Backpacker & Hiker's Handbook |
Owner Review By Bob Dorenfeld
April 19, 2015
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Tester Bio |
Name |
Bob
Dorenfeld
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I'm an active hiker, snowshoer, skier, and of
course backpacker. Home base is the Southern
Colorado Rockies, ranging from alpine tundra to
piņon-juniper scrub and desert at lower
altitudes. Many of my backpack trips are two or
three nights (sometimes longer), and I usually
shoulder about 30 lb (14 kg). My style is
lightweight but not at the expense of enjoyment,
comfort or safety - basic survival gear plus
extras like a camera and air mattress make my
trips safer and more pleasurable.
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Email |
geartest(at)sageandspruce(dot)net
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Age |
57
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Location |
Central Colorado, USA
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Gender |
M
|
Height |
5' 6" (1.68 m) |
Weight |
140 lb (64 kg) |
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Product Overview
Publisher: Stackpole
Books
Date: 2008 Website: www.stackpolebooks.com
MSRP: US$24.95 Author: William
Kemsley, Jr. Pages: 304
Includes: 35 b/w illustrations, 170 color photos
Format: trade paperback,
coated paper
Dimensions: 6 x 9 in (15 x 23
cm) ISBN: 9780811734622
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Book cover
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Book Review
I picked up a copy of
Backpacker & Hiker's
Handbook almost by accident—I was browsing for trail
recipe guides and instantly caught the author's name.
William Kemsley Jr. was the founding editor of
Backpacker Magazine, and led it through the 1970s until
he sold it in 1980. Mr. Kemsley hiked a steady
trail in those days as a pioneering publisher
discussing and promoting backpacking, hiking, ski
touring, outdoor photography, conservation issues, and
gear reviews. I had always wondered what became of
him, since until now I'd not seen him in print after he
left Backpacker. Now my curiosity has been
satisfied, and I'm glad to report that not only in 2008
did he enter the field of hiking and
backpacking manuals, but that he did it with the same aplomb
and journalistic integrity that marked his tenure at
Backpacker. To that he adds his own very
considerable lifelong experience as a hiker, backpacker, skier,
and mountaineer, plus husband and father.
So why
another backpacker's guide in an already crowded field?
In his own words:
[T]his book is not about any quick success in getting
acquainted with the backcountry.
I want this book
to appeal to the few readers who already have—or are
eager to develop—an intimate, enduring friendship with
the outdoors. I want it to appeal to those who
would like to feel as comfortable camped beneath pines
on a cool evening in fall as they would in their comfy
bed, and happier still eating dinner from camp pots in
desert sands among ocotillo, cholla, and saguaro as at
their dining-room tables back home.
These
ventures have never been the competitive kind, which
rather takes the pleasure out of it for me.
Come share some of this with me. If just a few
of you enjoy it and get hooked enough to tread some of
these paths more than somewhat, it would give me the
kind of kick I get when one of my daughters, Kate, calls
to say, "Dad, could we take a few days' hike in Colorado
this July?"
Mr. Kemsley's plainspoken and
understated style and sometimes wry sense of humor pervade each
chapter, and fortunately
he resists the temptation to sort hikers
into non-overlapping categories based on their choice of
gear or hiking style (for example, "through-hikers"
vs. "nature watchers"). He intelligently guides both
beginners and experienced backpackers in trail savvy, safety,
and how to select equipment, including tips from both
his own and companions' experience. Reflecting his own journalism
background, Mr. Kemsley also includes a chapter on outdoor photography and
a guest-written chapter about women-only backpacking groups.
Of course, like all of us out there on the trail, he has
his own opinions and idiosyncrasies about clothing,
hiking companions, cookstoves, etc., but
I enjoyed his
mostly even-handed and light touch that rarely seemed to judge me
just for doing things differently than
he does. In common with most of the classic backpacking
handbooks I've read since, say,
the 1960s, Mr. Kemsley wisely advises his readers to
gather all the data they can from him and anyone else,
get experienced on the trail, and use their own common
sense to go forth and hike safely but have a great time
doing it, no matter what their own style.
