Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #455098 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Vinyl Bound
• 219 pages

Customer Reviews

good for planning a 3 week hike, but....
Just finished the JMT. The book was useful for planning my trek since the book is organized into a 22 day hike and I planned our hike for 20 days, so I would recommend it for that purpose. Having it on the hike itself wasn't very rewarding. The distance and altitude change intervals were somewhat useful, although the numbers don't necessarily mesh with the Harrison topo maps. What was disappointing was the lack of detail about campsite locations. The author basically indicates where they camped, but provides little information about where other campsites are located or their quality. Not a problem if you follow his itinerary, but if you're like us (and most of the other JMT hikers) it doesn't help when it's late in the day and you're trying to figure out how much further you need to go to get to a decent campsite. I basically stopped referring to the book after the first week and relied on the other guide I had which had much more detailed information on the trail and camping. I would have burned the Cicerone guide except we couldn't have fires most of the way and one of my friends wanted to carry it for reading material. The maps it contains were fairly worthless, so you'll definitely want topos. The author also comes across a bit snobbish at times, which certainly allowed my friends and I to poke fun at him and added to our entertainment. Logistical informtation on getting to the trailhead and dropping a vehicle at the end of the trail is also incomplete. YARTS only serves Merced to Mammoth, so getting from Whitney Portal to Mammoth requires a hitch, getting a local to shuttle you, or paying high dollars for a commercial shuttle. Bottom line is this is a decent book for planning a 3 week trek on the JMT, but it's not worth the weight to carry it. The Winsett guide was much more valuable on the trail, although it also has it's flaws.

Great for planning a JMT trip
I purchased this book last summer as part of a planning effort for hiking the trail in September. Even though I was quite familiar with the Sierra, I had no idea on how to plan the trip out as far as legs and campsites. I found this book to be invaluable as far as proposing a reasonable itinerary and giving the person a good idea of what to expect on each leg and where to find campsites. Castle first gives an overview of what should be done before the trip, and then breaks it out into a very doable 21-day itinerary (with 2 layover days) that range from 10-15 miles per day. He gives you a quick-hit overview of elevation gains and mileage and then a more detailed description of the day's hike. Also, he does a good job of planning the days so that you start with a climb and end with a descent. The one unfortunate is that the book is a bit heavy, though compact in size to actually carry with you -- the person I hiked with did carry it though and we enjoyed reading it along the trail as well as at night. I suppose one might xerox the pages you found necessary. By the way, I also had the Winnett book and found that far less helpful, and less organized as far as actually planning the trip. This is an awesome trip, and I strongly recommend both the book as well as doing the JMT -- it is a life-changing experience!