Customer Reviews

The Hiking Engine: A Hiker's Guide to the Care and Maintenance of Feet and Legs

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

 

 

I'm an experienced hiker and still found the book useful and entertaining. I didn't learn anything new, but I will guarantee you that novice hikers would benefit immensely from this. What is basic common sense to seasoned hikers may not come naturally to those just lacing up their boots for the first time. The book focuses primarily on how to keep your feet in shape during long treks and addresses such things as proper socks, shoes and lcimbing techniques. I wish the author would have addressed cardiovascular fitness more; he does mention the extreme importance of aerobic exercise as preparation, but doesn't stress that facet enough. Anyone who hikes long miles needs to be mentally and physically fit before attempting the undertaking, Plotkin tends to gloss over this and move on to other things.

Essentially the book will have limited appeal to those who hike consistently throughout the year. But if you merely dabble in the sport, or have never hiked in your life, I would heartily recommend this book. It's well organzied, well written and will hold your interest.

I really admired the idea for this book, but unfortunately it looks outdated, even for the 2001 publication date. Two examples stand out. The first is the idea that the more support and rigidity a boot has, the better. Recent thought is that there is a trade-off and the increased support actually weakens key muscles and prevents the foot from working the way it should naturally work. The second example concerns stretching. The book advocates static stretching but recent studies indicate dynamic stretching is more effective and in fact safer. I don't mind the different opinion, so long as its backed with a discussion over why what the author chooses is superior, but this book doesn't offer that. Also, the book is inconsistent in level of detail - for example mentioning gaiters but not snowshoes or crampons (both of which have obvious foot implications). The book limits itself to on-trail hiking, even admonishing readers not to go off trail.

In short, this book fails to deliver enough content either in depth or breadth.

I just finished reading this book and found it to be a valuable resource for my family and the boy scout troop I belong to. The
information on hiking shoes and foot care while hiking was very appropriate to a seasonal hiker like myself. As an adult leader in a boy scout troop, I decided to maintain a copy of the book in the troop library for scouts to refer to prior to camping trips. Thanks for this well written guide.

I found most of this text to be kind of a waste. I'm an interemediate experience hiker but there's nothing new in this "bare bones" basic book. Even if I was just getting into the sport, I would NOT have learned anything that VERY basic common sense couldn't already tell me. ...

I have found much more valuable information (and more accurate as well) on this same topic from more comprehensive sports medicine reference titles.

I have been looking for this information for years and found it in a book that was both entertaining and informative. Recommended to all.