united states

A friend from Italy turned me on to this book while he was visiting California. Viggo had met a
woman kayaking while she was using the book to discover some hidden hot springs. I picked up the
book and it fuels my imagination with all the potential lovely wet adventures so near at hand. I was
familiar with some of the spots but others still remain for more exploration.

Ever since I was young, I have been in search of the secret, awesome swimming hole. To plagiarize, it is the stuff dreams are made of. We have visited two of the sites described already. In both cases, Pancho Doll's directions and advice were right on the money. In some cases, I can see how the book needs more directions because it largely uses GPS coordinates, assuming the reader has a Global Position System device. But someone who is good with maps and talking with locals (part of the fun!) should not have a problem. It is wonderful that someone has written such a book with such captivating style and good on-site research. Bravo, Pancho! I also was able to speak with him because he uses a dictation device we manufacture. He was every bit as thoughtful on the phone as in his writings. I can only hope he will continue to update and fine tune his writings. The only concern is that somehow all us readers have to help keep these places well preserved and prevent abuse.

I was so excited when I found a book of this nature. I love waterfalls and swimming holes so I swooped up the book. I knew of some of the places in the book already, such as University Falls. The directions he gives to that place would have someone drowing in the Rubicon before finding University Falls. One day my best friend and I packed up the kids and set out for another destination in the book. We spent most of the morning trying to find the trailhead-and the other part of the day getting lost trying to find the swimming hole. The kids were whinning, hot and tired and we were disappointed if not straight up mad! We found a guy who lived in the area who laughted very hard when he read the directions (straight out of the book). Just about everything was incorrect. Wrong forest road number, wrong forest road, didn't bother to mention several turn offs, and it wouldn't have mattered if we were on the right road because the road indicated didn't really go where Doll stated it did. If you have GPS you're in luck. You're gonna need it. At the end of each chapter Doll lists Why Bother places. Doll doesn't included directions or pictures for those places but I managed to find a few on my own and they were gorgeous!