hiking and camping

Being a novice, I wanted ONE book that would answer all my questions and provide me with valuable information I would need. This book was the one! I read a lot of the "editorial reviews" on several backpacking books, but I used the "customer reviews" to make my final selection. Thanks to all the previous reviewers, I'm happy to say that I did indeed choose what is probably the best all-inclusive backpacking guide which I know would follow me from novice through experienced. If you don't want to be saddled with dozens of books just so you can have a wealth of information on an activity you'd like to try, than this is the ONE book to get!

I have a nice collection of camping books, and simply put - this is the BEST book I have ever found on backpacking, period. If I had bought this book first, I could have saved my money from buying so many others since none of them had all the information I was looking for. This book is complete and covers every aspect of backpacking for the novice and expert alike. It is called the "backpackers bible" by those that know it just for that reason. If you plan to backpack for one day, to a long trip, this book covers it all from weather, to clothing, gear, stoves, food, shoes, maps, you name it. And it is well written so that you don't really have to scan it like a catolog. You will find the writing style so comfortable, you will read it like a novel from front to end. I was suprised that I had since I do not read reference books in this manner. Very enjoyable and well worth the money.

This book is all about experience. It takes you on an amazing ride through a concise drilldown of everything one needs to take their first walk. The author does a good job of giving not only his own perspective, but the perspective of other experienced backpackers that see things differently. This gives you more lessons than a single person could ever provide. Whenever you come to a junction point in the book where you might want more information about something he specificly states he's not going into (like power hiking vs. slackwalking, or gourmet trail cooking vs. survivial eating) he always gives references to other great books that give the extra details on those other subjects. Great must-read!