Customer Reviews

60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Atlanta: Including Marietta, Lawrenceville, and Peachtree City

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

 

 

I moved to Atlanta last fall, and bought this book after looking at the (limited) options available to me at the local bookstores. Its a decent book - some nice places to explore in the Atlanta area. Pros - they go into detail about the history of the hike and offer lots of landmarks so you know where you are. (Not that I often read them!) Good amount of general information so one can determine what it will be like. I would agree with another reviewer that many of the "hikes" aren't actually hikes. I don't really count anything paved as a hike, honestly, but that that said, they are good ideas for outings.

Cons/Wishes for change:
Directions - they are sparse sometimes, and a few times just plain wrong. Confusing left for right on major turns, or leaving out a major turn have been a few of my experiences. While often correct, I've learned to bring along another map. It would be great if they could *consistently* mention parking fees as part of the directions. Often, the fees are noted in the body of the text.
Other minor negatives: The authors note some distant hikes - like the New Echota Trail, which is 1.9 miles and probably a good 2 hours to get to, but offer no other hikes in that area. It is difficult for me to believe there are no other hikes in the Echota area (N. Georgia Mtns) and a waste of time to drive that far for a 1.9 mile walk.
I would also love to see the authors note when there are many more trails in the area. Many of the Chatahoochee hikes are filled with additional trails in the same park area, and others have none nearby at all. When I come across extra trails, I like to explore those as well, and it would be nice to have a heads up about when to leave extra time, and when the walk will be only the trails noted.

60 miles as the crow flies. Some of these hikes can take you hours to get to due to winding forest roads.

On the otherhand, this book also stretches the definition of hiking. A walk through the seediest parts of Atlanta may be an adventure but it is not a hike. Going to the zoo is not a hike. Centennial Park is not a hike.

This book is great for people like my husband and I, who are just starting out. Lots of trails with little incline and easy hikes.
Even if you don't hike, some of the places listed in the book are fun to hang out at. You never know what's in your own backyard.

We've enjoyed selecting a variety of walks and hikes from this well written book with accurate maps and descriptions. It's really quite easy to see how far the trail is from your location, and how long and difficult the "hike" will be. Really a good way to find new ideas for anything from a short walk to a strenuous hike.

While I can understand sign postings might change over time. Confusing left for right and right for left and missing major directions and being completely off when it comes to milage, is unacceptable. My thoughts are the author only read about these hikes and gathered directions from others...didnt actually hike them theirselves or they too would have realized their info was wrong. And I agree with other reviewers that a 2 hour drive to a 1.2 miles hike is silly. They should have grouped hikes that were within a certaine mile range

My girlfriend bought this book at a random trip to a bookstore, as we had hiked a couple trails in our area (Kennesaw Mtn, Silver Comet) and were looking to expand our travels.

Looking through the book, you can really get a feel for the number of interesting places to visit in the area. Basically, anywhere you travel, you'll be able to find a local trail to explore. The information appeared to be detailed enough too.

However, that's about where the usefulness of the book ends. We have now covered about 10 of the trails in the book, and as others have said, the information the book provides is far from accurate.

