No comments about Virginia Birds.

5 comments about 50 Hikes in Northern Virginia: Walks, Hikes, and Backpacks from the Allegheny Mountains to Chesapeake Bay, Third Edition (50 Hikes in Northern Virginia).

1. This book is amazing for those that are just starting out or have been hiking all their lives. It gives you tips on how to get to the park or trail then tells you what to look for while on the trail. If you're planning a hike, I would't leave home without this one.



2. Leonard Adkins has written and compiled one of the best hiking guide books for the Northern Virginia area, filled with accurate maps, directions and trail history. With hikes from just a couple of miles to three day backpacks it has something for everyone. I've hiked ninety percent of the trails in this book and haven't been disappointed by one of them. This is a must have if you hike in the NOVA area. I haven't found another guide as well put together as this is. Leonard Adkins also has several other guide books covering the Mid-Atlantic that are every bit as good.



3. I almost bought this book, until I realized not a single hike described is actually in Northern Virginia, where I live. All the hikes are in Virginia, but "Northern Virginia" generally refers to the areas areound Washington, DC, say as far south as Stafford and as far west as Leesburg. These hikes are in Shennandoah National Park, western VA, and the Chesapeake Bay areas.



4. Just bought the third edition of 50 Hikes in Northern Virginia and I'm thrilled with what the author has put together. I'm not sure why the previous reviewer complained so much about the choice of hikes, almost all of them are within a couple hours' drive of the DC area. And what great hikes--the ones closest to DC include a walk along Bull Run, in Manassas National Battlefield, and Prince William National Forest. There are the old standbys, like Old Rag and Stony Man in Shenandoah, but also some little known ones a bit further west on Massanutten Mountain and near the Virginia/West Virginia border.
   I like that Mr. Adkins hiked all of the trails with a surveyors measuring wheel to insure accurate mileage, and that he provides the total accumulated elevation you will gain--not just the distance from the lowest to the highest point. Best of all, it's just a well written book with lots on info about what you will see and what took place in the area. By far the best of the hiking guides I've bought for this area. The hikes range from short easy ones, to all day jaunts, to extended multi-day trips.



5. I own the second edition of this book, so I don't know how it differs from the third. This is a great book, and I couldn't recommend it strongly enough. As a former DC-area resident who still returns frequently, I find this book indispensible for planning nearby hikes.
   
   Yes, he does have a somewhat expansive view of what constitutes Northern Virginia (is Newport News considered northern Virginia?). He explains that he had originally planned a 50-hikes in Virginia format, but found too many good hikes to narrow the list down to one book, hence the division into Northern Virginia hikes and Southern Virginia hikes. If your definition of "Northern Virginia" is confined to the DC metro, then "60 hikes with 60 miles, Washington DC" by Paul Elliot is the book for you. For those who like to escape the beltway exhaust, this is the book for you.
   
   As other reviewers have noted, the book contains both well-known hikes as well as some hidden gems in areas you might not have thought of before. As might be expected, the majority of the hikes cluster in the Blue Ridge mountains/Masanutten mountain/West Virgina border area, but there are still a surprising number listed for the Piedmont and Tidewater zones. Each hike comes with a topo map and descriptions brimming with notes about the local flora, fauna, and historical tidbits. There are also several black-and-white photos of the areas you'll visit to tantalize you with the views you will see.
   
   There is a very helpful table in the front of the book that list each hike by distance and features (Waterfall present?, Camping possible? Good for Kids?), to easily enable you to pick a hike that fits your agenda. While most hikes can be done as dayhikes, there are a few overnighters thrown in for balance.
   
   What this book is not:
   1)It is not a comprehensive overview of hiking northern Virginia. This is more like a "Highlights book". There will be no duds in here. For those wanting a comprehensive book (though not as user friendly),get Allen de Hart's Trails of Virginia: Hiking the Old Dominion instead. I find I like this book much better the de Hart's offering.
   2)It does not contain in general any trails that are involve DC or Maryland. The C&O towpath will not be found here, except as a brief portion of a trail in the Harper's Ferry area
   3)It is not a guidebook for the Appalachian Trail. The AT is featured prominently in several of the hikes. For those looking to hike the AT specifically, there are better resources out there.
   
   Overall, this book is the best balance between readability, map detail, selectivity, and variety that I have encountered for hiking the northern Virginia area. I consider it vastly superior to other books I have owned in the 50 Hikes series as well.

1 comments about Weekend Walks on the Delmarva Peninsula: Walks and Hikes in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, Second Edition (Weekend Walks).

