No comments about Maine Curiosities, 2nd: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, and Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series).

3 comments about Alone in the Appalachians: A City Girl's Trek from Maine to the Gaspe (Raincoast Journeys).

1. oh i want to do it too!!
   with Ms Dykstra (canadian!) i hiked from Maine to Gaspe on the IAT.
   as an armchair traveller i found this short book (137 pages) thoroughly enjoyable. easy to read, wonderfull glossy pages and photos, heartfelt humour and pain; i wanted more. the end of the book has extensive guide lines for those who want to do the hike.



2. Reading this book is like having your best friend sit down across the table from you and tell you about her vacation, while showing you the beautiful pictures she took along the way. Dykstra is a natural storyteller who has a knack for meeting people and then describing her encounters in quick, deft word portraits. Her fascinating, often hilarious account of her journey kept me in awe, and in stitches, from beginning to end. She doesn't appear to hold back her emotions in her writing and her description of both the joys and occasional disappointments of solitary backpacking give her account a rawness and honesty that I haven't read in other travel books. As well, Raincoast has done an excellent job in reproducing her photos in this book. It's like reading a National Geographic article extended to book-length.
   If I have any criticism of this book it is that it had to end. Dykstra's seven-week journey on the Appalachian Trail flashes by in just a few hours of reading time, when I wanted it to keep on going and going and going... Perhaps the publisher can talk her into walking the remainder of the Trail, from Maine to Georgia, and we can have another enchanting book that is three times as long and filled with even more breathtaking photos. My highest possible recommendation for purchase.



3. The author took many photographs, which appear in the book and which are worth the price of the book by themselves. One quibble I have is that the author admits to skipping parts of the trail by hitchhiking, canoeing and taking a bus. For example, I looked for a description of the last part of the trail along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, but the book does not describe this part perhaps because the author skipped it by taking a bus. Most of this trail is road walking, so I do not blame the author. But in the interest of truth in advertising.... As other reviewers have noted, the author adeptly describes the people she met along the way.

3 comments about In The Footsteps of Thoreau: 25 Historic & Nature Walks on Cape Cod.

1. By reading and using this book, not only you'll know each footsteps that Thoreau took in Cape Cod, but you'll discover his personal experience and the growth that took in Cape Cod. If you are living in Cape Cod, this book is a MUST HAVE book. You will be able to discover the beauty and richness of your land. And with this book, you can take a profound journey with Henry David Thoreau that will refresh and recreate your life. Buy this book and take a trip with Thoreau!



2. I live on Cape Cod and have been working my way through Thoreau's footsteps chapter by chapter - what a fun time and an absolutely fascinating read. Thank you Adam, you have captured the Cape in a way most visitors and locals only dream of experiencing.



3. Many people come to Cape Cod every summer, but so few know much about the cape. I'd recommend that if you're one of the many people who rent a Cape house in the summer... bring this book along with you. You'll love it and you'll see the Cape differently and perhaps... find yourself walking in the footsteps of Thoreau.

3 comments about Islands in Time: A Natural and Cultural History of the Islands of the Gulf of Maine.

1. This is a beautiful book--I'm sorry to see that no one has commented on it yet. It gives a wealth of information about the geology, ecology, and ecosystem of coastal Maine, but even better, it's written in a style that often verges on the poetic. Can't recommend it highly enough.



2. When Phil Conkling came out with the first edition of Islands in Time he more or less created a genre of Human Ecological writing that was actually of use to a wide audience. Mixing history, geology, ecology and geography with a healthy dose of the story-tellers whimsy the book has become something of a cult classic for many of us in the Archipelago. Unfortunately the second edition is a bit of a step backward. It's big. too big. The first edition fitted comfortably in a daypack -this seems aimed more at coffee tables. It's chatty, and I think that a rather savage editor would have worked wonders. We get a bit too much of the "and-then-Raven-gave-a-thump-as-she-ran-over-the-puffin" style of writing & it tends to distract us from some really good stories & the solid history/natural history that shone so clearly from the first edition. That being said, if you are only going to take one book with you Downeast & are going the whole way Downeast, and can't find the first edition, get this.



3. I'm just finishing my first read of this book, and all I want to do is go back to the beginning and read it all again. This book is filled with people, history, nature, fascinating anecdote, gorgeous prose, introspective rumination, and too much rich information to even begin to digest in one reading. Conkling is a scientist comfortable with an amazing array of subjects and he is also a humanist and pretty-nearly a poet. I have a tendency to fall into the bleeding-heart environmentalist category, and while not offending my sensibilities in the least (he loves nature with a passion), he opened my eyes to many valid coastal points of view among the lobstermen, fishermen, and others. I changed my mind about a number of things while reading his book and I love Maine even more as a result of reading it. Lovely, informative, fascinating book! I'm one of those English-major types and a writer, and Conkling has not only increased my respect for science but has shown me how beautifully the arts and sciences can blend in a thoughtful, productive, earth-changing way.

