5 comments about Idaho Atlas and Gazetteer (State Atlas & Gazetteer).

1. For planning a trip to Idaho, what could be better than having topo maps of the whole state in one book? Locate trails and campgrounds, look up ranger stations and regulations, or just day-dream. Excellent research tool! I have them for every Northwest state.



2. I made the terrible mistake of touring Idaho with an old (1994) edition of the DeLorme Idaho Atlas. Fortunately I had a whole sackful of BLM and Forest Service maps to get me out of tight situations caused by relying on DeLorme's information. The atlas shows roads that are not there, and does not show roads that are there. The land management boundaries are incorrect in many crucial instances, and sites are drastically misplaced.

   I very much like the additional topographical information in the new edition, but I also noticed they did not correct any of the cartographic errors. So-- fine for casual use or for general trip planning, but contact the BLM or Forest Service before you head out on the back roads.




3. Good points: This atlas is the most available and easy to use topographical atlas on the market. It has helped me get into many off-highway areas with great experiences. The roadnames are particularly useful, as these are not on USGS topo maps. Road condition classification also seems to be more accurate than the outdated USGS quads. Bad points: DeLorme gives a false sense of accuracy. On the reverse side of the front cover they advise to measure distance in tenths of miles. No one should pretend to be this accurate at the scale they use. They do explain that the distance will be "slightly" more than measured. On windy roads this could be up to one more mile for every three. My biggest disappointment with the Idaho atlas came after I looked at DeLorme's atlases for Washington and Oregon. Although I have never used them for off-highway travel, it is plain to see that they are better scale, better detail, and there are more features and attractions shown. All the Idaho atlas is is an updated copy of the USGS 1:250K topo maps. Is Idaho not popular enough or what?



4. I use the Delorme Gazetteers, including this one, for planning my fishing trips every year. They include comprehensive coverage of the state in question with sufficient detail to identify all the major topological features one will find, including streams and lakes. Also, they show all the roads. One criticism is that they don't contain road mileages between locations, unlike a highway atlas. But, a highway atlas will not show topographic coutour lines, or indicate locations where one may launch kayaks or rafts, or show locations reputed to have good fishing. I keep a Delorme Gazetteer for each state in which I expect to travel on any extended drive. They enable me to find campgrounds (in the indexes and shown on the maps), roads, topography, and all the essentials to plan a trip.



5. These Delorme Atlas & Gazetters are wondeful. They show you many features not available through GPS, maps or other atlases. It is a great feature to have the BLM lands marked as well as the back roads. Good resources are also included in each states atlas. A good addition to anyone's travel tools.

5 comments about Maryland Delaware Atlas & Gazetteer (State Atlas & Gazetteer).

1. It's Wednesday evening. You're trying to think of something new and different to do with you weekend. Your loved one(s) are bored and restless and want to do something different. It's all up to you... What to do...

   If you've been there before, there is one solution - this book of great maps. In addition to the detailed accuracy of the maps, there is a great section that details locations of interest, places to go, things to do, phone numbers you can call to make arrangements and get info. This could be the book that saves your weekend!

   Stored in your car, it could also be the book that get's you where you want to go without driving to a gas station to get directions. If you've tried that lately, you know that your chances of getting good directions to far-off places are slim to none.

   I have purchased several of these books - one for each state that I frequent. Whenever I want to get away, I take them out and see what I can find. We have visited covered bridges, homes built by Frank Lloyd Wright, cliffs and caves, museums and all kinds of historic landmarks.

   For the price of a nice meal, you will have a travel companion for many years to come. While you can get maps on the internet, most of us still don't have that at our disposal when we are on the road. This book will be your guide!




2. I originally used Delorme road maps of NH, VT, ME & NY when I hiked extensively in the High Peaks of New England. They were EXTREMELY helpful in navigating the confusing mess of old logging roads, etc.
   
   I bought this map while planning a cycling trip from Virginia Beach to Philadelphia. While it looks like it's probably the best thing out there which would give road maps of the entire state, it doesn't show as much detail as a local map would.



