The Ultimate Guide To Hiking

Supreme long-distance hiker Andrew Skurka shares his hard-earned knowledge in this essential guide to backpacking gear and skills. Described by National Geographic as “one of the best traveled and fastest hikers on the planet,” and named “Adventurer of the Year” by Outside and “Person of the Year” by Backpacker, Skurka recounts what he’s learned from more than 30,000 miles of long-distance adventures, most recently a 4,700-mile 6-month loop around Alaska and Canada’s Yukon. Whether you’re a first-time backpacker, an occasional weekend warrior or a seasoned long-distance trekker, you’ll love this guide. Learn exactly what you need to carry – both on your back and between your ears – for all seasons and circumstances through a show-and-tell of clothing, footwear, backpacks, shelter and sleep systems, and more, as well as through detailed articles on foot care, campsite selection and hiking efficiency. Skurka’s practical and priceless recommendations give you all the tools and techniques you’ll need to hit the trail. From the Trade Paperback edition.

A guide so thorough it will send you packing... Backpacking remains one of the most popular, and inexpensive, outdoor activities in America. The Complete Idiot's Guide (r) to Backpacking and Hiking helps anyone prepare and plan for a rewarding adventure. Covers planning, training, shopping and packing for the trip. -How to live on the trail -First aid and other safety tips -Practical time- and money-saving hints -What gear is necessary and what isn't -Special considerations when travelling with groups or pets

Whether you're a first-time backpacker, an occasional weekend warrior, or a seasoned long-distance trekker, this guide is a must for any backpacking, hiking, or camping trip. Supreme long-distance hiker Andrew Skurka—accomplished adventure athlete, speaker, guide, and writer—shares his knowledge in this essential guide to backpacking gear and skills. Skurka recounts what he's learned from more than 30,000 miles of long-distance hikes, including the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails, and the 4,700-mile Alaska-Yukon Expedition. A show-and-tell guide to clothing, footwear, backpacks, shelter and sleep systems, camp stoves, and more, as well as tips on foot care, campsite selection, and hiking efficiency, this single book contains all the knowledge you'll need to hit the trail. This second edition features 16 new pages (including food on the trail and other essentials), and updates all gear recommendations.

Move over traditional sightseeing, throngs of visitors, and tourist traps! Explore Europe on Foot gives travelers an alternative way to discover Europe. A hiking vacation offers countless rewards: the time to admire the tidiness of a village farm, soak in the rugged alpine view from a rocky perch, and absorb a country through the smells of its landscape and encounters with locals. Explore Europe on Foot is a complete guide to conceptualizing, planning, and executing the slow-travel hike (or hikes!) of a lifetime. Author Cassandra Overby tells you how you can spend all, or even just part, of your vacation enjoying scenery, small towns, and cultural experiences most travelers miss—all without carrying a big backpack. This guide offers all the nuts and bolts you need: how to choose a route that is right for you, how to plan, what to pack, what to expect, how to find accommodations and food, how to deal with challenges along the way, and so much more. These aren’t wilderness backpacking trips, but rather a wide range of town-to-town walks that offer the opportunity to have an authentic, affordable, restorative vacation. Travelers will also appreciate overviews of fifteen long-distance trails in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey, with itineraries that range from one to fifteen days. For those unwilling to go all-in, Cassandra also offers tips on incorporating day-hike outings into a more traditional vacation. The focus is on how to craft that more immersive vacation so users of the guide will be able to apply what they learn to their own dream destinations. 15 Handpicked Walks include: Rota Vicentina, Portugal English Way, Spain Mont Saint-Michel, FranceTour du Mont Blanc, France and Italy Cinque Terre 2.0, Italy Lycian Way, Turkey Alpine Pass Route, Switzerland King Ludwig’s Way, Germany The Moselle, Germany The Ardennes, Luxembourg and Belgium The Lake District, England, UK West Highland Way, Scotland, UK Laugavegur Trek, Iceland The Sahara Desert, Morocco

The Complete Guide to Hiking with Babies and Toddlers is a hiking guidebook tailored for parents who want to hike and explore nature with their little ones. It's fully comprehensive, offering something for parents who have never hiked before or for experienced outdoor enthusiasts who are new to parenthood. This book is designed to easily find answers to your questions and is the perfect companion to throw in your daypack. Its holistic approach walks you through the Leave No Trace Principles, how to easily plan and prepare for your hikes with babies and toddlers, and how to leave the worry behind so you can reap the benefits of spending time in nature with your children. It will encourage you to practice self-reflection and offer ways to be gentle with yourself as you navigate parenthood. It will foster confidence and comfortability on the trail, and inspire you to jump in with two feet! The practical regional appendices will show you how to avoid potentially dangerous situations, help you identify what you see, and provide detailed location information about where to go. Hike on!

