Customer Reviews

Hiking Maryland and Delaware

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My wife and I have hiked 13 of the 62 recommended trails, enduring the same problems with just about every one.

1. Mileage listings are so inaccurate and inconsistent that they're useless. Most of the time they're way too short, but every once in awhile too long.

Example: Trail 7. Right away there was a mileage problem. From the parking lot (start) it's 0.2 mi. to a sign that lists the distance to the Evitts Homesite as 2.8 miles (combined total of 3.0 miles). Lillard lists that same distance as 2.0 miles. He has a Mason-Dixon marker (trail end) 0.6 mile beyond the homesite (total out & back 5.2 miles). That 0.6 mile is really 1.25 miles, creating a total hike of 8.5 miles! At an aviation tower where that same Mason-Dixon marker "is a dozen steps farther on the left: ..." it's really 0.25 miles!

2. The trail descriptions are so confusing that sometimes were not sure we're on the right trail!

Example:Trail 9. At one point the creek trail, according to Lillard, "veers subtly right up the ridge on an old woods road." Well, the trail went right, and up, but was so narrow it never could have been a road. The description then read like we were to quickly come down and hike along "bottomlands" and "swimming holes". Nope! We just kept climbing for so long while questioning the "woods road" description, we weren't sure we were still on the right trail. Eventually, we did get back to the creek. On a hot day, we thought we were going to take a cool hike along a creek, not endure a climbing challenge.

My wife and I are very experienced hikers, own 8 other hiking guides, and only have problems with Lillard.

I used this book for hiking in Deep creek Lake and Swallow Falls park. I found the book very help full. Being an old guy, I use a compass and my eyes to navigate. There is a complaint about the distances being not very accurate. These must be hand held GPS people. I do not worry if the distances are off by a tenth of a mile or so. To me, the book was a great help in learning about the trails.