No comments about The Maine Woods.

3 comments about Bicycling the Atlantic Coast: A Complete Route Guide, Florida to Maine.

1. Used this book for the DC to Boston stretch. Good information about campgrounds and sights to see along the way. Donna's route was good at keeping us off most of the main roads and taking us through the more scenic back roads, but sometimes it seemed we spent more time reading the map and looking for street signs than bicycling. Good orientation information about each stretch.



2. this book was recommended to me via a newsgroup posting back in 1997, during my planning for an east coast solo tour. while the author's itinerary took her all the way to maine, mine started in naples, FL, and ended in washington, d.c. i found the book to be most useful in planning my route and campground locations. i followed up my reading of this book with the acquisition of road maps and a AAA campground guide for my route. in and of itself, the book was more enlightening than a detailed touring planning guide, but this was not the author's intent; rather, this book is more of a diary, and certainly helped give the flavor of a day-to-day tour. other books which went into detail regarding the logistics of a loaded tour were essential as well. i would recommend this book to the newcomer to loaded touring.



3. I found the author's guide information to be easy to understand and use. I have ridden some of the areas discussed and would have benefitted from the information in the guide. Definately recommend anyone planning to cycle along any portion this route use "Bicycling the Atlantic Coast" as one of their planning tools.
   
   Win Allred

1 comments about Edge of Maine (Directions).

1. I sent this to a sick friend in Maine. She loved it, her husband loved it, and now they are sharing it with others, but only with the promise they will get it back.I will have to get on the list to borrow it.

5 comments about The Maine Woods (Penguin Nature Library).

1. This screed from Thoreau is obviously not as classic as his work on Walden, but here we may be seeing the beginning of the travelogue business. Thoreau is often misrepresented (by those who haven't read his works, or have read them too many times) as a hardcore back-to-nature hermit who lived off the land and rejected civilization. One read of his Walden story disproves that stereotype, and in this work about three trips to Maine's wild country, we can surely see Thoreau's social side all the more. At the time, the Maine Woods were surely a thrilling landscape ripe for exploration and adventure, and Thoreau gives us an enjoyable travelogue of his ramblings and recreations. A bonus is great coverage of the Indians of the area, especially Thoreau's longtime traveling colleague Joe Polis. The only problem here is that Thoreau's introspective naturalist philosophy is mostly missing at this stage of his career, and he pretty much accidentally invents descriptive travel writing instead. This is still a worthy exploration if you're interested in the Maine Woods either as they were then or if you wish to explore them today. But Thoreau's classic naturalism is better found in his other works. [~doomsdayer520~]



2. Published posthumously, this volume lacks some cohesiveness as it is divided into 3 separate trips. Thoreau is a master of blending materials from different experiences into one single cohesive and consistent volume -- he did that in Walden (which gives one the feel of one year even though he lived there for about two years) and Cape Code (which gives one the feel of one long walk, even though the material is from several trips), so it makes me wonder what he could have done had he been able to finish this book in his lifetime?
   
   That being said, it is still a great book. Thoreau's observations of nature and of Native American people are vivid, his cry for conservation profound and still resonating. There are also sparks of the dry New England humor here and there, making it a very enjoyable read. One only wishes that he had lived longer and given us more -- what if he had been to the Rockies, the desert southwest? It gives me chills just thinking about it.
   
   In a sense this is a travelogue, but I don't think we should be too critical in judging it -- not every book has to be Walden, and there can only be one Walden after all. It is a travelogue with authentic Thoreau flavor. I would gladly take 10 more travelogues like this one if only I could.



3. What a shame most people will never get beyond Walden...
   
   This title is a joy and stands on its own. First up is a short piece about an early ascent of Ktaadn, followed by a longer one on the Allegash & East Branch. If you read nothing else, open it to the middle of pg 22 (& ends on 23). It will take 1 minute and enthrall you with observations and the call of the Wild Boreal North Woods as they were long before roads or even trails and certainly before the great northern paper companies cut their unending swaths through virgin lands. His reflections on the ponds and natives (the Brookies) are as intimate and priceless as the jewels themselves. His opine references to the Greeks are as relevant today as they were then or 4,000 years ago. I first came across a copy in the White House Library (at a dinner reception i could not resist seeing what comforted our leaders during long & troubled nights). It took me several years to track down a copy but it was worth the process.
   
   Do not read this and compare it to Walden or as a some window into Thoreau, but for sheer joy of kicking off the canoe at Telos and the wonder of the north country.



4. These trips taken before the Civil War, Thoreau makes the journey that people dream of today. He had to be one of the first conservationists, noting that killing animals indiscrimenatly and over-harvesting the forest was a bad thing. Yet even back then he recounts seeing these practices being done. It was fun to follow his trail on the Gazetteer, and find the names of the rivers and lakes that the Indians had given them.



