[pct-l] guide books

[edmond at mydogmeg.net (Edmond Meinfelder)]

At 11:47 AM 10/25/2003 -0400, Judith Rush wrote:
>   If you have the data book and the maps you can download from hiker 
> trash haven, do you still need the guide books ?

Many through hikers at one time or another, missed their re-supply boxes 
and, consequently, their guide book sections for the next leg of their 
hike. It happened to me. No one got so lost they could not complete their 
through hike. But you can imagine the anxiety of trying to guess if you are 
on the right trail is distracting. So, it's possible, though not fun, to 
scrape by without even maps.

You could get by with just the maps, but having the way points listed in 
the Guide Book and summarized nicely in the Data Book are helpful for 
following the trail.

The Guide Pros are:

1) They educate you about what you'll see on the trail. If you believe 
you'll enjoy the trail more if you know what it is you are seeing, they 
guide books will improve the quality of trip.
2) The guide books will also suggest interesting side trips and alternate 
routes. In Oregon, I took a number of alternate routes and side trips and 
enjoyed myself immensely.
3) The guide books also give you a background of the trail's history, which 
places your trip in context which helps you to understand why the trail is 
as it is; though the guide book's repeated lament "The trail should have 
gone..." gets old quick.

Some cons to the guide books are:

1) Parts are out of date, earning the title of "The Book Lies" among many 
through hikers.
2) The organization of the books as a trail following guides is tedious. 
The trail following text is interspersed with editorials, resupply 
strategies, descriptions of flora and fauna and other wisdom. Helpfully, 
the new editions for California use color coded highlights which eases, but 
not solves, the problem. (The problem is, when you are lost and need the 
guide books most, exacting only the information you need is needlessly 
difficult.)
3) The descriptions to follow the trail are odd. It seems often oriented 
for north-bounders and has descriptions such as: following a ridge to your 
right, you'll come to a live oak tree in a clearing. (It's arguable that, 
if I am going to spend months outdoors, investing the time to know the 
difference between a Canyon Live Oak and a California Black Oak.)

To save on weight, downloading the hiker trash maps and taking only the 
needed Data Book sections would be efficient, but maybe not as fun. I am 
taking the guidebooks with me again next year with no regrets.

Tangent