John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail [Paperback]

Elizabeth Wenk (Author), Kathy Morey (Author)

Book Description

Series: John Muir Trail | Publication Date: July 16, 2007

Running from Mount Whitney to Yosemite Valley in the Sierra Nevada, the 212 mile John Muir Trail passes through some of the most dramatic mountain terrain in the United States. Each year, thousands of backpackers traverse some or all of the trail, relying on Wilderness Press's John Muir Trail. The completely updated edition of this Sierra classic includes significant information found nowhere else. The new John Muir Trail meticulously describes the entire trail and is written for today's hikers. The book includes GPS coordinates, not only for every junction, but also for every established campsite, bear box, and mountain pass that the trail crosses. The guide has separate descriptions for northbound and southbound hikers; for each direction, a junction chart shows all the trail's ups and downs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wonderful, well organized...everything you need is in this volume, and Lizzy's asides give the book a good soul." -- John Hankins, Los Padres Chapter Sierra Club, February 2008

"...an exceptional hiking guide to one of the most famous trails around..." -- Midwest Book Review, December 2007

About the Author

From childhood, Lizzy Wenk has hiked and climbed in the Sierra Nevada with her family. After she started college, she found excuses to spend every summer in the Sierra, with its beguiling landscape, abundant flowers, and near-perfect weather. During those summers, she worked as a research assistant for others and completed her own Ph.D. thesis research on the effects of rock type on alpine plant distribution and physiology. But much of the time, she hikes simply for leisure. Wanting to explore every bit of the Sierra, she has hiked thousands of on- and off-trail miles and climbed nearly 500 peaks in the mountain range.

Kathy Morey has authored or coauthored eight other Wilderness Press titles, including Hot Showers, Soft Beds, & Dayhikes in the Sierra, Sierra North, Sierra South, and Hawaii Trails.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wilderness Press; Fourth Edition edition (July 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899974368
• ISBN-13: 978-0899974361
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hiking & Camping > Excursion Guides
  • #60 in Books > Travel > United States > Regions > West
  • #61 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Nature Travel > Adventure

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Prep Work, but a bit Bulky for the Hike, August 4, 2007

By 

Fritz R. Ward "dayhiker" (Crestline, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail (Paperback)

Wilderness Press continues to update some of their classic guides regularly and this new version of their John Muir Trail Guide is well written with a new author, Elizabeth Wenk. At its heart, the guide is similar to previous editions in giving a mile for mile description of the trail. I found it very accurate for all portions of the JMT that I have hiked. It also includes new features: numerous GPS coordinates for landmarks, updated regulations, appendices listing campsites, mileages, and resupply points, and new topographical maps from Tom Harrison.

All these new features come at a small cost, however, in that the book is more than twice as large as the previous edition, by Kathy Morey and Thomas Winnett. And while you will need these new features in planning your hike, they are less important on the actual trail. Backpackers trying to save space and weight have a couple of options. One is to simply tear out the sections of the book you will be using. You hardly need the classic South to North directions if you are hiking the other way. Another is to use this edition for planning, but to get one of the older editions for the actual trip. These can be found here (1998) or here (1986). But this book is still worth purchasing. Having it will improve your odds of completing the trail and dramatically increase your enjoyment of it as well.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is it!, August 3, 2007

By 

C. Lotte (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail (Paperback)

This is the new edition of the Morey/Winnett (sp?) book but it's much, much more than that. I've hiked the JMT a couple of times and done a fair amount of hiking in the Sierras. Basically tho I'm a city boy and can't tell one tree from another and know nothing about geology. This book will - I haven't had the chance to hike with it yet - fill in the ignorance and satisfy the curiosity about what I'm hiking past. The author knows her stuff. But, wait, there's a whole lot more. Aside from a large number of GPS coords, more than I've found anywhere on the Web, there's all kinds of info you need to orchestrate your hike - names, addresses, prices, policies, regulations, campsites, side-trip peak-bagging, Harrison maps, informed suggestions - it's all here. One more item - it's only occasionally you read a book that makes you feel the author really worked hard to make it "complete", didn't cut corners, "pushed" when the going got hard - this is one such book. If you're thinking of hiking the JMT or any part of it, buy the book. If you're not thinking of doing the hike, buy the book and discover what you're missing.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New definitive JMT book, September 20, 2007

By 

Adrian Martin (Oakland, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail (Paperback)

The previous version of this book was, I believe, considered to be the definitive JMT book, and this new version must be also. In it are all the details anyone attempting or thinking of attempting the John Muir Trail will need to know; what clothes to take, which food is appropriate, permits needed, bear information, a guide to the flowers of the area, history of the trail, geology, directions and even maps and a list of possible campsites. In fact, details are the thing about this book - it's ram-jam with them, and I couldn't think of any detail that I'd like to know that wasn't covered (I've hiked the trail once)!

This is a guidebook for those intending to hike the trail, not an account of someone's experiences, but even so it must get even the most couchy potato interested in getting out and walking! I did find the referencing of the sections and maps a little confusing, but it's a small point. And it might be a little large too, so I'd probably elect to photocopy parts of it, or rip out sections to take on the trail.