Customer Reviews

Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California

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

 

 

I have hiked over 10,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. Every year I buy four Wilderness Press books, cut them into sections and put them in my resupply boxes. None are all inclusive for my needs. That does not exist. The Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California, Northern California, and Oregon/Washington and the Pacific Crest Trail Data Book, all four by Wilderness Press. They tell me where, I am going, how to get there, side and alternate routes(a huge plus), histories, points of interest and much, much more. These books give me much more than a simple point A to B sterile hike. Author, Ben Schifrin, and editor, Roslyn Bullas, are active in the hiking community a show a genuine concern for helping the trails and the hikers both. I also use each year Yogi's Pacific Crest Trail Handbook. Author Jackie McDonnell(Yogi) is the #1 authority on how to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and she also passes on information from 500 other recent thru hikers including me. It will save you $100's of Dollars and 100's of hours. Buy it at [...] And I also use the free to print [...] maps by my friend Halfmile. The size and detail make it the best map for hiking the PCT.

I just completed a thru-hike of the PCT. Although I started with the PCT Data Book, Yogi's Handbook, and all the guidebooks (cutting them into sections), after a while I quit carrying these.
Here's why:
--These books are OLD. Check the print date: 2003. Sure, there haven't been as many trail relocations as on the AT, but the town info is especially weak. Get Yogi's Handbook for information on goods & services in town, water locations, and lots of other useful, more recently updated points of interest.
--The maps are awful. They are only duo-chromatic; have wildly varying scales (even on the same page!); no mileage markers, water sources, or campsites shown. Also, they rarely align with the text, so you're constantly page flipping. Get Halfmile's.
--The paper is absorbent and the size won't fit in a quart ziplock bag.
Although I did enjoy the historical, cultural, geological and ecological vignettes, they were outweighed by the shortcomings listed above.

I think it is worth pointing out that the PCT Data Book (2005!) is also desperately in need of an update.
My recommendation for anyone planning a thru-hike would be to get Yogi's handbook and Halfmile's maps (paper or digital). These are all one needs.

I am planning to hike the PCT from Mexico to Canada starting in March, 2011. Preparation is not something you do a week before, it takes months of planning from shipping resupply boxes to getting the right boots (breaking them in too), tents, backpacks, and whatever else. These books (and I'm including the the volumes for Northern California and Washington/Oregon) are essential. Here's what I like:

1. Detailed maps. They seem to vary from 1:24,000 to 1:100,000, but I think the authors chose what is most useful for the portion of the route that's being described. I'm going to use the maps here with a GPS system (undecided as to which, but will make a purchase soon, probably the Delorme PN-60 with SPOT) and my iPhone that will include the waypoints and tracks from Halfmile.
2. Water. This is going to be the biggest issue from Mexico to the lower Sierra's, and this book mentions water sources all along the trail. It might be out of date, but using more current information from several online sources, I can add notes to the book and to my GPS systems.
3. Resupply locations. Very useful. I'm not very interested in walking 30 miles or so to off trail resupply, so I need to thoroughly plan locations that are close to the trail. This book makes this easy.
4. The trail itself. It gives everything from history, to making sure you take the right fork (as opposed to the wrong one) and to descriptions of elevations. It warns you public vs. private land (makes me despise the owners of Tejon Ranch even more after reading this book).

This is a thorough book. I've read it cover to cover highlighting important information as I plan out the trip. I don't think you can use it like a Frommer's guide, opening up to the page when you get there. It's clear to survive and enjoy the PCT on a thruhike, planning counts.

I don't plan to do the thruhike in the ultra-light high-speed mode, so the weight of the books don't bother me. But they are heavy (seems to be printed on very high quality paper), so if you are worried about the grams, cutting them up and sending them along with resupply boxes is wise. I'm going to carry the full book, in case I make some adjustments to my schedule. I'll probably send the Northern California book to my last resupply section in "Southern California".

If you're going to do the PCT in whole or part, this book is extremely useful, especially for planning. When I do the Appalachian Trial in 2012, I hope I can find books like this!

I have used the WA/OR and the Northern CA guides on my south-bound section hike of the PCT. Now that I have hiked through those books I am starting this Southern CA guide.
It is very useful information, but it is often difficult to follow the trail description designed for north-bounders. I wish there was a south-bond version.

I bought this guide for a trip my husband and I were planning across the San Bernardino Mtns. The guide is very thorough, providing detailed descriptions of what to expect on the trail as well as water supply, permit information, mileage charts, topos, and campsites. It also has interesting info about geology, fun facts about plants, etc. It covers the PCT from Agua Dulce to Toulomne, so if you're like me and have no plans to do it all in one shot, it'll come in handy for many small trips. I've been generally impressed with my previous purchases of Wilderness Press products, and this guide didn't disappoint.

Not the detail I would like but for the miles it covers it does a good job.