hiking and camping

Living in California, I don't get a chance to hike in Vermont as often as I would like. But when I do, I always take this lightweight guide along in my car and in the pack. The best part about the guide is that hikes are described in detail and directions to each trailhead are given in exhaustive detail. This is especially important for out-of-towners who aren't familiar with the back country roads. The authors have hiked each of the trails and they offer pithy comments on trail conditions, the possibility of seeing wildlife and other pertinent information.

There is a separate section on the magnificent Long Trail, the 260 mile hike which runs from the Massachusetts border to he Canadian border. My one slight criticism is the photos, which could be of better quality, but the text, route descriptions and ancillary material are of high quality.

This book does provide good trail descriptions for a reasonable number of hikes in Vermont. I've hiked about a dozen of the trails listed in here, of those 10 there were:

2 in which the directions to the trailhead listed the wrong forest service road to take.

3 in which I saw other trails at junctions that weren't mentioned in this book leading to nearby attractions (without giving full descriptions it would be nice to mention alternatives for longer hikes available).

1 in which the directions led to a difficult hike, but it turned out talking to people at the top that a much easier hike was available to reach the same destination from the same trailhead.

Having said that, this book does give the visitor an easy way to plan some hikes in Vermont. The Falcon guide looks to be similar, so it might be useful to read both before planning your hikes.

I liked this book - easy to read and informative. The only problem was it didn't have very specific information on things like shelters, camping, etc. - it's more of a day-hike book. I phoned the Green Mountain Club (the authors) to get more info, and it turns out that they have written a book of their own called "The Long Trail Guide")that is much more comprehensive and they recommend it more than this one. I would check that book out before you get this one. But if you just want a good book for day hikes, I like this one fine.