Reviews for The Complete Walker IV

The average rating for The Complete Walker IV based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-28 00:00:00 Donald Miller This book is a paper and ink version of sitting around a campfire with a couple weathered older gentlemen, and listening as they talk about their trials on the trails and their mishaps along the way. Then they pause to rummage through a battered pack that is part antique and part ahead of its time (in its time). Both informative and entertaining, this book is several decades of hiking experience condensed into a single anecdote-filled, self-deprecating, and humorous archive. Some reviewers have commented on the fact that the gear sections are so outdated as to be useless. INCORRECT! While the specific makes and models of the gear reviewed are outdated, the specific features discussed and the related pros and cons are good things to consider when buying new equipment today. And by skipping these sections, the reader might miss a humorous "Dad joke" or anecdote. And I quote, "One fall night, sans tent, I was kept awake by mice dashing across my sleeping bag. Whether I was blocking some vital intermeadow route or they just liked the texture of the nylon, I'll never know. It was warm enough that I'd unzipped the sleeping bag down below and finally, despite the repeated scritch-scritch, fell asleep -- only to wake up with a hairy little commuter on-ramping my leg. I shrieked and levitated. The mouse dove for safety in my crotch. The rest is a blur." I may not follow the authors' advice in all things, but they wouldn't expect me to. They admit that sometimes, despite the best specifications for a new piece of equipment, they sometimes take their old trusty rain gear or whatnot, simply because they like it. If you like hiking and dad jokes, and want to explore in-depth every minutiae of the hiking experience, this book is for you.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-07-06 00:00:00 Joshua Baumgardner In the first paragraph of his iconic volume "The Complete Walker", Colin Fletcher described walking as "…a quite delectable madness, very good for sanity". I am in complete agreement. Also in this first chapter I was introduced to the "long grassy ridge", ten minutes drive from where Fletcher then lived, which shows up in various of Fletcher's writings, unidentified by him, but which I have always liked to believed to have been Mt. Tamalpais State Park in Marin County, north of San Francisco. Or Muir Woods. Or maybe it was Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Or maybe not. It very well could have been one of the many state or regional parks of the East Bay. I suppose I will never know. I never met Fletcher, although we lived on the same coast, if not within exactly the same generation, and so came to know him through his books. Having read most of them, I always wished I might have known him, if only a brief introduction at a signing. Fletcher was, nonetheless, the companion who came along on my limited and usually solitary offroad adventures along forest trails and ocean beaches. His words, his philosophy, his admiration of the earth he traversed came with me. From his writings, I knew him to be spare, rugged, entrepreneurial and adventurous, but at the same time possessing a dry Britannic wit and gentle soul. His dedication in "The Complete Walker" is to his mother, "…who understood that walking for fun is no crazier than most things in life, and who passed the information along."