The Essential Guide to Wilderness Camping and Backpacking in the United States. This item is unavailable.The Essential Guide to Wilderness Camping and Backpacking in the United States

The first book which has a complete listing of National and State parks, forests, BLM lands and wilderness areas throughout the US. All camping and permit requirements are included. A resource section appears in each state chapter for local information and maps.

The first half of this guide gives information on how to go about backpacking and camping-what kind of pack to buy (though no brand names or models are mentioned), food to eat, boots to wear, and so forth. The second half lists places where wilderness can be experienced-e.g., national parks and forests, state parks-with addresses and phone numbers. On the one hand, this is all anyone needs to know about backpacking; on the other, the coverage is cursory. Traditionally, the "how" is covered in separate books such as Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills (Mountaineers, 1992), while the "where" is handled by local or regional guidebooks. While the author certainly knows his stuff (he's professionally led more than 700 trips in the Northeast), he may be biting off too much. It's just too difficult to evaluate critically a two million-acre wilderness in a couple of paragraphs. Recommended for beginning "practitioners" and the most comprehensive of libraries.
Thomas K. Fry, Univ. of Denver Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.