CLICK HERE to download the chapter on "Backpacking" from Hiking the Wonderland Trail "There's no other trip, trail or peak that any backpacker should rank higher on his life list than the Wonderland Trail." - Backpacker magazine * Comprehensive and affectionate guide to one of the nation’s iconic wilderness trails * Everything you need to help plan this 93-mile trek, whether done in one trip or several * Lavish, full-color design, yet informative and practical, with 125 photographs and 18 maps * Find even more details, updates and added trip extensions at hikingthewonderlandtrail.com Washington State's famed Wonderland Trail is a spectacular 93-mile route that circumnavigates Mount Rainier, challenging hikers with its strenuous 22,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain and loss. Hiking the Wonderland Trail: The Complete Guide to Mount Rainier's Premier Trail is an authoritative guidebook penned by Washington native Tami Asars, a professional instructor on hiking the trail, a third-generation hiker of the Cascade mountains, and seven-time hiker of the entire Wonderland Trail. In this guide Asars draws on her experience, covering these essentials: * How to work with the Wonderland Trail permit reservation system, and when to apply * Recommended gear--with a checklist--and ways to reduce pack weight, prevent blisters, and stay warm and dry * How to pack the perfect backpack * Food and fuel caching on the Wonderland, tips and instruction * Detailed camp-to-camp route descriptions and suggested itineraries * How to extend your adventures with the Northern Loop Trail and the Eastside Trail Over the years, Asars has taken extensive notes that she shares at workshops and in the field. Hiking the Wonderland Trail distills her boot-tested knowledge so that everyone can enjoy the magic of Mount Rainier's premier trail.

100 hikes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, including the newly protected Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley Mix of day hikes and classic backpacking routes Stunning, oversized full-color guide The lush Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington’s Central Cascades contains a plethora of trails, rugged glacier-carved mountains, and more than 700 sparkling alpine lakes and ponds. Accessed via nearly 50 trailheads, more than 600 miles of trails offer hikers leisurely strolls along wooded creeks, climbs up mountain passes, or lunch spots next to glassy tarns. It is one of the most popular and beloved places for hikers in this region. The all-new guide, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, features a wide range of hikes that vary in difficulty, geography, and theme so that hikers of any age and skill level will find trails that fit their taste. Easy to use, the guide includes details on overnight permits, car-camping options near wilderness access points, detailed maps, elevation gain/ loss, and turn-by-turn mileage and directions. Interesting historical background and natural history round out the trail descriptions.

2023 Independent Publisher Book Award GOLD in Travel Guidebooks Overview of sixteen complete systems (three or more huts) with all you need to know to plan a trip—from terrain to costs and other logistics At-a-glance tables for quick comparison of hut systems Full-color photos and detailed maps Hut to Hut USA celebrates the opportunities for hut-tohut hiking, mountain biking, and skiing or snowshoeing at sixteen hut systems across the United States—from the Appalachian Mountain Club’s hiking huts in the White Mountains, to the San Juan Huts that allow mountain bikers to pedal from Telluride or Durango to Moab, to the Rendezvous Huts for Nordic skiers in Washington’s Methow Valley. For the featured systems, the book describes modes of travel, amenities, quality of experience, terrain, required skill level, the route itself, wayfinding tips, and booking and cost details, with photographs and maps. Suggested day-by-day itineraries with mileages, elevation gain and loss, and hut GPS coordinates help adventurers craft their trip. Demas and Bradley also offer a general history of hut systems around the world and examine how they have developed in the US over the past century. This comprehensive, practical guidebook is the first to cover all of the US hut systems, meeting growing interest in hut-tohut travel.