'Long Walks' Books If you still care about idiotic software patents and stupid "business practices" patents, avoid Amazon and use http://isbn.nu instead. E.g., http://isbn.nu/1-55591-235-4 gets you to a list of a couple of online used bookstores that might have the Millers' book. Table of contents The Pacific Crest Trail - A Hiker's Companion, Karen Berger & ? Smith A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson The Thousand Mile Summer, Colin Fletcher Walking Across America in My Ninetieth Year, Doris Haddock The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook, Ray Jardine A Walk Across America, and The Walk West, Peter and Barbara Jenkins Into a Desert Place, Graham Mackintosh Trails Across America, A & M Miller Journey on the Crest, Cindy Ross The High Adventures of Eric Ryback, Eric Ryback The Pacific Crest Trail (California), Schaffer/Schifrin/Winnett/Jenkins The Pacific Crest Trail (Oregon/Washington), Schaffer/Schifrin/Winnett/Jenkins The Pacific Crest Trail - A Hiker's Companion Berger/Smith Good companion to the classic guidebooks. Has a fair number of typos, hopefully to be corrected in later printings. A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson Funny account. Lots of reviews on the net. The Thousand Mile Summer Colin Fletcher ISBN 0736612505; I got this one six or eight years ago, at a garage sale, I think. Amazon's Book Description doesn't do it justice: it omits any hint of *when* Fletcher did this walk (1968 or so, years before the PCT existed). At three o'clock one sleepless night, Colin Fletcher decided that what he must do was walk the length of California. He could only fumble with the supporting reasons, but he knew it was a hike he had to make. Fletcher followed lonely stretches of the Colorado, crossed the Mojave, walked the trough of Death Valley and wandered through the High Sierras. Along the way he stumbled across an unspoiled ghost town and visited frontiers unseen by most Californians. Granny D: Walking Across America in My Ninetieth Year Doris Haddock And there was a book I saw at the Sunnyvale library book sale a month or so ago, about some Gramma doing a politically motivated walk across the country, but it looked like the book was really about the Gramma's family, as revealed in the series of letters she wrote or received during the trip. A google search led me to the following, which might be the one I saw in Sunnyvale: "Granny D: Walking Across America in My 90th Year" http://www.grannyd.com/review.htm The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook Ray Jardine (out of print) Not so much a description of any trip, as a demonstration of a genius at "thinking out of the box". I've put many of the good ideas in here into practice in my backpacking, and they have distinctly improved my enjoyment of such trips. In the late 1990's, Jardine rewrote and retitled the book as "Beyond Backpacking". He removed some of the "you must do it *my* way" attitude, added some weird crap about raw vegetables, and converted it from a PCT-oriented book into a general lightweight backpackers' guide. A Walk Across America The Walk West Peter and Barbara Jenkins Peter Jenkins wrote "A Walk Across America", and he and his wife Barbara wrote "The Walk West" together. These books chronicle Peter's five-plus-year journey across the country in the 1970's. New York to New Orleans to Colorado to Oregon. These books are more about the people they meet along the way than about the actual walking part. Hmm ... walk through Louisiana and Texas for the summer, through Colorado for the Winter, Utah and Idaho deserts in the summer. Seems to me the timing could've worked out better. Into a Desert Place Graham Mackintosh "Into a Desert Place" Mad dogs and Englishmen ... and Mad Englishmen. Subtitle "A 3000-mile walk around the coast of Baja California". In 1983-1984. Not a through-hike, but a section hike in 3 or 4 sections. Ordinary bloke from Wadhurst just up and decides to go do this thing. Amazing that he survived the first leg of that journey. Trails Across America Arthur P. Miller, Jr., and Marjorie L. Miller ISBN 1-55591-235-4 out of print Decent, simple catalog of the country's National Trails -- Scenic, Historic, et ? Could use some more details, both in the maps and in the text about many of the trails. See http://www.fulcrum-books.com/html/trails_across_america.html A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf John Muir Note that the Sierra Club has HTML versions of all of Muir's writings, in full, at their web site, http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings . This is the only book on my "Long Walks Books" list that I haven't read yet. Journey on the Crest Cindy Ross A personal story, this book tells more than the others about the emotional barriers that one can run into on such long hikes. The High Adventures of Eric Ryback Eric Ryback (out of print; 1971) Eric was most likely one of the very first people ever to walk the route of the PCT. He did it as a southbounder. Some inaccuracies exist, and due to some discrepancies, some people find this book a bit hard to swallow. Good read, though hard to find. Another garage sale find. The Pacific Crest Trail (California) Schaffer/Schifrin/Winnett/Jenkins The classic guidebook, south half. The Pacific Crest Trail (Oregon/Washington) Schaffer/Schifrin/Winnett/Jenkins The classic guidebook, north half. For PCT books in particular, I'd recommend Berger's and Ross' books (and reading all of the archives of the PCT email list and all of the hiker journals that one can find on the web) in order to get a bit of a hint of an idea what a PCT trek can be like for some people who do not happen to be you. © Copyright 2007 Doug Landauer . Last update: 07/2/6; 14:17:02 .