5 comments about Canadian Rockies Trail Guide (7th Edition).

1. This was an excellent guide for planning our itinerary. The 8th edition appears to be heavier than previous editions. I would recommend photocopying the pages you anticipate using instead of carrying the book on day hikes.



2. This guide is better for Banff and Jasper trail info. The section on Yoho and Kootenay National parks is not as extensively covered as the other two parks. A large portion of the book is dedicated to coverage of Banff. There is no coverage of Glacier NP and Mt. Revelstoke NP which are also a part of the Canadian Rockies.
   
   One criticism I have is that there is no easy way to determine whether the hike you are considering is easy, moderate, or strenous at a glance. Some of the trails covered may mention it but it is not consistently available, and you cannot find this info easily as you have to read the entire write up for it.



3. This book is a great reference with 229 trails throughout the parks of the Canadian Rockies. If you've already selected a trail, it's great.
   
   However, it's not great for planning an itinerary. I bought this book a couple of months in advance of a 10-day trip to the region, hoping to find two great 3-day hikes that we could plan the rest of our trip around. I soon discovered the Achilles' heel of this book--there are no ratings. In order to see how good a hike is, you have to read about it. In order to find the most desirable hikes in the book, I'd have to read more than 400 pages! I actually tried this, and started to read from the beginning, making notes about which hikes seemed particularly interesting--and then decided to check out the other books that are available. I immediately found "Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies" by Kathy and Craig Copeland, which readily classifies trails into categories based on how scenic and pleasant they are. From that book, I rapidly found some great trails, and planned our itinerary.
   
   Imagine a book filled with essays about hundreds of movies, but no ratings. It would be great for understanding more about a movie you had already chosen, but not very helpful for choosing a movie. So it is with this encyclopedic work--if you've already decided where you're hiking, or have narrowed it down to a few possibilities, this books is great. But there are much better choices if you're planning a wide-open itinerary and want to find the best places to go.



4. I've been traveling to the Canadian Rockies to hike for 3 decades, and this book has always proved its worth. I used this newest edition on an extended trip last year and found that the trails I hiked were all accurately described. What I've always found most helpful in this book is the "log" of each trail, with detailed descriptions of junctions and landmarks that is seperate from the main trail information and makes it easy for me to know where along the trail I am. The book is divided into chapters by parks, with almost every trail in every park covered, from short walks to overnight trails. In closing, I highly recommend this book for anyone planning a trip to the region.



5. The format of this book is great - you can find everything you need very easily. All the information about the trails is there with very fair descriptions. It is just what we needed.

No comments about 100 Best Family Resorts in North America, 9th: 100 Quality Resorts with Leisure Activities for Children and Adults (100 Best Series).

1 comments about The Golden Grindstone: One Man's Adventures in the Yukon (Arctic Adventure).

1. Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)
   
   In 1897-1898 "would be miners ascended Alaska's Chilkoot Pass the Yukon River basin." But there were other trails that lead to the Klondike Gold Rush. All the routes were harsh but some were almost unendurable.
   
   "George M. Mitchell was an insurance broker in his early thirties." George had always lived an inactive life. He would occasionally fish or hunt but most of his life was inactive. Lured by the adventure of the Klondike Gold Rush, George "chose the most obscure, arduous, and downright implausible route to the goldfields." It's as though he said to himself: "no one, not even me, would ever think of insuring a person so incautious as to try to reach the Klondike via the peel river system and, specifically, the Wind River."
   
   Athabasca Landing was a small unassuming place before the gold rush. There were about 40 or 50 white men and about 200 Indians that came and went. George settled in for a bit preparing for the next leg of his journey. The party needed more manpower. When Craigie, a Scotsman, and Smith, a Welsh, approached George he hired them both. George enjoyed his time in Athabasca especially getting to know the people.
   
   "Grizzly bears were quite plentiful, and when he was on the main river or the larger creeks Mitchell used to see one or two of them every day, grubbing among the roots of the willows by the stream-side. One time George shot a young grizzly bear and when Bonnet Plume found out he cursed him. It was unsafe to tackle a grizzly alone. On another occasion he saw a large, pure white grizzly bear. It reared up in front of him. One time when George woke up a grizzly was sitting up on his haunches watching him.
   
   "The Golden Grindstone" by Angus Graham tells the fascinating story of one man on the adventure of a lifetime. Mr. Graham is an excellent storyteller and successfully shares the journey of George M. Mitchell as he makes his way to the Klondike Gold Rush. George Mitchell comes to life on the pages of this book. Many of the adventures are told with a humorous slant. Mr. Mitchell was a very brave man and faced many hardships as did other miners. I particularly enjoyed the tales concerning the wildlife and the Indians. I enjoyed learning about this special time in history and the men that sacrificed so much for gold and adventure. I highly recommend this book to fans of history, adventure and non-fiction.

No comments about Haida Gwaii: The Queen Charlotte Islands.

2 comments about Cruising Guide to British Columbia Vol. 2.

1. Bill Wolversten in this, the last in a three-volume guide to Cruising the British Columbia waters, does again a great job helping both the "Yachties" and the "Sporties" find the best places to spend an enjoyable time in BC. Bill offers a foundation of answers to: Where is it? How do I get there? and What is there? For enjoyment, he seasons this solid information with historical background and local knowledge. And finally, in case you didn't get the message from the text that Canada's BC is one of the world's best cruising ground, he drives the point home with stunningly beautiful pictures of the area. For anybody venturing into British Columbia in a pleasure boat, this book is a must-add to your collection of cruising guides.



