12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Wisc trails listed in this book, August 23, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Hiking Wisconsin (America's Best Day Hiking) (Paperback)
I purchased 11 books on hiking, camping, and touring in Wisc. Of these books that I purchased, this book is the best for hiking (4 of the 11 books were on hiking.)
It is especially good if you:
- don't know Wisc too well (I grew up in Wisc, so am very familiar with Wisc, but I never paid attention to the names of the incredibly wonderful places my folks took us to when I was a kid, which was a big mistake.)
- want to go on the best hikes
This book has the best hikes (when compared to the other hiking books I bought.)
It's a great book for the first-time hiker or for a hiker that doesn't know the hikes in Wisc. I wish I had bought this book ten years ago when I first wanted to hike with friends in Wisc. Ten years ago, I purchased "Guide to Wisconsin Outdoors" and "Wisconsin Handbook", which weren't right for me at the time (even though both are excellent books) because they weren't for hikers, but more for folks that wanted to drive through an area and know what the cities have to offer in way of entertainment and amentities. Those two books, while absolutely perfect for folks who prefer to either drive through, do indoor activitity, and learn about an area's local amenities (which can be important information), they set me back several years on my goal to get up to speed on hiking in Wisc. I needed a hiking book.
So, I finally found this book. I bought other books on hiking (4 of them), but I liked this the best. Now that I know more about the areas I went to as a kid, I now know that this book lists the best areas for hiking. All of the best hiking areas we went to as kids are in this book (except one, which is a not so well-known area that our family would go to - but none of the other hiking books I bought listed it either.)
I want to mention the cons of the book, so you know what's missing and so you know what you may need to find elsewhere. When you travel to a faraway location, it's a good idea to know the local amenities of the area (restaurants, etc.). This book doesn't have that information. However, I would definitely not buy a book that tries to cover both hiking and amenities in one book because that's what I did ten years ago and that method failed me because I ended up not getting the hiking information I needed (other info got crowded out by the info on amenities) so I ended up not hiking in Wisc for several years as a result because I was stalled on it - I didn't have the info I needed and I didn't know how to get the information from faraway. I was in Washington at the time (majestic views but not as peacefully pastorial as beautiful Wisc), and back then, you couldn't find the books you needed online like you can now.
So, I suggest buying Hiking Wisconsin and finding the hiking locations through it, and then figure out amenities through other sources (the other two books that I mentioned do a good job on amenities, though I wouldn't recommend them for hiking.) Also, triple AAA covers amenities for free (but a bit too briefly when compared to the two books I mentioned.)
If you are an experienced hiker that has already gone on more than 75 different hikes in Wisc, most likely this book will be a repeat for you since it covers the top 100 hikes.
I liked this book because it has the best hikes. It was important to me to find the beautiful locations my parents took us to when we were kids (my Dad knew some really good areas.) Those were great places and created great memories for me. So, I just didn't want to go to any place that simply had a so-so hike - I wanted it to be special and see something that moved me as much as the hikes moved me when I was a kid.
So, if your goal is to find the best areas to hike, I'd buy this book.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Complete Guide to Wisconsin Hiking, June 1, 2004
This review is from: Hiking Wisconsin (America's Best Day Hiking) (Paperback)
Hiking Wisconsin was my first encounter with the "America's Best Day Hiking" series. After this experience, I hope I have more encounters with this series in the future.
This book possesses all of the attributes of a well-written guide. There are 55 hiking destinations described here, and a couple of trails are described at each destination. The destinations are scattered throughout the state, but there is a noticably higher concentration in the south than in the north. Also, the last 9 hikes are grouped in a category entitled "urban," which for this author means Milwaukee and Green Bay.
Each hike features a map (they appear to be computer-generated), difficulty ratings from 1 boot (easiest) to 4 boots (most difficult), directions to the trailhead, and an excellent, detailed description of the trail. There is also a summary table in the front of the book, so choosing a trail to hike is very easy.
Trail lengths range from 0.7 miles to 14.5 miles with the average at only 2 or 3 miles. This is, in my opinion, the greatest drawback of this book. Too many of the hikes described here are short nature hikes. For experienced hikers (such as myself), 2 miles counts as a warm-up; we expect more out of a hike. I know that longer options are availible at many of these locations. Thus, the author frequently makes the unusual choice of describing two short trails over a longer, meatier, more interesting one. This is the only reason I cannot give the book 5 stars.
The book itself is unusual because it measures 8.5x11 inches, quite large by hiking book standards. To compensate, the publisher has made the pages perforated so you can tear them out as opposed to take the entire book with you on a hike. I don't view this as a good alternative. If your desk looks like mine, the pages are better off in the book so that they don't get lost. This is not a major problem, but the design is unusual, and I thought it should be noted.
In conclusion, despite the drawbacks mentioned above, this is still the best, most complete guide to Wisconsin hiking on the market. As such, I would recommend it for purchase to anyone interested in learning more about Wisconsin hiking.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good but incomplete, December 13, 2000
This review is from: Hiking Wisconsin (America's Best Day Hiking) (Paperback)
This book was originally recommended to me by some hikers at an EMS. I've now been to a couple of places discussed in the book, and I've found that it gives a good sense of what's going on at the places described in the sense of what sorts of terrain, etc that you might encounter.
But it seems to only mention a SMALL subset of the possible hikes in an area. For example at the Kettle Moraine park (Southern Unit) it failed to mention that most of the trails have longer and more difficult variations. And it didn't mention going up to the top of a hill, where you can see the entire park.
Still, this is the best reference on hiking in Wisconsin in this format.
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