★★★★★ 4
The Best of the Modern Guides to the PCT.
Format: Paperback
This book is not an update of the Wilderness Press classics on which the trail was discovered and hiked by a couple generations from the 1970s to around 2010. It does however owe those books a heavy and unacknowledged debt. This is most notable in lettering sections which the author of this guide, Shawnte Salabert, attributes to the PCTA but in fact come from scarified, Schaffer, et all who wrote the original guides to California, Oregon, and Washington. Even the definition of sweat constitutes the Southern California trail, comes from those guides. (It starts at the Mexican Border near Campo California and ends in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite.). But alas, those books are long out of print, in part because today’s hikers prefer light weight apps with minimal trail information as opposed to detailed descriptions of the physical geography and varied ecosystems of the trail. I’m not sure the lost knowledge has equaled the reduced weight but I’m a bit old school.
And this book is as much a throwback to that kind of writing as it is a nod to recent demands of the hiking community. It does cover every mile of the route, suggest campsites along the way, and as much as possible provide an option for day and section hikes along the trail for just about anyone. The author provides good car descriptions to major trailheads for each section hike he recommends as well as available entry and exit options along the way. The writing is entertaining and the author has his own sense of humor that will become readily apparent as you read the text. Based on my experiences (and I’ve hiked 95% of the trail he describes at least once; sometimes multiple times) his mileage descriptions are accurate and you will easily be able to recognize the places he describes along the way. The book also features nice color photos and it’s availability in digital form will certainly please the gram counting hiker set. On the other hand, I miss seeing elevations along with miles at each major trail intersection, pass etc. Salabert does give total elevation gain and loss for each section of trail he describes but sometimes it’s nice to know just how much of a climb to expect.
Ultimately, this book fulfills it’s purpose. You should want to hike the PCT after reading a few pages if you hadn’t already when you purchased the book. And if you are like many people with only a weekend or a few days to spare hiking the trail, this book will make planning short sections easier. It offers a lot. But it reminds me of an era when guidebooks offered even more.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2020
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