The John Muir Trail: A Complete Hiking Guide [Paperback]

Don Lowe (Author), Roberta Lowe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1982

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press

Nowhere does magnificent scenery, a vast network of interconnecting trails and beneficent weather come together so gloriously as in the High Sierra of California. This guide includes detailed maps showing trails, campsites and contours, with descriptive text and many photos.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Authors Don and Roberta Lowe immediately became enchanted with the Sierra Nevada upon their first visit there in 1970 while preparing a hiking guide for the range. Over the next decade, they returned many times on photographic treks, with each one increasing their admiration for the area's grandeur and subtlety. So, by the time they began the field work for this guide to the John Muir Trail they already were familiar with much of what makes the High Sierra such a wonderfully unique place. The Lowes have co-authored 10 other hiking guides for California, Oregon and Colorado. Roberta's articles on the outdoors, accompanied by Don's maps and photos, have been published in many Northwest magazines and newspapers. Don also is a noted photographer and his work ahs appeared in nationally distributed calendars and advertisements and had been featured exclusively in two large format books, Mt. Hood - Portrait of a Magnificent Mountain (The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1975) and Alpine Country of the West (Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, 1977).

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Caxton Press (January 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870044133
• ISBN-13: 978-0870044137
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,769,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not revised since 1982, January 23, 2005

By 

T. Sovinec (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The John Muir Trail: A Complete Hiking Guide (Paperback)

The listing suggests that this book was revised in 2000, but the copyright date printed in the book is 1982, followed by the phrase "Second printing January 2001". The authors suggest buying the Forest Service maps for $1 and the USGS 15' quads for $1.25 (the former are now $6 and the latter were discontinued from sale around 1988), and the 714 area code listed for Bishop and Mammoth Lakes has been pulled back a few hundred miles, to something like a part of Orange County. No mention of bear canisters here, just the counterbalance method, but then the canisters probably had not even been conceived back then. But the vast majority of the book is devoted to describing the route itself, so presumably that is still pretty much up to date, unless any portion(s) of the trail were re-routed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oldie but a Goodie, August 20, 2009

By 

JMT'r "td" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The John Muir Trail: A Complete Hiking Guide (Paperback)

Along with the topography and elevation profile maps that I downloaded for free, this was the only trail book I brought for a solo thru hike in 2006 from Happy Isles to Whitney. The author has a knack for accurately describing the individual trail and terrain features creating a good overall snapshot of what to expect on the next day's hike. Yes some of the info around Red's Meadow and the Postpile have changed but otherwise as far as a solid resource for accurate trail descriptions, this is a great book that really presents the flavor of the different trail sections. Get the elevation profile maps as they are very handy for keeping track of where you are at in the all the ups and downs.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good guide and a fun planner, February 25, 2004

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The John Muir Trail: A Complete Hiking Guide (Paperback)

I have thru hiked the Muir Trail from north to south and found this book informative and containing some useful information. However, much of the info is of the common sense variety and could also easily be gleaned from the Internet. There is superfluous information on bear canisters, marmots and other hazards that any semi-experience hiker/backpacker would already know. The book is not marketed as being geared towards novices, but there's no doubt it would benefit a beginner and be less beneficial to a seasoned backpacker.

There are route descriptions of each facet of the trail, such as explaining the drop off points, elevation gains and topography of Thousand Island Lake in Mammoth to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. You could do a thru hike without this guide, but if you're the least bit apprehensive, then this would ease your worries.