Hiking the Carolina Mountains

By Danny Bernstein

Book Overview

The mountains of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina are a hikers paradise--rich with human history and home to some of the greatest biological diversity in the world. This guide... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1889596191
• ISBN13: 9781889596198
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Milestone Press (NC)
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Local author does good

This book is written by a fellow member of the Carolina Mountain Club. Good details of hikes in the area.

A Great Guide!

Having hiked extensively in the Carolina Mountains for 40 years, I open new trail guides with a weary skepticism. With this book my skepticism was unjustified. Ms. Bernstein's book does not attempt to be exhaustive, but it covers a wide variety of trails in two states. In it, you will find a trail for any hiker in any season of the year. The trail descriptions (at least for the 35 or so I have hiked) strike a nice balance between length and detail with no sacrifice of relevant accuracy. The maps are uncluttered and well integrated with the text.

Now I can take a hike here!

This is an easy to use guide to some great hikes here in the Western Carolinas. I live here and hike with a club. Until now, I've usually been following the leader and haven't really known what the hike "looked like" or where exactly I was going. I don't have great map reading skills and I don't use a GPS. In fact, I'm a person who couldn't take my relatives and friends from out of town on a moderate hike here in the Carolina mountains. And I'm not the only one with that problem. But that will change. For each hike, the book provides detailed driving directions and a simple map. For the actual hikes, there are very clear trail maps with text that describes exactly what I'll see along the way, shows which path to take at each intersection and notes what landmarks I'll see along the trail. I did a 7 mile hike this weekend using the book and felt totally confident. It was a new experience to not only complete the hike but also to know exactly what it had encompassed. Happy Trails.

Best guide to the best day hikes

This pocket guidebook to the best day hikes in the Carolina mountains deserves the highest praise. Each entry provides detailed, straightforward directions for each hike, accompanied by clearly presented maps and pictures of landmarks. While the book offers valuable resources for experienced hikers, it would also be an excellent choice to give to a friend who may be just beginning to explore the outdoors, as the introductory material explains the essentials of hiking safety and includes a checklist of necessary equipment. The lively essays placing local points of interest in their historical contexts are another major strength of this guidebook. I would never have guessed, for example, that the North Carolina and Georgia state militias fought a battle over the boundary between the two states--fifty years before the Civil War (see page 145). Milestone Press should also consider producing mp3 audio narrations of the hikes and the accompanying essays to enjoy while on the trail.

A Guide to a Hiker's Paradise

The mountains of the Carolinas are an embarassment of riches for hikers, with literally thousands of miles of trails. The problem has been choosing the most interesting hikes. There are several trail guides, but unless you are willing to spend a lot of time studying maps to create your own circular route, you'll be stuck hiking in and out on the same trail. Hiking the Carolina Mountains solves that problem by providing details of 57 hikes, most of which include loops. The book is also the first that I've seen that covers areas such as upland South Carolina and DuPont State Forest in North Carolina. Hiking the Carolina Mountains also provides detailed information on how to drive to the trailhead, interesting sidelights on the history of the area, and readable maps, all of which are usually missing from trail guides. This is the book need to hike the Carolina mountains. WNC Hiker