3. These state gazetteers make traveling the back roads a pleasure, and is a great value from Amazon.



4. The only atlas I've found which shows the whole penninsula. That makes it easy to find directions around traffic without using two or three maps. Wonderful for those of us who know the major routes but always wondered to where the side routes lead.



5. We bought this map/gazetteer in preparation for our trip to Maryland. I am satisfied with the quality of the atlas, it's easy to read and well organized.

No comments about Quiet Places of Massachusetts: Country Rambles, Secluded Beaches, Backroad Excursions, Romantic Retreats.

No comments about Explore Cape Breton: A Field Guide to Adventure (Maritime Travel Guides).

No comments about Fifty Hikes in Vermont: Walks, Hikes, and Overnights in the Green Mountain State (Fifty Hikes Series).

5 comments about My First Summer in the Sierra.

1. John Muir was born in 1838 and at a young age emigrated from Scotland with his family to a Wisconsin farm. He escaped the hard labor of the farm and his father's backward Biblical obsessions by displaying great powers of visualization. From principles learned from books, he whittled and fashioned barometers, thermometers, clocks and other marvels from the barest of materials. But he repudiated his inventive genius, which could have made him rich, after an industrial accident left him temporarily blinded; and he took off for the wilderness to discover plants and the natural world.
   
   This book is a journal account of Muir's finding a place for himself in Yosemite after some dangerous wandering through the hazards of reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. It's a book of discovery. Although flocks of sheep like Muir's employer's were allowed to overrun backcountry meadows, and gold miners had ripped apart the lower river beds, the Sierras then were still a place that had many aspects that had not yet been explored or understood. The backcountry was much more vulnerable to exploitation (though in many ways less endangered) than today, but there was freer and unfettered access for one who sought out it's mysteries and wanted to learn. This book shows Muir's powers of visualization in his beginning to formulate the role that glaciers play in the formation of the landscape. No one at that time had come to a solid understanding of what had made Yosemite Valley. And, although it might seem quite clear in retrospect, it took a strong mind of one who up until that time had been adrift in the world, a wanderer who studied plants, to visualize his theories and make them known to the world.
   
   Anyone who has not experienced the Sierra first hand cannot really appreciate this book. There are lengthy and numerous descriptions of plants and animals, loving descriptions in Muir's fashion, that can only be understood by one who has reveled in the same places and likewise wants to examine all the details. It's not a purely intellectual appreciation. It's something felt with the whole body, with all the senses alive. Muir always writes of being drawn into Nature, of never turning back, as in the case of his foolhardy venture to the brink of Yosemite Falls, "I therefore concluded not to venture farther, but did nevertheless". There's also this kind of breathless anticipation of tomorrow- if only I will be given a chance to explore its fountains...



2. John Muir might be the finest author of the "naturalist" genre there ever was. This book is based on his field notes he wrote while he spent his first summer in the Sierra Nevada as a shepherd. He always seems to find the perfect words to describe all that he sees. He was the consumate observer of the natural world and this book is all that. It is a must read for anyone who ever wondered what his life was like, how the Sierra Nevada appeared in the late 1800s, and how he became America's savior of public lands.



3. I am going to resign from critiquing this book on a literary scale, and just say that I didn't enjoy this book for the same reason a couple others mentioned - its boring and repetitive. Maybe its because I'm not used to aimless - albeit eloquent -landscape descriptions, or maybe it's the fact that NOTHING happens for 264 pages, but reading this book felt more like a chore than an enjoyable reading experience. Case in point: Casual readers beware!



4. Gretel Ehrlich provides the introduction. It is noted that John Muir walked first, wrote later. In 1868 he was thirty years old and had walked a thousand miles. He was a seeker in self-exile such as D.H. Lawrence, Rockwell Kent, and Basho. Muir chronicles a rite of passage. The summer described began in June, 1869. Forty-one years later the account was pieced together.
   
   Muir worked for Mr. Delaney as a sheepherder. He had a St. Bernard dog as a companion. Mr. Delaney encouraged Muir to sketch and pursue his naturalist studies. He was to learn that sheep cannot be governed when hungry. Bushes are stripped. The sheep resemble locusts in their destructive potential.
   
