By Bill Croke on 2.26.07 @ 12:06AM
Don't leave home without it.
CODY, Wyoming -- I spend my weekends hiking and I'm a student of
trail guides. And though the Internet has made them mostly
obsolete, I still prefer a book to a computer screen.
The Cody Public Library has a shelf full of them. They are
shiny, colorful paperbacks called "Falcon Guides," and are published by Globe Pequot Press of Guilford, Connecticut. The
original imprimatur was Falcon Publishing of Helena, Montana, hence
"Falcon Guide." If I ever get rich , I plan on acquiring complete
sets of the University of Chicago "Great Books" and the "Library of
America." Add to that mass of erudition three or four dozen of my
favorite Falcon Guides and I'll be a happy man. Though I wonder if
they'll let me haul all those books to the nursing home.
In the 25 years of their continuous publication, the now 800+
Falcon Guide titles have covered just about every aspect of outdoor
recreation in America, and all those places where one recreates.
Some 500 outdoor writers (including for my sport such backpacking
legends as "Wild Bill" Schneider, Erik Molvar, Tom Wharton and Ron
Adkison) have taken on everything from birding to surfing, camping
to kayaking, and fishing to cross country skiing. Sixty thousand
hiking trails, rivers, scenic highways, and rock and ice climbing
routes are noted, and illustrated by 6,000 maps.
Want to go surfing in Southern California? Or hiking anywhere in
Iowa (yes, even Iowa)? Want to go rafting down the Colorado River?
Road biking along Colorado's Front Range or mountain biking in
Utah? Rockhounding in Wyoming? How about birding in North Carolina
(or any other state)? Sea kayaking in Alaska? Tours (by state) of
natural hot springs spas? Don't forget your Falcon Guide. A new
genre for Falcon are "Rails to Trails" guides, as states and
municipalities promote the use of defunct railroad beds for hiking
and biking.
There are Falcon Guides covering particular National Parks,
National Forests and Wilderness areas, especially in the West. For
me, I'd be lost (literally) without "Hiking the Beartooths,"
"Hiking Yellowstone National Park," "Hiking Wyoming's Teton and
Washakie Wilderness Areas," and the diminutive
easily-fitting-in-your-pocket "Best Easy Day Hikes:
Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness." Each trail is listed as part of a
chapter devoted to all the trails found in a certain area. And
these sub-listings outline the details of each trail, including
degrees of difficulty: easy-moderate-strenuous.
How many creeks will you cross, and what are their exact mileage
points along the trail? Are they hard to ford, especially during
high runoff periods in the spring? What lakes (named or simply
noted as small bodies of water) will the hiker pass, and what are
the mileage points? Do grizzly bears frequent the area? What other
species of large wildlife -- such as elk and moose -- are common?
Is it rattlesnake country?
How many miles is the hike, and are there different loops or
routes back to the trailhead? Is it wise to leave a vehicle at
another trailhead in order to shuttle back to the first one? How
high will you go? Each trail listing has a graph showing mileage
and elevation gains. This last is helpful for folks who are, well,
"out-of-shape," and not prepared for long hikes at high altitudes
due to health and fitness problems.
Like a clear mountain creek there is a crisp, running narrative
describing the landscape to be passed through. ("Lonesome Mountain
looms to the northeast and Pilot and Index peaks mark the western
view" or "After another mile or so, look for Lake Gertrude in a
forested pocket off to the right.") They even start out by getting
you to the trailhead ("To reach the trailhead from Cooke City,
drive east on U.S. Highway 212 for 3.2 miles to a turnoff marked
with a large Forest Service sign as the Goose Lake Jeep Road, just
before the Colter Campground.")
I spend many a long winter evening with these books, and usually
with a sense of longing. Now the mountains sleep under their thick
mantle of snow, and the trails are drifted over. But there's always
the promise of spring, which in that country arrives about the
middle of June. Spring in June; summer in August. Tonight I'll curl
up with a nice backpack trip into Colorado's Uncompaghre National
Forest.
I've always wanted to make the trip.
topics:
Books, Alaska
