Customer Reviews

Trailside Guide: Hiking and Backpacking, New Edition

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book recently to expand on what I know about hiking and backpacking. I mainly do day hikes, and living in the desert of the southwest, I obviously end up doing a lot of desert hikes.

This book is very comprehensive, but by no means an all-inclusive description of what you need to know about hiking and backpacking.

It puts great emphasize on backpacking and not so much on hiking, although both activities are very similar in their nature. The book puts its main focus on backpacking in the Northeast of the USA, and talks a lot about the Appalachian Trail, which the author has hiked from one end to another.

The book contains all types of useful and important details about equipment, behavior on the trail, personal safety etc. Personally, I would've liked for it to mention more about travelling by foot in the desert, but that said, you can still find the most important information about desert hiking scattered around the book.

Pros:
* Very comprehensive - Contains information about most things you need to know about hiking and backpacking
* Easy and fun to read - very nice format
* Contains checklists
* Author is very knowledgable on the subject and an accomplished hiker/backpacker
* Good value for money

Cons:
* Not enough information about desert hiking/backpacking
* Very heavy - not something you'd want to bring in your pack unless you had to. On the flip side, it makes it more durable than your average book.
* Not all that good as a reference - best read from beginning to end.

All in all, I would rate it a 4 since it's a quite well written and comprehensive book. It covers what most people would expect to find in this type of book. It falls short of a rating of 5 mainly for the reasons mentioned in CON above.

(This review is of the February 2003 edition)

I bought this book on a whim for my first ever backpacking expedition, and I loved it the second I cracked the front cover. It covers everything and anything a beginning hiker/backpacker could ever need. (It made my excursion with my husband-to-be on Valentine's Day weekend a blast!) While I still think cotton is just as invaluable as all the high-tech materials out there, she definitely makes her "expert" opinion a time and money saver. I give her little section on women and kids an A++ for motivation. Oh, and did I mention it was awesome.

I've been backpacking for about ten years and continue to find this book a useful tool. The writing, pictures and illustrations somehow manage to get me enthused about backpacking every time I pick up the book.

Great intro book (what equipment you need to get started, how to read a compass, etc...), but also a lot of practical tips on what to look for when buying gear (including how to save $$$, something that backpackers of all skill levels can appreciate!).

The author's "minimum impact" tips are useful reminders for all backpackers and obviously come from a person with great respect for the outdoors. This alone should make this book required reading for new folks on the trail.

Although I've been backpacking for many years, I felt sure this book could teach an old dog a few new tricks. And it did! Karen Berger does what many others don't do and that is give very specific details about purchasing equpment, technics to hiking and backpacking. Specifics on food selection and preparation along with useful information about camping and leave no trace. Her thoughtful insite is your ticket to a most enjoyable experience in the outdoors.

In 1996 I took my first backpacking trip ever. It was in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Became lost, carried too much weight...but enjoyed myself anyway. Two years later was on Katahdin in Maine. A big smile on my face...had just completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

After that first fun, yet disaster prone trip, stumbled upon the first edition of this book. Read it cover to cover and quickly learned many aspsects of backpacking I was woefully ignorant about. All that summer put into practice what was in the book.

Over the years since I've read that book have done much backpacking. Two end to hikes on the Long Trail, a thru-hike on both the AT and the Pacific Crest Trail. From reading the book was able to get the confidence to tackle longer hikes...and be fired up for them as well.

Now that I head up beginner backpacking trips myself, I always reccomend the book to anyone starting out with this past timne that has become a lifestyle for me.

I rated this book 4 stars, but would actually give it 4 1/2. Why not five? Berger is still skeptical of lightweight hiking (despite her new book about the subject) and it shows in not only in book but hiking videos, articles, etc. But, for the beginner, the solid info about traditional backpacking will get them on to a great start! Worked for me!

This book is a terrific resource for those just starting out or those who would like to know more about hiking and backpacking. The author's topics cover everything from the complete basics like, why you should hike, straight through to the more complex, like how to adjust your compass for declination. She also makes extremely helpful suggestions on purchasing products such as tents, sleeping bags, water purifiers, stoves, and basically all types of gear. The author has a writing style that generates interest in the reading material. She also focuses on particular topics, like handling problems only women encounter in the outdoors, or what you should know before taking children hiking. This book is a must have.