   Two kinds of squirrels are evident, the Douglas and the California Gray. The wood rat is more like a squirrel than a rat. He bulds large striking looking houses. Sheep camp bread is baked in Dutch ovens. Descriptions of silver firs, Sierra juniper, yellow and sugar pines, Douglas spruce, sequoia, hemlock, and dwarf pines appear in the account of the summer. Nature is extravagant. The group follows the Yosemite trail.
   
   Mules flee from bears, and dogs want to. Bears are very shy. Indian patience is required to see them. Making sheep cross a stream is a challenge. Once one goes in, the others push in pell-mell. Lake Tenaya was named for one of the chiefs of the Yosemite tribe. Sierra mosquitoes are nearly an inch long. Sierra chipmunks are arboreal and squirrel-like. Grouse and woodpeckers are abundant in the vicinity of Mount Hoffman.
   
   On August third Muir found Professor Butler, his teacher at the University of Wisconsin, because, sensing his presence, John Muir made inquiries at the only hotel in the area and was directed to go to the Vernal Falls. Professor Butler and his party were astonished that John Muir found them.
   
   In times of hunger the dogs, men, and sheep are confronted with lions, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and panthers. The names of places are exciting and descriptive--Moraine Lake, Mono Desert, Soda Springs, Unicorn Peak, Cathedral Range, Tuolumne, Hetch-Hetchy Valley. Muir's self-directed studies in botany clearly account for some of the strengths of this nature narrative. In the end Mr. Delaney tells Muir he will be famous some day.The author describes himself as an incredible wilderness lover. September twenty second ended Muir's first excursion.
   
   The book is a marvel. Sketches and photographs are included and enhance the work.



5. This is an excellent, honest write. Muir reluctantly dictated this book while walking around a northern California estate. The wealthy owner of the estate loaned his secretary while Muir walked and talked and the secretary took dictation. Muir had the benefit of good editors. It is a great read because Muir is walking through forests while he recounts his first summer in the Sierra Nevada. We feel it through his eyes.
   
   Muir's later writing efforts came hard, with much editing and rewrites. He worked in his "scribble den" in Martinez with "lateral, terminal and medial moraines of paper arranged about the room ready to cascade forth and bury him."
   
   The original manuscripts show much of the book was written in pencil, with at least five editings (Muir made corrections and alterations). Graham cracker crumbs are embedded in the paper (Muir ate while he worked. Eating graham crackers is a carry over from his student days at the University of Wisconsin).
   
   This is the genuine John Muir, fresh, crisp, articulate (okay, his descriptions can be a bit wordy at times) and alive with a child-like fascintation for learning and inspiration.
   
   I own an original first edition copy with the dust cover and gold leaf on the hard bound cover. I reread the book from time to time. What a great story.

5 comments about Theatre of Fish: Travels Through Newfoundland and Labrador.

1. "Fish without end" is Newfoundland and Labrador's social, economic and political burden. For something no longer there, the weight seems strangely ponderous. In this account of Canada's youngest Province [cliche for sale - cheap], barrister and travel writer John Gimlette takes us on an historical and sociological tour of the Newfoundland that was - and is. Although a Londoner, Gimlette has ties to "The Rock". His great-grandfather, Dr Eliot Curven, tended bodies and souls in the distant colony, and Wilfred Grenfell was headmaster of Gimlette's school. Grenfell's adventures in Newfoundland clearly helped inspire Gimlette's sprightly prose in relating his follow-along journey.
   
   Gimlette understands the multicultural foundation of this location at "the Edge of the World" as many Canadians do not. He reminds us of the Basque, Portugese, and Spanish who preceded the first hesitant British probings along those shores. He reminds us that cod [the only fish under consideration here] could be taken up in baskets. Photographs in the book show these weren't "pan frys" but substantial animals. With fish so plentiful and the means to take them so restricted, it was natural that control of the industry would pass to a few. Gimlette describes the rise of the "Fishocracy" where a few merchants controlled the flow and price of fish. That control passed along to the entire social structure of the island. Even the "home" government in London had far less power than the merchants. There were the merchants and the fishermen - no "middle class" could arise and farming was next to impossible on the rocky barrens. And now the fish are gone.
   