5. "The Maine Woods" relates three separate trips Henry Thoreau made to the Mount Katahdin and Allagash Wilderness Waterway region of Maine At 29 years old in 1846, at 36 years old in 1853, and at 40 years old in 1857. In each of the stories he travels with a friend by rail, steamboat, and coach to the starting point, hires a guide, and embarks on his adventure. Even for a reader familiar with the region, it is essential to keep a map handy to follow the author in his travels. In the first trip he hires a local outfitter as a guide, and poles up the West Branch of the Penobscot River, across lakes and up streams, as close to Mt. Katahdin as he can get, then climbs to the summit of what the Indians called Ktaadn, or "highest land," and now called Mt. Katahdin. His route up the mountain approximated what we now know as the Abol trail, though with no trail to follow, his experience was very different from today's Abol daypacker. He summited on a cloudy day, and missed out on the breathtaking views, though he did get infected with the spiritual bug, and he waxes philosophical as he makes his way back down. Thoreau's enduring memory of the region is "the continuousness of the forest." Thanks to the generous 209,501 acre gift of one of Maine's Governors, Percival Baxter, that memory of Thoreau's is also likely to be yours.
   
   By contrast, the second story is less adventurous, being a canoe-camping trip on Chesuncook and surrounding lakes. Thoreau ends the story reflecting on man's vulnerability in the wilderness, and prays that man will not become "civilized off the face of the earth." I take this trip to be fundamentally a reconnaissance for the third and most ambitious of his trips, titled "The Allagash and East Branch." He went to Maine this time intending to make the standard Allagash Wilderness Waterway trip that many of us plan and few ever make. He lets himself get talked out of it and into a considerably more difficult trip. He starts as with the Chesuncook trip, but carries on northward into Chamberlain, Eagle, Telos, and Webster Lakes, and through Webster Stream to Second Lake and Great Lake Matagamon. From there it's flat water down the East Branch of the Penobscot. The Webster Stream segment was basically a ten mile portage. Fortunately he had hired a most remarkable Indian Guide, Joe Polis. Polis took his homemade birch bark canoe down through the Webster Stream rapids alone, and Thoreau and his companion (whom he unaccountably never names), fought their way through the thick underbrush and the jumble of trees along the riverbank. In summary, he takes the West Branch upstream as far as it goes, traverses the high elevation lakes over to the headwaters of the East Branch, and completely circles the Katahdin massif in the process.
   
   Thoreau does not consistently delight the reader with is craft; his creative spirit is intermittent. But when inspired, he rises to the task:
   
   Referring to the logs which get hung up along the shore, waiting for a freshet to carry them down to the sawmill, he writes, "Methinks that must be where all my property lies, cast up on the rocks along some distant and unexplored stream, and waiting for an unheard of freshet to fetch it down."
   
   And about the noises he hears at night, "When camping in such a wilderness as this, you are prepared to hear sounds from some of its inhabitants which give voice to its wildness."
   
   And his boatmen: "...so cool, so collected, so fertile in resources are they."
   
   And anyone who has trod through the dark, damp woods between those lakes will recognize this: "It was impossible for us to discern the Indian's trail in the elastic moss, which like a thick carpet, covered every rock and fallen tree, as well as the earth.
   
   And while experiencing one of the Allagash's classic thunderstorms: "I thought it must be a place where the thunder loved, where the lightning practiced to keep its hand in, and it would do no harm to shatter a few pines.

2 comments about Hikes in Northern New England (Exploring the Appalachian Trail).

1. A Helpful guide to hikes along the Appalation Trail in Maine. The guide gives general information as well as specific information about the trail. Each hike includes specific places, distances, where to find a lean-to, and water.



2. I am in the process of section hiking the AT, and this book was a great supplement to the regular guides and maps. It was especially helpful in the more difficult sections such as the Mahoosuc Range because it identified the most and least strenous sections - very useful in planning where to stop and how many miles to try in a day. For example, for northbound hikers, the first 9-10 miles from Route 2 north are not too bad, while the rest are a real challenge. Instead of trying for the usual 10 or more miles per day, I knew where to plan for 5-mile days. I was not disappointed - these were TOUGH miles.
   
   In general, the authors' descriptions of difficulty matched my experience on the trail. I am sometimes a little slower than they predict, but then, I am a little older than most of the people on the trail!
   
   The book is NOT a complete guide to the AT sections - almost all of the hikes use other trails to access the AT. But it is still very useful.
   
   In addition, the authors provide lots of human and natural history. Example: Want to know why there is a trail called Six Husbands in the White Mountains? It's because an Amerindian queen decided she wanted that many mates. They do refer to her as "polygamous" rather than "polyandrous," but that'a a quibble.
   
   The maps (topographic and elevation profile) are a helpful reference, and information about road access is also helpful in planning.
   
   Highly recommended!

No comments about Nicholas: A Maine Tale.