Customer Reviews

Explorer's Guide 50 Hikes in the North Georgia Mountains: Walks, Hikes and Backpacking Trips from Lookout Mountain to the Blue Ridge to the Chattooga River (Explorer's 50 Hikes)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is EASILY the best hiking book for Georgia I've ever seen. In the past I've always mapped directions online before a hike so as not to get lost. I've finally found an author I trust to get things right. The directions in this book are always correct and easy to follow. Every hike is detailed to perfection, informative, and fun to read. On my first overnight backpacking trip years ago, I tore out the one page hike description from another hiking book and carried it with me. My friend and I had to guess where we were the entire trip as the hike description was so vague. There is nothing vague about this book!! The author takes you almost step by step through each hike and there is never a question as to where you are. This is PRICELESS for someone going on a solo hike - especially a woman hiking alone. I always get nervous and really appreciate knowing I'm not lost! Such a great book...

I've been using this book for several years, and am just about half way through the hikes described in the book. Almost every hike I've done has been spectacular. The only 2 I've been a bit disappointed with was the Unicoi Bottoms loop (still recovering from a lot of storm damage), and the Sosebee Cove (not much of a hike... Calling it 0.5 miles was even stretching it).

I have many other hiking books, several others for Georgia hiking. This one has, by far, the best layout, and the best descriptions. It's typically a fun read. The author will start describing the hike, and then go off and talk about the history, foliage or wildlife for several paragraphs. Much more intersting then some of the books that simply give you "turn left at the junction at 1.2 miles" type descriptions. Always clear and accurate directions to the trailhead, detailed information about the mileage, altitude change, and most importantly (to me) is the accurate topo maps detailing the trail (there IS one topo map error on hike 31, Locust Log Ridge/Arkaquah Trail. The top map is shifted to the left and is the wrong scale, and the trail path is not in the right place). The only thing I'd like to see added to the book, in these days of technology, it GPS coordinates of the trailhead. This has trails for all hiking experiences. From the previously mentioned 0.5 mile Sosebee Cove to the 22 mile Wild Rivers Route. There should be a hike for everyone in this.

My original copy of this book is a bit in rough shape, after carrying it along with me for about 25 hikes. It's almost time for a fresh copy!

With a wide variety of land, 2 national forests, and a top-tier state parks system, much fine hiking can be done in the Peach State. When I moved down to Georgia in 2005, I searched the market for a top-tier hiking guide for Georgia. That search was in vain until this book came out in 2006.

As the title suggests, this book contains 50 hikes in the southern Appalachian mountains of northern Georgia. Most of these hikes are in or near the Chattahoochee National Forest. In particular, the southern-most hike is Amicalola Falls, so there are NO hikes from metro Atlanta proper in this guide. Distance and difficulty vary widely from a short, easy 0.5 mile stroll around Sosebee Cove to 21.9 miles with 55 unbridged river fords through the Cohutta Wilderness. The hikes are pretty evenly distributed geographically across north Georgia from Cloudland Canyon in the west to the Cohutta River in the east. If you are in the north Georgia mountains, you will find a hike to fit your desires here.

It is hard to find a major weakness with this guide. Johnny Molloy is an excellent and well-known author. Thus, the trail descriptions feature clear directions and good background information. Maps are taken from USGS topo maps and are therefore excellent, for the most part. A summary table at the front of the guide makes it easy to find the right trail to hike for your interest and ability.

The only thing that disappointed me about this guide was the large number of typos, many of which are obvious to someone familiar with the north Georgia mountains. Examples include:
1) The map for the Log Locust Ridge Trail (hike #31) clearly shows the wrong route.
2)The driving directions for the Panther Creek Falls (Cohutta Wilderness) trailhead (hike #12) say to go east on SR 52 out of Ellijay, but in fact you need to go west on SR 52 out of Ellijay.
3)The vertical rise for the Tennessee Rock Trail (hike #44) is listed as 960 feet, but from personal experience it is only about 400 feet.

None of these errors are major, but I would really expect better from a professionally written and published trail guide. This guide is a 1st edition, so hopefully these will get fixed in future 2nd edition, if such an edition comes to market.

Overall, this guide features the best trails of the north Georgia mountains, which in turn offer the best hiking in the state. If you insist on a guide that covers the entire state, then you should purchase "Hiking Georgia" by Pfitzer in addition to this guide. However, for the region covered, you will get far more out of this guide than you will Pfitzer's. Thus, you should not pass on this guide.

This book is very thorough with maps and elevations, but if you are just starting out you'll want something a little less daunting. Alot of the hikes in this book have elevations of 800 ft. and up. Now that might not sound like alot but it is when you're climbing it. But most of them start at state parks, and you really don't have to hike the WHOLE thing!

A very good guide with plenty of pictures and directions. would recommend this book to anyone wanting to hike the north giorgia mountains. Bad...amazon requiring a 20 word min. almost cost this vendor a very good review.

Bought this book a few months back for research and planning purposes and it provided about everything I needed. I just got back from a short 3 day trip to North GA with my 2 girls, ages 10 & 9, and this book allowed me to pick and choose 3 great hikes that all of us could enjoy and handle. We took the book with us so they could read the narrative and also read the map and guide us on each hike. Great educational material for the girls also. By using an online map service, the driving directions are very easy to find and follow and this only took an extra 5-10 minutes of prep time. We highly recommend the Amicalola Falls loop, Long Creek Falls hike and the AT/BMT Legacy Loop at Springer Mountain. We look forward to many more great adventures with the assistance and guidance of this book.

I purchased this book for my husband as a gift. He is a hiker and loves to drive up from Florida to Georgia to do so. The book has different types of hikes, ranges, times and descriptions.

He is leaving in two weeks to use it for the first time. He has his routes mapped out and plans to have a good time.

The book is very helpful in planning your hiking trips.