   Using his great-grandfather's journal, Gimlette tours The Rock [Newfoundland] and along the Labrador coast. His journey is spiced with historical accounts of the original settlers and their modern descendants. The stories aren't always happy reading. Poverty and struggle are a fundamental element in life here. If nothing else, the wind is able to toss houses and shift churches on their foundations. And in tightly packed communities of wooden dwellings, fire is an ever-present threat. St John's itself burned in the 19th Century alone. Grenfell arrived just after one of these conflagrations. In remote towns, dogs offer one threat while the polar bears provide another. Life here may be hard, but it shouldn't be boring. Yet that's exactly what led one of Gimlette's contacts into local politics.
   
   Gimlette's narrative is a rollicking adventure of observation and commentary. He's hardly a "detached" journalist, as his account of Premier Joey Smallwood's career demonstrates. There are heroes, heroines and villains aplenty. Gimlette manages to understand a few of them, even though 66 dialects have been identified and to him, one man sounds as if he's "speaking Irish through shingle". Gimlette doesn't fall into the trap of simply cataloging local idiosyncracies, however. He's more interested in, and relates with fine prose skills, the lives and struggles of people living in a forbidding place. Ye'll never use the term 'Newfie' again, b'y. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]



2. An interesting narrative of the author's travels through Newfoundland and Labrador- a little known corner of North America. An intriguing insight to the fall of a society when the natural resources - i.e., the Cod - disappeared.



3. 
   John Gimlette is downright poetic as he describes the geographic, social and sad economic landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador. This prose poetry has a style, but I'm at a loss to say what that style could be called.
   
   His ability to turn a phrase, though, is outdone by the Newfies and Labs themselves... "She'd an eye for my father... always put her tent up he did"... a boat ran into "dirty weather" (a hurricane) and "Got no eyes... got no teeth... but I still shoot". Once you get into it, you laugh out loud when Gimlette tells a local he's a lawyer. Without any of the modern sensibilities about this, the Newfie resonds, "So you're a li'ar, you say."
   
   It's a harsh world he describes using information that I don't believe is available anywhere else. Besides quotes from his great great grandfather's journal, there are recounts of new stories and oral histories. One weakness is that not all sources are attributed in the text and there are no footnotes. He catalogs many horrible ways people have died of cold, hunger and dogs. He tells of famous people who came to this area, made history and left without a trace.
   
   Gimlette describes the "Truck" system that ruled till the 1950s, the fish equivalent of sharecropping, that served to entrench poverty. (Some fisherman never used money in their lives.) With the end of fish in the 1990's, government assistance helped some and 50,000 others left.
   
   I've been to the South Coast of Newfoundland, which he briefly describes in more positive terms than any other place in the book. Reading about this merely "Dickensian" area is somewhat like a relief after all the tragedy JG describes elsewhere on this rock. I stayed in a home much like he describes (clean... momentos... scant furnishings...no running water). The beauty of the landscape and the hospitality of the people left me totally unaware of the suffering all around. This book, is lovingly written and communicates the writer's affection for the area and his understanding of and empathy with its people.
   
   If Gimlette decides to trace his great great grandfather's steps in China, I'll be very interested in that book.



4. I wonder if Newfoundland or Labrador has a Tourist Board or some such. If so, I don't think you'll find this book among their recommendations. Time and again, Gimlette promises to treat the land and its denizens fairly. This, he does. Unfortunately, this retelling the story of the people and their history is gruesome, despairing, horrific and almost irremediably bleak. From expert methods of scalping (down to the lips) by the historical aborigines to death by silicosis and the epidemic of glue-sniffing youth in more contemporary times, Gimlette spares not a detail in depicting a place I, for one, do not EVER want to visit, any more than I would want to visit Central Europe during the Thirty Years War. I see that a fellow reviewer has already packed up his kit. I wonder how long he'll last.
   
