[pct-l] Ray Jardine's New Book

[Sean Nordeen]

After several years of being out of print, Ray Jardine has updated his Beyond Backpacking and is calling it Trail Life.  Currently, it is only available on his website ( http://www.rayjardine.com ) as Amazon doesn't seem to list it.  I ordered one and should have it sometime this week.  I'll read it over the Christmas break and see how it is.  Currently, I think "Lightweight Backpacking and Camping" by Ryan Jordan (of backpackinglight.com fame) is the best UL backpacking manual out there,  so I'm curious if Ray Jardine can recapture that crown.  Hopefully he has come up with something new yet again that will lighten my backpack and it isn't just a rehash of things previously said.

Not long ago, I picked up a copy of Ray's original PCT Hiker's Handbook (the 1992 edition) at a used bookstore in Venice.  I had been curious about the creation of Ray Day and was looking for his reasoning which isn't talked about in Beyond Backpacking (as I intend to violate the whole must wait til June thing).  I had heard that the early edition of his book was abrasive (Ray's Way or the highway) but I'm not seeing that.  Then again, I'm not someone who has 20+ years of carrying 60lb backpacks and whose way of hiking feels threatened.  Perhaps it was the '96 edition that was more abrassive, as the Ray Way doesn't seem to be clearly defined in the '92 edition as some of his ideas haven't been completed.  Still an interesting read even though most the techniques have been talked about since then for years.

-Sean