1. Having flipped through this book I now have plans for several excursions once the weather improves. The book lays out a wide variety of hikes with descriptions, pictures, and maps. Based on these details and the estimated times, I expect this book will lead me through at least half a dozen different day trips. It offers just what I was hoping it would; I'm going to enjoy using this book.

No comments about Scenic Driving West Virginia.

No comments about Rand McNally Virginia: Highways & Interstates (Rand McNally Folded Map: States).

No comments about ADC the Map People 2007 Northern Virginia Street Map Book (Adc the Map People Northern Virginia).

No comments about Charlottesville, Virginia: Includes: University of Virginia Map, Monticello Map, Regional Map.

2 comments about Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg.

1. If you are planning a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, this is the book to have! It includes detailed drawings of each building, shop, tavern, and official hotels in the historic area. This book tells about each point of interest and ticket options. If you want to read up about the historic area before or after your trip, buy this book you won't regret it



2. Take this guidebook with you to Colonial Williamsburg, and it's almost like having a private tour guide showing you the high-points, and saving you wasted time getting around.
   
   Buy it as a souvenir, and you'll have the perfect refresher of all that you've seen, with some in-depth information about the buildings and people of the town.
   
   It's important to know that Colonial Williamsburg is, indeed, a living CITY, and there is more than can be seen in one day. The Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg is a valuable tool for that visit.

5 comments about Rock Climbing Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland.

1. This book provides accurate access and route information for over 25 climbing areas in the mid-atlantic region. And contrary to the previous review's comments (obviously "gabriel3493" has some personal issues), this book provides directions and route info only for OPEN climbing areas. In fact, the author spends a lot of time discussing access considerations and climber advocacy, and he definitely does not even encourage trespassing. Read the book, use the book, and you'll see it's "right on."



2. Very detailed, professionaly written, accurate. In fact provides more information on a given area than other publications. I climbed using this book as a guide.



3. This FalconGuide is one of the better ones available, and for the travelling climber, or the DC-centric climber, probably THE book to have (there are non-Falcon guides that specifically cover Virginia and Maryland in more detail, but are only really useful if you primarily climb in those specific states). Eric Horst worked long and hard, contacting a plethora of local climbers at the various crags noted within these pages to get route information, do photo shoots, and be given tours of the area to get a general feel of the land. He covers some of the more or most popular areas in Maryland/DC/Virginia (Sugarloaf, Rocks State Park, Great Falls, Crescent Rocks) as well as *the* two big weekend destinations in West Virginia (Seneca Rocks, New River Gorge), but interspersed are numerous "local" crags that you might never have known about otherwise (short of locating one of the state-specific or crag-specific books that might or might not exist). This serves to give you options to go elsewhere when you can't make it to one of the more popular climbing spots, or if the weather is entirely TOO nice and hordes of people have descended on the main crags, alternate places to go and get vertical. Also, the number of small climbing areas gives the travelling climber options for places to go when they simply cannot get out to, say, Seneca when on the road down around, say, Charlottesville. Crack open Eric's guide and see what's nearby!
   
   The route descriptions are pretty good, and nicely supplemented with a mix of topo photos and drawings (if you're not an artist and you've tried to draw a topo to a crag, you can appreciate how difficult it can be to get it just right!).
   
   Eric successfully treaded the fine balancing act to not reinvent the wheel for places that already havae extensive guidebooks (e.g., Great Falls, et al), but at the same time, adequately cover crags that have or had absolutely no guidebook at all.
   
   More than just a simple guide, Eric's book also gives you a little bit of climbing history to many of the crags, details travel/trip information, has nice readable maps. He spends 18 pages on a general introduction, then devotes the next 380 pages to the various crags.
   
   Even if you only climb in Virginia, Maryland, or West Virginia, and already have one of the state-specific or area-specific guides, this is still an excellent book to have for the day when you might want to step across the border. :-)



4. Eric's book is all encompassing for the DC metro area climber. It is well written and covers all of the popular climbs. I gave it 4 stars, because I would have liked to have seen just a hair more beta and info about individual climbs, but all-in-all this is a "must have."



5. This is a comprehensive guidebook. It includes pretty much every major climbing area in WV, VA, and MD. Its got a good detailed chapter on Old Rag mountain in Shenandoah that other guides don't cover nearly as well. On the other hand, you should get the guidebooks for a specific area (like New River Gorge or Seneca Rocks) if you'll be doing a lot of climbing at a particular spot, because of its broad scope this guidebook won't include all routes for those areas, nor the smaller crags scattered around the region. There's a great guidebook called Climb Maryland! that treats all the central MD spots really well.

5 comments about Bicycling Coast to Coast: A Complete Route Guide Virginia to Oregon.