For example, this past weekend we decided on Three Forks Loop Trail as a day trip (we live about 60 miles south).
First, the directions. They were mainly accurate here, but confusing for those not from the area. Many of the roads they claim to be unmarked are actually well marked (with more than one sign, even), while others they don't mention are unmarked, and assume that you know what they are. For instance, they note seeing signs for the parks area, but don't tell you to turn at the sign (we had to backtrack about a mile). Also, they make no mention of FS 42 being a quite daunting, one-car-at-a-time dirt road trek up the side of a mountain, best suited for 4x4 vehicles (not the Ford Focus we drove in). Also, they claim the drive on FS 42 is 6.5 miles to the parking lot, when in reality it is just over 8 miles. Again, a small oversight, but made us question whether we should turn back. This happened earlier as well (a described 22.6 mile drive was actually close to 26 miles).
Once on the trail, the descriptions are accurate, but they don't seem to follow any order. They describe going down 10 log steps before hitting an intersection. But, the intersection is well before the log steps. At the very same intersection, they instruct that a left takes you to a side trail. But the side trail is actually to the right (the trail you want to take is on the left). That's just one of a few 'out of order' descriptions (they also mention a 'ghost' stream to cross that just isn't there, as well as pointing out landmarks that are either nonexistent or have been removed).
The maps they provide are also usually incorrect. For this hike, they show FS 42 crossing near the north edge of the trail, while the parking lot floats magically in space on the southern edge, with no FS 42 in sight (the lot is right on FS 42). If you followed this map as your main guide, you'd be lost in seconds.
The topo map they provide is no better. The map for this hike shows a steep decent to start, and then a manageable 2 mile climb at the end. Far from the truth. The climb at the end is quite steep and difficult, as you basically climb to the top of 3 different peaks over the course of a mile or so. So, just when you think you are done, there's another 160 degree, 100 yard incline to climb.
That brings me to my next point: difficulty ratings. They seem to be VERY subjective. They list Kennesaw Mtn as 'difficult' and even say its one of the hardest hikes in the state, while Three Forks is just 'moderate'. My girlfriend and I 100% disagree. Kennesaw has 3 difficult areas to get through. Three Forks has about 6 or 7 of equal difficulty. How they came to these ratings is beyond us.

Feel free to use this book as a very general guide to the area trails, but if you do decide to visit any of the listed destinations, plan to double check the directions via online sites, as well as do more research on your own about the trail as to not run into any surprises.

My girlfriend and I have been using this book for a couple of years now to pick out hikes around Atlanta. It's a good resource for finding hikes that we might not otherwise know about, but it seems to fall down when you try to use it for specific details.

As others have noted, some of the driving directions are off by a mile or more, which can be disconcerting when driving into an unfamiliar area. But the narrative descriptions of the hikes are often lacking in detail. For example, the description might say something like "start at the trailhead, and then the trail turns left," but it doesn't mention the distance between those points, so you're left to wonder if you're where you think you are in the description.

We tried to hike the Arabia/Bradley Mountain trail with the book today, but failed pretty miserably. Part of the fault is with the trail itself, which is well-marked to the top of Bradley mountain, and apparently totally unmarked beyond that point. But even following the description and the (too simple to be of anything more than basic guidance) trail map in the book, we got completely off track and ended up wandering around for an hour on Arabia Mountain trying to pick up the trail that was supposedly on all three sides of the mountain near the tree line. We finally just gave up and backtracked the way we came, having never found the trail.

In short, use the book for ideas on where to go hike, but use other sources for trail details, and don't even think about relying on the descriptions in the book to follow a trail that's not very obviously marked.

As a 2-3 times a year hiker I find it useful to have some authority help me out with where I should go. This book is well organized and has details on trip length, features, and directions. It may not cover everyone's favourite hike but it does a great job of helping you make a decision about which hike is right for you on any particular day.

Pros:
1. Gave me and my family some different hikes than we had gotten used to and helped to change up our hiking trails with some variety.
2. Very good information about the trails them self; history, and stuff to look for on the trail.
3. Good graphs of elevation changes and difficulty.

Cons:
1. DO NOT TRUST THE DRIVING DIRECTIONS! On every hike in which I have relied on the driving directions they have been significantly wrong. #30 The Wildcat Creek Trail: we traveled an additional 10 miles down 53 before we finally stopped to ask directions and found out we still had to go another mile or so before we made our turn off 53. #36 East and West Lake Trail: Right and Left turns aren't correct off of I985 and even after we got going the correct way mileage was still not correct.

Free Advice: If you like hiking and are looking for some good hikes and aren't familiar with a lot of hikes or their history this is a good book for some different hiking ideas. Use google maps to get your directions before you leave or leave an extra hour to sort through the poor driving directions.