Hiking the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series) [Paperback]

Bill Schneider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003 | Series: Regional Hiking Series

This guide, a thoroughly revised and updated edition of Hiking the Beartooths, explores 40 trails in Montana's Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. The wilderness area, located north and northeast of Yellowstone, is renowned for its spectacular scenery and abundant wildlife.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Lace up your boots and sample more than sixty hikes in the spectacular Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness that straddles the Montana-Wyoming border. Experience the high-altitude grandeur of the Beartooth Plateau, the breathtaking view from 12,799-foot Granite Peak, and the abundant wildlife of the densely forested Absaroka Range. The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness offers hikers some of the most magnificent mountain scenery in the United States as well as peaceful mountain meadows, trout-filled lakes, stunning waterfalls, and many options for off-trail adventure. Veteran hiker and outdoor writer Bill Schneider will introduce you to all this and more.
Inside you'll find: up-to-date trail information; difficulty, traffic and hill ratings; detailed maps and elevation profiles; zero-impact camping and fishing tips; vacation planner and a hiker's checklist.
Whether you are a day-tripper or long-distance hiker, old hand or novice, you'll find trails suited to every ability and interest throughout the vast Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.

About the Author

Bill Schneider, the co-founder of Falcon Publishing, has spent more than 35 years hiking Montana trails. He lives in Helena, Montana.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: FalconGuides; 2nd edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076272238X
• ISBN-13: 978-0762722389
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #514,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am a fan., June 12, 2011

By 

T. Hunt "wasabi crush" (Billings, MT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hiking the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series) (Paperback)

I felt obligated after reading M.Renno's review of this publication to write one of my own; to offer what I believe to also be a valid opinion of author Bill Schneider's effort. And I'm not saying that Renno is wrong, per say, I just think some considerations should be made concerning what it is exactly you're trying to get out of this guide. I personally have found his book to be a substantial companion to this gorgeous mountain range and believe it deserves defending. So, here we GO.

First off, I should explain why I find value in the book. I've lived only an hour east of the Beartooth mountain range for nearly all of my thirty-six years and am from a family that loves the outdoors. Thus, I've spent a good chunk of my life navigating the Beartooth trail system and considered myself familiar with the ins and outs. In the early 2000s, I began noticing more and more Falcon Guides peppering the outdoor stores in Billings and Red Lodge and eventually saw them jammed in the glove boxes of my friends' vehicles. "Hiking the Absoroka-Beartooth Wilderness" was the first Falcon Guide I flipped through and I realized I didn't know nearly as much about the range in my own backyard as I thought I did. I bought a copy immediately and now, some five or six years later, the book definitely looks used.

Reading through M.Renno's complaints, I find nothing of any real relevance regarding the hiking of the trails. Renno mentions the duplication of information as a major downfall to the book, and that may be true, but I don't find that it inhibits the intended goal of Schneider's project in any way.

Renno also claims that the content is both confusing and conflicting and cites examples concerning Schneider advising the reader to both make noise and NOT make noise. I read the bullet he referenced on page 16 and understood exactly what the author was referencing. Maybe it's obvious to me because I spend a lot of time in the mountains, but maybe not to others, so I'll explain.

DON'T make noise while camping or near campers because it's disturbing. "Remember, sound travels easily to the other side of the lake. Be courteous," is the exact phrasing.

DO make noise while hiking in bear country. This one should be fairly self-explanatory, but again, maybe it too needs cleared up. Bears also find loud noises disturbing and tend to move in the opposite direction when they hear it. That's just Trail 101.

I assumed that common sense would separate these two ideals, especially since they happen at two different stages of a hiking/camping trip, but I think that assumption is probably pretentious and unnecessary. Again, Renno may not be as familiar with outdoor tactics, so I could probably be a little less presumptuous? Maybe. Either way, his criticisms are unfounded and in need of rebuttal.

