Product Description

A guide to day hikes, multi-day adventures, natural wonders, and human history of northern Virginia, from the summits to the sea.

This completely updated third edition does much more than guide day hikers and adventurous backpackers into some of the most stunning countryside north of Route 60. It offers an in-depth exploration of the human and natural history that contributes to the compelling story of the region. You'll learn what events in human history occurred nearby and you'll understand how the landscape helped shape those events.

From the rugged summits of the Allegheny Mountains to the gentle shores of Chesapeake Bay, this book explores more than 360 miles of pathways with up-to-date information on trail closures, route changes, and new territory, and offers a rich selection of hikes for every degree of physical stamina and time constraint. 51 black & white photographs, 51 maps, index.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90225 in Books
• Brand: W.W. Norton & Company
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Review
Newcomers to hiking this state will find . . . good introductions to the classic hikes, and everyone will benefit from the book's detailed directions and interesting natural details. -- Outdoor Traveler

About the Author
A freelance writer and lecturer on long-distance hiking, Leonard M. Adkins has walked the length of the Appalachian Trail four times and has logged more than 16,000 miles in backcountry areas of North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. The author of numerous books on hiking and the outdoors, he has been awarded the National Outdoor Book Award and the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. He lives in Fincastle, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

The only one you'll need for this area
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.

great book!!!!!!!!!
I live close to many of these hikes, but never knew about them. Yes, there are some that just about everybody knows, but this book also takes you to places that are really overlooked. I like many things about the book: the chart in the front that lets you know about the hikes at a glance, how it is organized by region, and how the author tells little stories about the history, plants, and animals of the area you are going to visit. I own five other hiking guides to hikes in and around the area, and this one is, by far, the best of the lot.

Early review of 50 Hikes...
We've only hiked twice using information from this book, and it's been good. The only complaint I have is that we have not been fully informed about all of the good camping sites, which we are pencilling in. Also, being new at backpacking (after 20 years at least), the moderate rating is more like strenuous to me, carrying 30 extra pounds of weight. Nevertheless, this book has given us more detail than the information from the PATC books and we're grateful for that. Perhaps there will be a more current version in the future.