L. L. Bean Hiking and Backpacking Handbook

L. L. Bean Hiking and Backpacking Handbook is an instructional guide written by Keith McCafferty and published in 2000. It is part of a series of outdoor guides.

Personal

I'm not sure, but I believe I bought this book from B. Dalton at the mall before it went out of business in the 2000s. I thumbed through it a couple times, but it mostly sat on my shelf unread until I started getting more into hiking.

Review

Good

• There book is filled with tips for hiking and backpacking including how to stretch and ease your way into the process to avoid injury, how to best preserve nature, what type of food to bring, how to customize gear, and so forth.
• There are also tips for hiking with groups. The author suggests large groups be broken into smaller groups so slow and fast hikers can walk together. The author also suggests children be given many years of limited practice to account for their shorter attention spans, and lack of stamina. And, for people who are only mildly interested in hiking, make sure you hike toward an interesting goal and let them bring friends for company.
• There are useful tips for how not to get lost, and, if you do, how to find your way.

Bad

• The technology for outdoor gear has made a lot of progress since this book was written, so a large portion of the advice for clothing, tents, backpacks, footwear, etc. are now largely out of date.
• The shrinking of GPS devices, increase in cellular coverage, and offline mapping apps have made many old fashioned navigation tools unnecessary. This makes the author's suggestion of bringing topographical maps, a straight edge, a pencil, two compasses, printed field guides, and so forth seem quaint.
• Every few pages there is an advertisement for L. L. Bean products.
• The book suggests consulting experts like podiatrist or physical therapists before hiking in old age, which is good advice, but also suggests chiropractors, which is not.
• Several places in the book use jargon that the average person wouldn't know without explaining it. For example, the section on navigation uses several cartography terms. An in-line glossary would have been nice.

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