Best Current Trail Guide

[Tabasco]

Title says it all. Time to replace my 2006 Companion. Whats the currenmt best Trail Guide?

[couscous]

http://theatguide.com/ .. imho


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[Iceaxe]

I second the A.T. Guide as being a superb guide book. It was all i needed to hike from Georgia to Maine this year.
Unlike other trails in the country, the Appalachian trail is superbly well blazed. The elevation profiles in the AT guide provided enough guidance for me to find my way.
I found the town data to be excellant and as up to date as could be expected.
I heard stories from various folks about inaccuracies in the elevation profiles of the guide but i never could find any significant errors nor could those folks point out anything specific.
It's a guidebook for hiking the A.T. not an expedition in the Himilayas. As such it is a superb guide.
The size of the AT guide and it's weight at only 8 ounces meant that i started in Georgia carrying the whole book and tore pages out each day as i went.
The book comes with a ziplock in which I kept it, exposing only that days pages to the elements.
The only thing i might have done differently would be to get the un-bound edition since i ended up ripping the binding anyway.
The A.T. Guide rocks!

[CrumbSnatcher]

how do AWOL's maps compare to the ATC maps?
thanks

[Iceaxe]

The AT guide does not have maps. It has an elevation profile with data points overlaid for shelters, geographic points, towns, water etc.
I had a full set of ATC maps ready at home before my thru this year.
After hiking a few days i realized I would not need the maps.
The only place I ever questioned my descision to go map-less was in the Whites and just after Mt Washington in New Hampshire's Presidential range.
Even had I chosen to carry the ATC maps i would still have wanted a guide like the AT guide to provide trail data in an organized way.
For example: The guide lists the mileages from any shelter to the next 3 shelters including their water sources and those in between.
It really made it easy to simply hike, and at a glance know where the next water would be.
You get to know how many miles you are comfortable hiking in a day and in a given terrain. The guide provides data listed by mileage in a simple easy format to read.
One inch on a map can be a 100 foot or a 1,000 foot climb. The elevation profiles give you that sense of the terrain ahead at a glance, without having to squint at contour lines.
I would not tell anyone whether they should carry maps or not. I would suggest a guide like the AT guide either way because it simplifies the logisitcs so you can "smell all those roses" along the way.

[CrumbSnatcher]

i logged onto the site indicated on post#2 and i thought i saw maps for sale 89.00 bucks or so? maybe i was seeing things

[4eyedbuzzard]

i logged onto the site indicated on post#2 and i thought i saw maps for sale 89.00 bucks or so? maybe i was seeing things

$86.90 - and they look pretty nice. Not topos, but with the profile on the flip side they'd do. Looks like a lot of the guide info is already on them as well from the description

[Awol2003]

I'm selling "Pocket Profile" maps on my website, but they are not my product. They are produced by Antigravity Gear. I did help with the profiles, and our data is much the same. Pocket Profile maps are a great complement to The A.T. Guide because they show the "birds eye view" map of the AT, and they are super light and waterproof. The Pocket profiles have a few less landmarks listed, and do not contain town maps or detailed resupply info that you get in The A.T. Guide.

[Chatter98]

When I do weekends and mostly longer trips, the pocket profile is all I take with me. I love these things. Supposedly they are waterproof and so far have proven to be pretty light.
http://www.antigravitygear.com/pocke...ofile-map.html

[Chatter98]

BTW these can be found at REI and most outdoor stores.

[Maddog]

+1 The AT Guide

[Lyle]

Another user of the AT Guide. I used to alternate between the AT Guide (or "Pages" originally) and the Companion, but since the free Online Companion was taken down, I no longer feel the need to buy one every couple of years. It was handy, but now I just use last year's AT Guide for planning, current one for hiking.

[pafarmboy]

Another vote for AT guide.

[Sly]

since the free Online Companion was taken down, I no longer feel the need to buy one every couple of years. It was handy...

I fail to see the logic. ALDHA used to give away the Online Companion but now it's free to members. The ATC sells the soft cover edition with proceeds benefiting the trail

[Lyle]

I used to download and print a section of the Companion I was planning to hike. Then I could mark it up with highlighters or whatever and print another copy if my plan changed in the process. Since I was using the resource, I would buy a copy every couple of years to support the effort.

I prefer the layout of the AT Guide. Now I just buy it, and use last year's copy to mark up during planning. Guess I've just gotten used to the AT Guide now and no longer bother to look at the Companion.

[DBT fan]

Comparison between the A.T. Guide and the Thru-Hiker's Companion.

http://theatguide.com/CompareCompanion.html

[Rain Man]

The only thing i might have done differently would be to get the un-bound edition since i ended up ripping the binding anyway.

Another vote for switching to the unbound (aka "loose leaf") version. I did the same. I was tearing pages out anyway. Now, I don't have to rip 'em to shreds, when I want to take a few pages instead of the whole guide.

RainMan

.

[Chop]

Out on the trail right now (actually hiding from Irene in a motel). Using Awols guide in loose leaf version, but also have the companion on my phone.

I find awols significantly more useful as it shows elevation profiles where I can see what is going on in-between the points of note.

I don't carry the maps, and haven't felt like I need them.

Loose leaf is good. The next 50 miles stays in my hipbelt pocket and the rest stays in the pack, though I don't carry the whole book, just a couple hundred miles at a time.