   I don't understand either why Gimlette's language has been dubbed "poetic". Perhaps these reviewers haven't read much poetry, but suffused with dark humour more aptly describes the writing. Visiting the outpost of Burgeo, Gimlette remarks, "I can think of no more perfect place to fall out of love." I can think of no more perfect book to make me stay away from Newfies and their land. Those of you who found this book somehow endearing must have turned the pages when the going got gruesome---about three/fourths of it. To Romanticize Newfoundland or Labrador is to Romanticize Hell on Earth.
   
   I am reminded of what the poet John Masefield (a great adventurer in his youth) said about it in his later years, "Have you ever seen a lost dog turning one way and then another to avoid being killed by a motorcar in the middle of a busy street? That's adventure."
   
   3 stars for the historical interest. Deo Laus, though, to be finished with this chronicle of rape, murder, suicide and chronic depression.



5. It's hard to imagine how this book could be improved upon. It is, first, a wonderful work of descriptive prose, containing brilliant character sketches in St. Johns, the horrors of a demoralized Native village, and the beauties of the various landscapes he encounters.
   
   To this, add a piercing historical review, containing not only exhaustive research but also the incomparable advantage of his grandfather's diaries, giving a first-hand account of perhaps the most significant events in the province's history. This would be akin to having the private papers of George Washington's aide-de-camp while writing about Valley Forge.
   
   To this, add Gimlette's inimitable writing style, which is deadly precise when needed and startling funny when the mood strikes him. His unprovoked description of moose as "luggage-faced, ugly, skinny-arsed, bog-squelching oafs" still makes me laugh. There's really nothing to be gained by romanticizing these creatures, as Gimlette understands.

3 comments about Understanding NAFTA: Mexico, Free Trade, and the New North America.

1. Orme presents a very readable account of the many changes taking place in Mexico as they relate to Nafta and the environment leading up to it. The book mainly discusses how Mexico and the US are integrating and largely ignores Canada, which he feels was taken care of in the FTA.

   Overall, a very good account and introduction.




2. This book is about Mexico - with litte coverage of how NAFTA affects Canada. It presents Mexico and its circumstances in a realistic manner. It is well written and easy to read. We recommend it to our clients interested in learning more about the Mexican people and the national economy. John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute.



3. Overall, I think this book is a very good analysis of NAFTA. It highlights the economic history of Mexico and the role of Salinas in getting NAFTA off the ground. Orme presents a wealth of material that has definitely increased my knowledge of the agreement. Orme does an excellent job in elucidating the good facets of NAFTA; however, to get a better viewpoint of what NAFTA has done at the local level, I would encourage someone to read any recent ethnography of rural peoples in Mexico. Particularly those farmers who are eking out a living in the southern parts of Mexico, so they can buy corn grown in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Orme barely mentions the Zapatista uprising, though this is due in part to the publication date of the book. Also, I think much of the optimism surrounding the agreement in the book has been largely muted by the events of 9/11. Issues surrounding tighter border security has, in large part, replaced those surrounding free trade.

2 comments about North Carolina Hiking Trails, 3rd.

1. If there's a walkway, path, or trail in North Carolina, it's probably in this book. Perhaps more remarkably, the author has hiked every one and measured almost all of them. The descriptions are from his personal journals, augmented by some researched background information on many parks, forests, and important trails.

   To convey this huge quantity of information in a relatively compact book, the author has adopted a shorthand style that's reminiscent of telegrams and classified ads. The only maps are two large foldouts that show the general locations of the trailheads. However, the lack of trail maps and the terse style make it difficult to understand how various trails interconnect (until you buy the topos). If that bothers you, try Randy Johnson's "Hiking North Carolina."




2. Very effective book- presents Hiking Trails in a very descriptive and accurate manner as far as I can tell. Easy to read material.

1 comments about The Rites of Autumn: A Falconer's Journey Across the American West.

1. If you are interested in falconry at all, this is a MUST READ! The story takes you from the hack site to the beaches of Texas. I ordered this book for my boyfriend (now husband!) many years ago based on a review that I read in Sports Illustrated. I recently read it again and it was better the second time around (maybe because I know more about falcons, falconry and especially falconers than I did before!). It is a great story, it wont take you long to read and anyone who has ever loved a bird and let it go will really appreciate it!