I'm new to backpacking. I bought a few backpacking books recently, and none of them are more interesting and clearly written than this book. Karen Berger has a great, down to earth writing style without being too "breathy" or wordy. She gets down to the point, shows specific examples,and breaks things down in a way that can be understood by anybody.

This book is way out of date. It's billed on Amazon as a "New Edition," but actually it's not. The ISBN is the same as the 1995 edition, and the publisher's info actually states that it's a "reissue," not a new edition. I checked using the "click to look inside link," and it really does appear to be identical to the 1995 edition. (The index and table of contents have identical page numbers, and some random pages that I checked were identical.) It's listed as "Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 1st edition (February 2003)," but this is misleading; it's just a reprinting of the first edition, which was published in 1995.

The fact that it's out of date really is a problem. For one thing, backpacking equipment has changed a lot in the last 14 years. For example, the discussion of navigation does have a good explanation of how to use a topo map and a compass, which is likely to be useful to a beginner. But there is no discussion of altimeters, and GPS, described as "new," is mentioned only briefly, in a sidebar, with no discussion of how to use one, what its limitations, are, etc.

Another place where the book's age shows is in the discussion of bears. There's a long discussion of "how to bear-bag," including a big diagram. Well, actually, it's been at least 8 years since you could pick up a wilderness permit in any of the national parks in California without being told very firmly that bear-bagging was not allowed and didn't work, that bear canisters were mandatory, and that if you didn't have a bear canister, you were required to rent or buy one on the spot. The book only briefly mentions bear canisters, treats them as an option rather than a requirement, not-so-subtly tries to convince the reader not to use one.

The discussion of bear canisters isn't the only place where the book is inaccurate. In the discussion of snakebite, the most prominent option listed is to keep the victim immobile and go and get help. That contradicts everything else I've read on the subject, which states that it's vital to get the victim to the trailhead, get medical help to the trailhead, and do all of that in the minimum possible time.

The book is extremely skimpy. Lots of topics are skipped over extremely quickly. I would have liked to see less of the page count taken up with the lavish color illustrations, and more devoted to information. As a random example of a topic was not treated in enough detail, and was also treated inaccurately, the author's advice with respect to human waste is the following: "You'll need a small plastic trowel with which to dig a 6-inch-deep hole. Fill it when you're done. Bacteria will do the rest." Well, no, bacteria will not do the rest when it comes to your toilet paper. The two options most commonly practiced today are (1) to pack out the used toilet paper (this is the option that rangers in California national parks will tell you is mandatory when you pick up your wilderness permit), or (2) to burn it. Leaving it in the hole, which the author seems to be telling you to do, is simply not an acceptable option.

This book is heavily oriented toward beginners, and heavily oriented toward the East Coast. A tent is described as a near-absolute necessity, which makes sense in the East, but not for summer backpacking in the West. There is no discussion of the lightweight and ultralight styles of backpacking that were first popularized by Ray Jardine.

For anyone who wants a less outdated and more complete book, a much better choice would be the latest edition of The Complete Walker, by Fletcher and Rawlins (e.g., the 2002 edition is titled The Complete Walker IV).

This is a great book. The author is an experienced hiker and it shows. All of the pertinent aspects of backpacking are covered in this book: gear, first aid, planning, food preparation, leave no trace guidelines, etc., as well as, valuable tips that only a true hiker with a lot of experience could compile. If I'm not mistaken, the author is also affiliated with Backpacker magazine. The book itself is small enough to justify taking it with you on any trek. If you ever plan on attempting a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, I strongly recommend reading/purchasing this book

This little, fun book is a great one to pick up for beginners! It has a number of interesting illustrations and runs the gamut of topics from how to choose equipment to first aid on the trail.

Unfortunately, nothing in this book is very deep. It scratches the surface of nearly everything it tries to cover and probably covers a few unneeded items as well.

If you are brand new to hiking, pick this up (especially if it's used!). It is a great book for building some inspiration to go get out on the trail. But if you've had any kind of experience, have a good friend who can mentor you, or have read anything else on hiking, don't count on finding anything new here.

P.S. If you want to learn about wilderness first aid, make sure you pick up a book specifically about it or take a class. The chapter here is not worth the entrance fee except as a reminder to first timers.