Let's
look at what's in
Backpacker & Hiker's Handbook.
Seven sections are divided into 32 chapters, preceded by
a forward and acknowledgments, and concluded with an afterword, bibliography, and an index.
Generously interspersed throughout are many high-quality
color photographs (most by Mr. Kemsley) and clearly-drawn
black & white illustrations amplifying the text.
The seven Sections are:
Preparations
Trail Savvy Using the Trails
Risks on the Trail The Hiking Party
Where to Go When to Go
Within
Preparations I can read about What To Wear, Buying
Your Outfit, or Planning Your Trip. Trail
Savvy has lots of useful information about Where
And How To Set Up Camp, Purifying and Carrying Water, or
Going Light. Using the Trails is about
Finding Your Way, weather, health and safety, and the
notable Getting the Most from Your Trail Photography.
Weather dangers, snakes, and important chapters on bears
and cougars round out Risks on the Trail.
If you'd like to read Mr. Kemsley's suggestions for The
Fine Art of Picking Your Hiking Companions, pets, or a
guest essay on Women-only Groups on the Trail, check out
The Hiking Party. Where to Go,
as expected, covers selecting a trail and destination
commensurate with the reader's skills and desires, and
some specific information on Enjoying the High
Mountains, Desert Hiking, and Canyon Hiking. The
concluding Section, When to Go, adds useful
tips on Extending Your Hiking Season into Fall and
Getting Started Winter Backpacking.
Here's what
Mr. Kemsley has to say about boots (footwear is my usual
test of whether I'm probably going to like a hiking
guide):
The most important
consideration in selecting a hiking boot is fit.
If the boot fits, buy it. All other considerations
are unimportant if your boots don't fit properly.
Most good sporting-goods shops stock several brands
of boots because manufacturers use different lasts to
make them, and brand of boot therefor fits feet
differently. A knowledgeable sales person can tell
you which brand will more likely be appropriate for your
feet — whether it has, for example, a wide or
narrow heel, a high or low arch, and other particulars
to fit your feet. It is you, however, who is the
final judge....Don't let anyone try to tell you
differently. Mr. Kemsley continues in the same
friendly way to give his advice in greater detail about
boot fit, boot soles, waterproofing, breaking in boots,
and socks. There is one succinct and short paragraph concerning
boot weight, and I like the way Mr. Kemsley
cuts through the cruft and without rancor gets to the sole of the
matter in this footwear chapter:
Back in the 60s and
70s....the heavier the better. Today most
manufacturers have gone for lightness in weight.
Good thing, too. The significance of this is old
hat.
If two model boots fit equally well, choose
the lighter one....So at least a thicker-soled boot will
be more comfortable, especially on rocky trails.
You want a sole that is thick enough that your
princess-and-the-pea tender feet do not feel every
pebble you walk over, yet flexible enough to bend under
pressure of your hands. Stiff soles are for
mountaineering, so as to affix crampons. They may
look macho but will be hell on the feet after a few
miles of trails.
Like
myself, Mr. Kemsley likes
gear that works, and a
lot of what works for him is either tried-and-true in
the backpacking community, or he lets you know that he's
a bit different. For example, he doesn't
care for synthetic-material clothing, and tells us that
"my first choice is natural fibers whenever possible".
His boot discussion does not explore leather vs. fabric
or plastics. But he goes on to nicely summarize
how both natural and synthetic clothing will work in the
layering principle of backpack dress, accompanied by
this useful diagram illustrating how layered clothing
can work in practice.
There's a good discussion of
how to lighten one's load in the chapter Going Light,
which Mr. Kemsley manages to pull off without either
intimidating the reader with too many details of gear
specs and cost. I enjoyed
following the details of the author's 3-day experiment
backpacking part of the Grand Canyon where he "went
light"—there's even a complete gear list for me to
see how he did it and to compare with my own gear.