Renno also made complaints about there being too many, "shuttle" trips outlined in the guide. Had I any suspicions before, this would be where Renno's home-proximity to an actually mountain range of this size came into serious question. For those of you not aware, a, "shuttle" is when you take two cars for an excursion. You drop one car off at a trailhead, everyone jumps in the other car, drives to the connecting trailhead however many miles away, parks there, gets out, and hikes back to the first car. The rest should be easy to figure out. The advantage to hiking this way is that you knock out a trek never seeing the same thing twice, which is attractive to many Montana hikers, believe me. Here's the thing, though: just because it describes the trail as a shuttle, it doesn't mean you have to attack it as a shuttle. Take one car, park at one trailhead, hike halfway in, and then hike back out. The book merely gives you access information to GET there, that's all. Whether you want to go the full trail or just a portion of it is up to you. That's the beauty of being an adult and making adult decisions.

Not having an appendix is a non-issue, also. The book is numbered through 63 chapters named by the lake or shuttle all of which are listed in the beginning of the book. It's not difficult to traverse.

And criticizing the author for mistakenly labeling Mystic Lake as, "the deepest lake in the Beartooths" has zero relevance unless you're reading the book specifically for those sorts of facts, which nobody does. The best way to determine a lake's depth is to throw a line in and ask the fish when you catch them. Welcome to Montana.

If you're interested in hiking this range, I highly recommend buying the book. It's a comprehensive reference, (relatively speaking concerning us simple mountain folk), that will tell you how to get there, what to do drive, and what you'll see. Listed for each lake or trail is a general description outlining your special attractions, type of trip, total distance, (which I love), difficulty, traffic, what maps to buy for more detailed information, and where your starting point will be. Key Points listed will show you approximately what your mileage will be for lakes and crossings, and also added are clever little blurbs concerning the hike itself, where to find the side trails, campsite recommendations, (as in, "you'll be tempted to push your stakes in here, but keep walking because the NEXT lake is worth the extra couple miles." I'm paraphrasing, but yeah, I basically nailed it.), and what the fishing is like.

I'm hiking the Beartooths almost every weekend these days and I use the book often. I wake up, talk to my wife about what we're looking at for desired distance and whether or not we'll be staying the night, find a lake or site in the guide that caters to our specific needs, pack the packs, grab the dog, and we go. That's it. Once we park at the trailhead, we make note of the distances for key points, and throw the book back in the glove box. To me, that's its purpose. It gets us there. After that, and this only a personal opinion, I'd rather discover everything else on my own.

I think the author would agree.

- t -

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre at best, November 11, 2004

By 

M. Renno (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hiking the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series) (Paperback)

This book contains enough useful information to fill perhaps half its contents and is thus probably worth around half the list price. I've always preferred guidebooks that simply describe each individual trailhead, trail, or route rather than organizing these into predefined trips or hikes. That said, I found this book more irritating than others I've read that use this style:

1. Padding / Duplicated Information

1a. Introductory material is copied verbatim from Bear Aware

1b. Entire paragraphs are copied throughout the book; compare pages 79 & 119, 214 & 219, 217 & 222-223, and many others

1c. Many of the trips contain so much duplicated information as to be silly. For example, trip 30 contains the entirety of trips 27, 28, and 31, while trip 12 contains the entirety of trips 10, 11, 13, and 14. Anyone can figure out how to make a shorter trip by simply not hiking as far up the trail before turning back.

2. Confusing / Conflicting Information

2a. Page 16 encourages you to "avoid making loud noises that may disturb others" while page 26 suggests making "a lot of noise" as a recommended technique for avoiding bear encounters. The context is different, but the message is confused at best.

2b. The trips covered on pages 67, 108, are 135 are described in the text as being 'heavily used', while in each case the usage description in the trip overview is listed as "Moderate"

2c. For those who prefer this style of guidebook, I suspect there are far too many 'shuttle' trips - those ending at a trailhead distant from the beginning

3. There's no index

4. There's no separate list of trailheads

5. On page 78 Mystic Lake is incorrectly described as "the deepest lake in the Beartooths"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ready to explore, April 7, 2011

By 

MThiker - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hiking the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series) (Paperback)

This is just what I was looking for to help plan a Beaten Path backpacking trip. I have another Falcon Guide book that has several inaccuracies, so I am going to be a little skeptical until I actually try this one out. It seems to be very complete and well worth the money even if it's not perfect. The whole point of this type of book is to get out there and see for yourself what it's like, and this will help me get started.