked 12 of the "Premier" and "Outstanding" day hikes and 3 of the backpack hikes including three perfect days at Berg Lake. (For someone who is interested in photography and scenery, their rating system is very fair.) However, the scenery is so spectacular that you would be hard pressed to make much distinction between the "Premier" and "Outstanding" hikes. Remember, the book is opinionated but you don't always have to agree. Don't always rely on the ratings. Often, they "downgrade" an area because of crowds rather than a lack of scenery or a long approach. (For example, Cavell Meadows, Parker Ridge, and the Beehives tend to be crowded but are worth "sharing" with others.) And thanks to this book, you had better get used to sharing ALL of the hikes and backpacks with others!!! (I would also highly recommend their book, Don't Waste Your Time In The North Cascades. It is the best single reference book for hikes in the Cascade Mountains.)

I recently returned from a trip to the Canadian Rockies with other experienced hikers. We are all in very good shape, but we found the level reviews way off the mark. Hikes rated easy or moderate winded most of us. Hikes rated as 'missable' were at least as impressive as some of the top-rated hikes. While some of the opinions were valid, overall we were all disappointed in the mixed and inaccurate messages.

As an experienced hiker, I found this to be one of the best guides I've ever encountered. Trails are ranked as "premier," "outstanding," "worthwhile," and "don't do," and the book is organized by ranking, so it is easy to find the very best hikes right away. Also useful are the suggestions for rainy day hikes and shoulder season trips. Rough maps of each of the parks showing the general locations of the hikes are helpful for overal itinerary and base planning. The "fact" section for each hike, showing directions to the trailhead and general route finding directions in the field is right on, and the "opinion" section adds just the right amount of subjective commentary. Photos of key sights are also helpful in evaluating trails. Lacking are any maps of the hikes themselves, but serious hikers should have proper topographical maps anyway, and the book tells you exactly which ones you need to acquire for each hike. The difficulty ratings may be a bit optimistic (Kathy and Craig are in better shape than most of us), but the book also gives the hard facts on distances, altitudes and elevation gains, to allow an informed evaluation of the difficulty involved. The general sections of the book on the hazards and realities of hiking do a tremendous job in covering critical safety information (including bears) in a scant 27 pages - must reading for any beginner, and a good refresher even for verterans. If I have one criticism, it is the author's obvious bias against trails frequented by other hikers. As my my most frequent hiking companion (my wife) has often said, sometimes there's a REASON all those other people are on the trail! However, even considering the book's inordinate concern with solitude, it's still an outstanding reference. I used it on a recent hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies, I will use it the next time I go, and I am pleased to add it to my library.

My fiance and I love the great outdoors and we took a trip to the Canadian Rockies for the first time June/July 2002. We found that we would not have enjoyed the trip as much if we had not made a little investment on this book. The detail descriptions such as "two boulders accross from it" really help with unsigned trails.

We were there ten days and we hiked 9 of the "Premier" hikes. Some of the trails do not belong to the National Park (Alpine Club?) and these trails have no signs. For example, we would not have known the way to Bow Hut if it's not for "limestone boulder bridging the gorge" and "For Bow Hut, Cross the limestone bridge." (Samuel Smith's review about Bow Hut is wrong) We met a couple and we were mentioning to them about the lack signs and they joked, "The Canadians are really stingy with signs." Also, details like visitors cannot drive their private vehicles into the Lake O'hara region but have to purchase a bus ticket and ride the bus or hike in helped us save time.

There are two main reasons I give the book a four star instead of five. First, trail maps would have helped us a little bit more. Second, it would have helped us with decision making if the book had included some warnings about long and uninspiring hikes (except until you've arrived at the destination). For example, our first hike was Verdant Pass (22.5km, 14mi). The trail through the forest was very wet and narrow and of course the only view is trees. Two things we had to avoid were running water and mosquitoes. We hiked more than 9km (5.5mi) but had to turn back because of the advancing dark clouds (the day was raining on and off). I'm sure that Verdant Pass is as beautiful as any other "Premier" hikes but it's a long and uninspiring hike.

To have a worthwhile hiking experience, I would strongly advise those who don't know much about the Canadians Rockies to spend a little money on guide books, if not this one, then some other one.

I bought two books and in the end, we wasted this book (beaten, wrinkled and water soaked) and I can't even remember the name of the other one; this is simply to tell you that we use this book a lot. Though 7 of our ten days included rain, we had a great time hiking.

So, go and take a hike.

I bought this book and "The Candian Rockies Trail Guide" in preparation for two weeks for backpacking and dayhiking in the Mountain Parks, from which I just returned.
I went on many of the hikes described in the book and found that they mostly coincided with my personal impression, but most of the time I would have been able form that opinion from reading the more factual "Trail Guide" description only, together with the respective Gemtrek map, which you will need anyway. So, basically, this is a nice addition to the "Trail Guide", which itself is indespensable.

I am about to travel to the Rockies with this book as my basic guide. It is great to have a book that actually gives an opinion on what's worthwhile or not. I did hope for more opinion and more geographic guidance, however.

One trail is listed as one of the top five trails but the other four are not mentioned which is a shame. Of course, all opinions are subjective and i was surprised to see that Crypt Lake was only in the second class Outstanding category. I found this trail to be extraordinary; but am willing to accept that the Premier Trails listed are even better.

Having never walked the Premier trails i found it very difficult to follow the verbal description of the trails. I am now in the process of ordering appropriate topo maps to go with the book.

The Copelands offer a worthwhile guidebook, provided that you base your judgements on the same criteria they do. This isn't all that hard to do: most people will agree that the scenery around Lake Louise is as good as it gets, but that the hiking experience is severely diminished by the mobs of people strolling to the teahouses.

My only problem comes in the description of the hike to the Bow Hut, where the instructions they give are flat out wrong. As you climb above Bow Lake, you need to cross a stream. Most hut-bound people clearly use a natural bridge across a gorge to do this. However, the Copelands emphatically instruct you not to use this crossing, and instead to ford the stream higher up. I have no idea as to why they do this. Without their guidebook, though, I'd have no clue that the area even existed, so I really can't complain. With this book, as with all guidebooks, you shouldn't place complete faith in the directions offered-- you still must remain aware of your surroundings.