60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Minneapolis and St. Paul, 2nd: Including Cambridge, St. Michael, and Northfield (60 Hikes - Menasha Ridge) (Paperback)

by Tom Watson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for previous edition:
"...an excellent and enthusiastically recommended planning resource for Twin Cities area hikers and outdoor enthusiasts looking for exercise, variety, and fun."--Midwest Book Review

Product Description

The decisive guide to day hikes in the Twin Cities’ area just got better. Updated maps, new hikes, new photos, and brand-new trailhead coordinates—provided as UTM and Latitude/Longitude formats—make Tom Watson’s authoritative guide to Minneapolis and St. Paul’s best hiking even more useful than before. For readers who asked for actual driving mileage and wheelchair accessibility, each hike now contains that information in the Key At-a-Glance information box. Twin Cities’ hiking is huge; get the guide that gets you there and back.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press; 2nd edition (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897325990
• ISBN-13: 978-0897325998
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #335,476 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #4 in	Books > Travel > United States > States > Minnesota > Minneapolis & St. Paul
  #75 in	Books > Travel > United States > Regions > Central

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Decent writing, lists, and layout; terrible directions, July 23, 2008

By	Chris Flood (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I need guidebooks like this to do two things for me: 1) help me pick a hike and 2) get me there. Everything else is fluff for me. While "60 Hikes within 60 Miles..." delivers decent writing and a good layout (fluff) and has done an excellent job so far in helping me pick out hikes in the area, it has really failed in getting me to my selected destinations. If you want the grueling details (and maybe some tips if you've already purchased the book), then read on. Otherwise, bring a map.

For example, Hike 42 tells you to simply take the "Monticello exit" off I-94, follow signs "to the left" and get on County Road 35. There are two Monticello exits, only one of which is clearly marked as the exit for CR-35. Unfortunately, this is the wrong exit. Only if you take the second Monticello exit do the directions make sense, but there is no way you would know this from the book.

The directions for Hike 41 tell you to take the "93rd Street" exit off I-94 into Maple Grove. There is no "93rd Street" exit. Instead, you want to take the CR-30 exit (aka "Maple Grove Parkway"), which does happen to be 93rd Street, but you would not know this from the interstate unless you had a map other than rudimentary diagram provided in this book.

Finally, Hike 22 tells you to get off I-94 at the "Rogers exit" and get onto CR-150. Unfortunately, at the end of the exit, your only choice is to get onto 101 or return to the interstate. You can use a bit of common sense and head left on 101, and, staying straight, eventually end up on CR-150, but anyone who wants to stick hard and fast to the directions given will be lost immediately upon exiting the freeway. Moreover, although the pictured map correctly showed CR-116 as the next turn, the directions themselves say to turn onto CR-166, a sloppy typo that does not make me believe these directions are going to get any better anytime soon.

The directions for Hike 46 tell you to take a right off US-169 onto State 47 North. However, to get onto 47 North, you stay straight (no right turn), simply avoiding the left hand turn required to stay on 169. It is actually easier to make a right onto 47 South (NOT North) just before this, and then get off onto County 17 North at the next exit. The park entrance is directly off 17, and 17 also continues north to provide easier access to Hike 47 as well.

I've only done six hikes so far, and the directions on five out of the six have been unsatisfactory. I hope they get better, but from now on I'm bringing a serious map.

Other than these issues, I like the simple, clear layout, the lists of hikes sorted by length, terrain, etc. at the beginning of the book, the summaries of hikes in the gray boxes, and the astute commentary about the hikes through out the book. If it weren't for the horrendous directions, I would have given this book four or five stars, but for me a book like this must be able to get me where I'm going. So far, "60 Hikes within 60 Miles..." has not.