2. Bill Wolversten in this, the first in a three-volume guide to Cruising the British Columbia waters, does a great job helping both the "Yachties" and the "Sporties" find the best places to spend an enjoyable time in BC. Bill offers a foundation of answers to: Where is it? How do I get there? and What is there? For enjoyment, he seasons this solid information with historical background and local knowledge. And finally, in case you didn't get the message from the text that Canada's BC is one of the world's best cruising ground, he drives the point home with stunningly beautiful pictures of the area. For anybody venturing into British Columbia in a pleasure boat, this and the other two books in the series are a must-add to your collection of cruising guides.

1 comments about Summits and Icefields.

1. This book is awesome. I spent my first winter in the Canadian Rockies, and this book really helped me exploring several summits and icefields. The tour descriptions are truly detailed, I only needed this book and a map and that was it. The only thing missing is the datum of the grid references given for GPS navigation. But that wasn't a major problem. Great book.

1 comments about Wilderness Rivers of Manitoba: Journey by Canoe Through the Land Where the Spirit Lives.

1. I enjoyed this book and it is in many ways a very unusual book. It was written by Hap Wilson with the help of his wife Stephanie Aykroyd. They are experienced wilderness activists, canoe adventurers, and photographers. Hap has written other similar books and they live north of Toronto in Ontario, Canada (the province next to Manitoba) in a semi-wilderness and cottage area know as Muskoka. They are very passionate about their wilderness experiences and their various views on the environment and canoeing. I am from Manitoba originally, owned a canoe in that region, and know a little bit about the area. Having said that, this book covers some of the most remote areas of the province and the rivers - especially the most northerly - are rarely travelled by the general public. So this book is a bit of a pioneering effort and a great introduction. Some of the river trips last months.
   
   The book is a combination of personal philosophy about the use of wilderness areas, an introduction to river canoeing, river etiquette, photographs and maps. The book can be enjoyed even if you never leave home. After hearing about polar bears some will want to stay at home.
   
   Once we get passed the introduction, there is an approximate 25 page long guide to the climate, vegetation, and wildlife of Manitoba along with tips and techniques for camping and preparing for the river trips. This is mainly text and photos with a variety of hand sketches.
   
   Next they follow a formula approach where each river system is discussed and presented as a trip - which Hap and others have made - accompanied with a river guide, hand drawn sketches of the rivers down to the sub kilometre level to show rapids and boat paths through rapids, photographs, comments on rapids, portages, degree of difficulty, insects, wildlife, length, access, etc. This takes about 130 pages. They cover 11 rivers starting in the southeast with the Manigotagan that flows through a forested region and they continue northward, river after river, finally to the Caribou River that runs through northern rolling Precambrian plain to Hudson Bay. This river runs through a northerly region that has a July mean temperature hovering around just 13 C or 56 F, and is almost but not quite void of life. They go to great lengths and according to the authors it took years to produce detailed guide. They describe each river in detail, river by river, each river with comments so that one can use the book as a practical river guide - supported with additional maps.
   
   I have two minor complaints. The author likes to embellish the book with complicated words when simpler will do and because he is not John Updike it does not add to the book an some long words somehow feel out of place, i.e: "a landscape so discrete and multifarious as to beguile the senses", etc. just seems out of place when compared to the rest of the writing. My second peeve is the introduction. The author spent a lot of time and effort making the trips and doing the required research and making the maps, and detailing each river in a standardized format - all great stuff. But the introduction contains a lot of sentences and phrases that as I mentioned above seem out of place but shed little light on the subject and where the book will take us. It would be better to have a crisply written executive type summary at the start that summarizes where the book is summarized, saying for example, I travelled down the Pigeon River in 1998 in July with two other people during medium flow and warm and sunny weather. It took us 10 days. The trip down the Berens River was made a month later and took a week, etc. so we get a general feel for how long all the trips took and when and at what time of the year the trips were made. I read the book once and then found myself jumping back and forth to generate my own overview of the situation of what he did in terms of trips and dates. It is still not clear to myself. These are minor complaints but a better introduction/summary would help with simple English - constructive criticism - I hope.
   
   Otherwise this is a great book, I am glad that I purchased the book. It shows what and where a novice can do to start, and what river to take, and how to plan a trip. Also it alerted me to the fact that the authors have other similar nature books.

No comments about Lonely Planet USA & Canada On A Shoestring (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides).

3 comments about Thomas Guide Pacific Northwest Road Atlas.

1. An excellent road guide for the NW, if you still prefer paper like I do.
   Not much else can be said about it. There are quite a few details of larger cities in the NW, as you'd imagine, and decent info on the smaller towns.



2. It is complete in that it covers the Northwest, but the detail in rural areas is poor once you get outside of the cities.



3. I bought this atlas for a wine-tasting trip through Washington and Oregon. Unfortunately, unlike Thomas's California atlases, this one did not include wineries. Also, the atlas needs a better overall map of the area for use in trip planning. The one in the atlas doesn't have enough information to be useful for anything except locating pages in the atlas.

2 comments about The Christian Bed and Breakfast Cookbook.

1. This cookbook is great to add to your collection. It has down - home cooking that will take you out of the breakfast or brunch doldrums. It has more than breakfast, but all the recipes are mostly simple but taste great. It is enjoying to read about each bed and breakfast and the people that run them. I'm not only getting a cookbook, but also a reference book of christian hospitality to use whenever I might be travelling.



2. This book is wonderful. It's full of many delicious recipies. I have done two prayer breakfasts and used recipies from this book and everyone raved about the food. Sticky buns and breakfast casserole recipies are fantastic along with many others I have tried. Book was on sale at my bible book store and I bought the last two they had for gifts. Now I need another one. Great book, everyone should buy one.