1. Who knows whether I'll actually push the pedal that begins a coast to coast bicycling trip but having read Donna Lynn Ikenberry's "Bicycling: Coast to Coast," I now know what to feel, smell, taste and enjoy along the journey. The sunshine pours through her scenic descriptions and your legs ache during her climbs. As she comes close to each day's destination you can feel the anticipation of soothing well-used muscles. This is a guidebook to prepare for the trek as well as take along for reference. Buy two and leave one with someone responsible for knowing your itinerary.



2. Donna Ikenberry's "Bicycling Coast to Coast" is a well laid out, day-by-day guidebook for a bicycle trip across the country. From maps, to sights to see, to places to camp and eat, this book has everything you need to get across the country and not get lost.

   The only thing I wish this book included was trip preparation hints (of which it has very few). However, this book along with Steve Butterman's "Bicycle Touring - How to Prepare for Long Rides" make a great cross country bike touring set.




3. I biked the TransAmerica trail last summer and I used this book for pre-trip planning and as a guide while on the road. The vast majority of the route Ikenberry takes is along a trail that was first ridden in 1976 and was designed by Adventure Cycling. If you just need maps of the roads to take, you'll be much better served by getting them from Adventure Cycling. If you want to use this book as a companion to the maps, you should realize that this book was written for westbounders. If you are riding from west to east (like i did) get ready to learn what dyslexia feels like as you try to decipher all the directions backwards.

   The book is thin on trip planning info and simply points readers to other sources for info on bike touring. In general, most of this book merely describes points of reference along the TranAm trail (ie: mile 1 - You'll pass a convienence store on the left; mile 2.3 - You'll see a lake with picnic benches to the right). I felt that it lacked a real focus (sometimes it reads like a diary, sometimes it reads like a guidebook, etc) & was full of superfluous fluff (the state flower of virginia is blah blah, a family in kansas fed me cake, etc) that only made my saddlebags that much heavier.

   Overall though, it's not my objective to dissuade you from buying this book... as unbelievably it seems to be the only guide written about riding the TransAm trail. Ikenberry's book certainly has some usefullness - perhaps mostly so in providing info on places to sleep along the way. But even then, she fails to mentions whether these places have showers or food on numerous occasions. It's worth the 15 bucks... but the book could (& should) have been so much better... (for example: there is no mention anywhere of suggestions on what kind of bike to use, gearings, tires - nothing even remotely technical)




4. I used this book this summer, riding from Florence, OR to Yorktown, VA (yes, the book goes from east to west, so I was reading "backwards"). For my purposes, I used the book to help figure out how large towns were and what services they offered. 9 times out of 10 the book gave fairly accurate assesments of services. There were times when "full-service" towns were no longer in existance and the grocery or restaurant we had been relying on was nowhere in site.

   That said, I would NEVER bike the Trans Am, or even a portion of it, without consulting Adventure Cycling first [on their web site]. Their maps are indespensible and when used in conjunction with their up-to-date addendums, they are incredibly accurate. Ikenberry makes it pretty clear that she is using the Adventure Cycling maps as her guide as well.

   I also found it odd that Ikenberry only biked the Trans Am once. She makes comments on terrain and areas which are purely cicumstantial (such as mentioning "dog-prone" areas in Kentucky - where we had no more dogs than any other day - and areas with mean drivers.) It was sometimes hard to tell whether her descriptions of places were based on one pass through or fact. Plus, I would have trusted her judgment of "steep" and "trafficky" had I felt more confident in her bike touring past.

   On the plus side, Ikenberry does offer some nice background information on historical areas which the Trans Am cyclist may not otherwise recieve.

   Overall, I am glad I lugged the extra pound on my tour. It was helpful and since I wasn't relying on it for accuracy, I wasn't affected at all by the closed services. It would be great if someone would update the book! Some towns in the book are no longer on the Adventure Cycling route. Also, she breaks the route into 70 different biking days. Some are rediculously long. She must have had some serious tail-winds at some points! Again, had she biked the route several times, I am sure her days would have been more "normal" in some instances.

   In any case, bike the Trans Am since it is awesome and contact Adventure Cycling for your most accurate information. If you have [any money] left over and some room for a medium-sized book, squeeze Ikenberry into your pannier.




5. This book goes the wrong way, namely East to West. The book follows the old 1976 Bike Centennial trail that is well described and updated at the Adventure Cycling website. I followed this route, East to West. It would have been a lot better to have gone East to West. The wind gets pretty strong and it blows West to East; so, if you are riding East to West, you have to work much harder than if go would go the other direction. While I enthusiastically recommend the route, I suggest that it would be better to start in the West.