No comments about Canoe camping,: A guide to wilderness travel;.

No comments about North: Adventures in the Frozen Wild.

2 comments about Hiking the Great Basin: The High Desert Country of California, Nevada, and Utah (Sierra Club Totebook).

1. This is a book that packs a lot of worthy information into a small book that is easy to backpack. You will need detailed topo maps as those in the book are for overview only, but the hikes are exquisitely detailed and accurate. Many of the trips are in the less well-known areas of Nevada and Eastern California and will please those who like to hike without meeting anyone else. The author encourages readers to find alternative routes to destinations and, although most of the trips are to peaks, there are some easier canyon hikes. Longer trips definitely need experience and route-finding abilities.



2. John Hart is the real deal, and anyone hiking the Great Basin needs this book. His mileages are accurate and so are his descriptions of routes. The only criticism I offer is that the book is a bit dated--for example, there is an easy-to-follow use trail to Morey Peak instead of the XC route description JH offers. Also worth noting is that JH must have a very low-slung vehicle. Driving a garden-variety SUV (1996 Jeep Cherokee) I have never had any trouble on any of the roads he describes.

   Happy Hiking, M

No comments about Ante-bellum houses of Natchez.

2 comments about Nature Walks In Northern Vermont & the Champlain Valley: More than 40 Scenic Nature Walks throughout the Lake Champlain Region.

1. Take a hike but bring along Nature Walks in Norhtern Vermont when you do. In clear, concise prose, Elizabeth Bassett describes natural phenomena and explores human history as she leads you through the 43 walks. The book includes maps, driving instructions and a clear set of walking directions for each walk. You will better understand the geology, flora, and fauna which surround you and have a clear picture of how this land has been used over the millenia. Historic tidbits include Native American settlements, colonial artifacts, Revolutionary War lore, and tales of the Vanderbilt Webb familiy's environmental showcase at Shelburne Farms. The walks include ecosystems not always associated with northern Vermont: sand dunes, bogs, pitch pine forest, and river chasm. More traditional walks include waterfalls, potholes, Arctic-alpine tundra, and northern forests. Grab a copy and take your sturdy shoes, snow shoes or cross-country skis and set out!



2. I agree that this book is very good; however, the title is misleading. I live in northern Vermont and expected to see some nature walks in my area; however the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont was totally ignored! The title of this book should be "Nature Walks in Northwestern Vermont, Especially the Champlain Valley" because that is the area addressed.

1 comments about American Wilderness: A Journey Through the National Parks.

1. Very helpfull to find great parks & info about them. The photographs are not large but there great & very usefull to pick places to see because you don't see many state parks on some maps. There are many great state parks that you may miss without this book.

No comments about On the Trail of Lewis & Clark: Yesterday and Today.

No comments about The Romance of the Colorado River.

No comments about As Others See Chicago: Impressions of Visitors, 1673-1933.

3 comments about Bound for Santa Fe: The Road to New Mexico and the American Conquest, 1806-1848.

1. This authoritative volume from Stephen Hyslop sheds new light on an important aspect of the American story. Well-written and full of interesting facts, analysis, and captivating stories, this book is no dry history, but a thorough work that should have great appeal beyond the academic market. It is a book all American history buffs should enjoy. I know I did.



2. Once in a while a book attains benchmark status in the historiography of a particular subject. "Bound for Santa Fe," by Stephen G. Hyslop, might well do so. It has many of the necessary ingredients. Its palate is sweeping, and the author's handling of the story both complex and captivating. More than any other recent work of history on the Santa Fe trail and trade, it captures the essence of the story and relates it to an audience removed from it by some 175 years. Most of all, "Bound for Santa Fe" is an exceptionally well-written work of history, tantalizing in its depictions and seductive in the power of its narrative.

   Beginning with the earliest exploring parties from the United States into the Southwest, Hyslop takes the reader through the origins and development of the Santa Fe trade, using narratives from the trail as the centerpiece of a journey from Missouri to New Mexico. Along the trail readers meet the native peoples who had made the region their homes for centuries, the Santa Fe culture and its sometimes uneasy coexistence with Anglos from Missouri, and the unique world these various cultures made through their interactions.

   At the same time, the interactions proved surprising to both sides. As only one example, Missourians expressed dismay at the mores of the New Mexicans, and that cultural divide never seemed to end despite years of close contact. When trader John Scolly hauled his Latina wife, Juana Lopes, before a Mexican judge for adultery the outcome was remarkably different to what Scolly had expected. Lopes did not deny the charges, instead offering the belligerent explanation, as reported in the court record, that "it was her ass, she controlled it, and she would give it to whomever she wanted" (p. 266). The judge told her to quit "roving" and stay with her family but stopped short of punishing her, as would have undoubtedly been the case in the U.S. Such cultural differences sprinkle this work, demonstrating the oddity and attraction of these two civilizations.

   Hyslop completes his work with a discussion of American conquest of New Mexico in 1846-1848. He follows the path of the Army of the West under Stephen Watts Kearny, the experience of Alexander Doniphan and Sterling Price and their Missouri volunteers, the creation of a territorial government under Charles Bent, and the bloody Taos revolt.

   In 1979 John D. Unruh Jr. published "The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60" (University of Illinois Press), unraveling the complex story of the overlanders on America's longest trail. Hyslop offers a work very similar to Unruh's in style and substance for the Santa Fe trail, and it may become a standard on the subject for many years.




3. I had very high hopes for this book: The Santa Fe Trail through the eyes of those who were there. Many have used this venue and all of them have always improved the history, imparting a new understanding of events through the eyes of the participants.
   
   Its not that there isn't some good history here, it's that Hyslop applies this technique in a haphazard fashion. We view the trek through the eyes of the same 5-6 participants who traveled the trail at decidedly different points in time. The result is that rather than moving along the trail chronologically, as the participants being quoted did, we visit each point on the trail 5-6 times completely out of chronological sequence.
   
   The result is a hodge-podge of interpretations hopelessly out of sequence. In the end I felt sorry for the author; he obviously spent an immense amount of time in his effort and his work is historically accurate. But it is confusing; it misleads and changes or at least misstates the history that occurred as it unfolded. Taken out of sequence, the story is muted, watered down. And that is a damn shame because significant effort went into this work.