Guide to the John Muir Trail [Paperback]

Thomas Winnett (Author), Kathy Morey (Author)

Book Description

Series: John Muir Trail | Publication Date: April 1998

On the legendary John Muir Trail you pass through a land of 13- and 14,000-foot peaks, deep canyons, massive granite walls, and sparkling lakes. Here's the best guide to this 211-mile hiking wonderland, written by two of WP's most venerable authors. 28 2-color maps are based on corrected, updated USGS topo maps.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The John Muir Trail is perhaps the most famous trail in America. The trail passes through a land of 13,000-foot and 14,000-foot peaks, of soaring granite cliffs, of lakes literally by the thousands, of canyons 5000 feet deep. It is a land where man's trails touch only a tiny percentage of the total area, so that by leaving the Muir Trail you can find utter solitude. Perhaps best of all, it is a land blessed with the mildest, sunniest climate of any major mountain range in the world. This guidebook describes the trail both north-south and south-north. It gives point-to-point mileages both ways to the nearest tenth of a mile. Its twenty-eight two-color maps are based on corrected U. S. G. S. topo maps, and contain hundreds of updating changes in this second edition. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Wilderness Press; 3 edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899972217
• ISBN-13: 978-0899972213
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #284,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comments about the book from a 1997 JMT hiker, April 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Guide to the John Muir Trail (Paperback)

I hiked the JMT from Tuloumne Meadows in Yosemite to the Whitney Portal in July/August 1997. We used the book to plan the trip as well as for our exclusive guide book/map source on the hike. The book weighs next to nothing and I found it easier to keep track of one book rather than a whole bunch of maps, so it was worth taking. The book contains all necessary maps, trail descriptions in both directions, and a mileage/altitude chart. With the book, we always knew how many miles we had to hike in a given day and what the terrain would be like (elevation changes etc.) My only suggestion for improvement with the book would be for it to discuss recommended camping spots in more detail (perhaps by placing symbols on the map for particularly scenic spots, spots with bear boxes etc.) In general though, as someone who has hiked most of the JMT using this book as a guide, I'd highly recommend it. For the money and weight, you're unlikely to find anything better.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Descriptive of trail both ways, plus planning helps, August 31, 2001

By 

Calvin T Stevens (Roseville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guide to the John Muir Trail (Paperback)

One of the other reviewers said the book has nothing for planning a trip, but someone must have ripped out those pages from his copy. The book is more than a trail description; it includes descriptions of mid-way trailheads, resupply options, and other planning guides. This book is a great resource both for hiking the trail and planning to do so.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you're planning a thru hike, this is it, August 16, 2003

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guide to the John Muir Trail (Paperback)

I have thru hiked the Muir Trail from north to south and found this book informative and containing some useful information. However, much of the info is of the common sense variety and could also easily be gleaned from the Internet. There is superfluous information on bear canisters, marmots and other hazards that any semi-experience hiker/backpacker would already know. The book is not marketed as being geared towards novices, but there's no doubt it would benefit a beginner and be less beneficial to a seasoned backpacker.

The first section of the book consists solely of topographical maps, so the text portion is not especially lengthy. There are route descriptions of each facet of the trail, such as explaining the drop off points, elevation gains and topography of Thousand Island Lake in Mammoth to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. You could do a thru hike without this guide, but if you're the least bit apprehensive, then this would ease your worries.