As
elsewhere in the guide, Mr. Kemsley leaves final choices
to the reader based on their own needs and preferences.
As noted, Backpacker & Hiker's Handbook does not delve too
far into the technical specifications of gear in Going
Light or elsewhere, nor do I find gratuitously dropped brand names
everywhere in his text. However, when the author
has found a particular tent or a cookstove that works
for him, he doesn't hesitate to tell us why he thinks
highly of its quality. I enjoyed reading his
evaluations and found them helpful as a guide to my own
evaluations of gear. But when it comes time to
purchase gear, I think most brand research is best
left to the reader's own resources and to the
special-purpose and separately-published gear guides, and Mr. Kemsley
seems to agree.
Found throughout
Backpacker & Hiker's Handbook and
organized along the page corners (every 10 pages or so) are quotes
and pictures from some of
Mr. Kemsley's friends, colleagues, and family, commenting on hiking gear, trail
etiquette, personal preferences—whatever they
wanted to say! They add an interesting
counterpoint to the author's narrative in each chapter.
Copious photographs by Mr. Kemsley and others lend color and
interest to all chapters of the handbook. There are also many text boxes set apart from the main
narrative that illustrate and expand on the narrative. Fortunately Mr.
Kemsley does not forget his old magazine
when he refers his readers to several older
articles published in Backpacker after his tenure there.
I found two of them (one on the effectiveness of water
purification devices, the other on boot leather
waterproofing), and although both date from the
mid-1990s, they are as relevant today as they were then,
and I definitely learned much about both topics.
While excellent in most regards, a close reading of
Backpacker & Hiker's Handbook
reveals a number of copyediting mishaps (swapped images
or incorrect captions, incorrect word usage), but
overall they don't detract very much. (If there is
ever a second edition I'm sure they'll be addressed.)
Editorially I also found omissions and lengthy digressions, which
I think Mr. Kemsley could
have fixed for a better book overall. For example,
he probably didn't need to devote
quite so much space to promoting his personal
preference for always wrapping everything in his backpack in
waterproofing plastic—some of us hike in very dry
climates! There is a glowing recommendation for
one particular Made in America gear manufacturer, but
when I went to their website I found mostly
military-oriented products and a lengthy diatribe on
what's wrong with everyone else's gear. In his
chapter on trail foods he barely mentions the excellent
alternative of dehydrated meals and foods (purchased or
self-prepared). One of the author's "essential
gear" lists contains a can-opener (!), but two pages
later he tells us that "cans are also heavy". In
the cookstove discussion he mentions gas and cartridge,
but not the very useful alcohol alternative. Curiously, I
could find no explicit mention of Leave No Trace (LNT)
principles anywhere in
Backpacker & Hiker's Handbook;
nonetheless Mr. Kemsley helpfully included a number of
suggestions and tips throughout that nudge his readers
in the same direction as LNT. I found the book's
index adequate but not as complete as I would have
liked.
But on a positive note, and last but not least, the
closing bibliography contains any number of useful
references to both books and websites. Although since
the book's publication in 2008 the web has moved on, I
didn't find it difficult to find websites' new
locations or other sites with similar information.
If
I had to give just one book to a friend who was a
backpacking beginner, it would be a toss-up between
Backpacker & Hiker's Handbook and perhaps one or two
other excellent classics in the field. Maybe I'd
give both of those other guides with this handbook, since as
a rule no one book is adequate for all topics. But
for all-around practicality and balance, and a low
preachiness factor, I highly recommend
Backpacker &
Hiker's Handbook. Mr. Kemsley's
thoroughly-researched and well-written hiking companion
gives sound advice with a sense of humor while trusting
his readers to discover their own good judgment in their
choice of gear, techniques, trail destinations, safety, and
hiking companions.
In closing, perhaps he'd agree with me:
be safe, practice Leave No Trace, and
have fun!
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Reviewed By
Bob
Dorenfeld
Southern Colorado Mountains
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