John Muir Trail Country

Rating:
Summary: What a find!
Review: This is one of the lesser-known books on the JMT, and I bought it with some trepidation. But boy, was I pleasantly surprised! This is a true little gem. I have thru hiked the Muir Trail from north to south and found this book is very informative and containing some very useful information. The maps are adorable and hand-drawn, but highly accurate. The book is not marketed as being geared towards novices, but there's no doubt it would benefit a beginner and be less beneficial to a seasoned backpacker. But even old pros with be delighted with the format and presentation here.

There are route descriptions of each facet of the trail, such as explaining the drop off points, elevation gains and topography of Thousand Island Lake in Mammoth to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. You could do a thru hike without this guide, but if you're the least bit apprehensive, then this would ease your worries. Even if your an armchair JMT thru hiker, I think you'd enjoy this nifty book.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Wine is in the Small Bottles
Review: Wow! This inexpensive, slim book of less than 150 pages--easily carried along-- manages to cover the highlights of the entire JMT without being superficial. It even covers East and West approach trails and surrounds. The most outstanding feature by far is the series of wonderful hand drawn and colored relief maps of the JMT and nearby lake basins (and some areas a fair distance from it such as Emmigrant or Hoover Wilderness). Trail milages are given and elevations graphed for route planning. I'm an angler and so appreciate the commentary and map notations about the fishing along the trail and in nearby lakes. The photos are old style black and white but there are plenty of them and they give a good impression of what to expect along various segments of the trail. I've already been there and done most of the trail and am still glad I discovered this gem. Despite a few rough edges in the typesetting, you couldn't beat this concise, well illustrated, and useful little book as a place to start planning a trip along the JMT.