Beyond Backpacking: Ray Jardines Guide to Lightweight Hiking
	Author: Ray Jardine Published: 1999-07
	List price: $19.95 Our price: $49.90	As of: September 03rd, 2010 09:32:20 PM
Customer comments on this selection. A MUST read - The best "how to" Backpacking book ever! This book will change you and your trips. The best thing about it is if you only listen to half of the book it will increase your enjoyment of the back country ten fold. When I first went hiking decades ago my pack was 25lbs because I couldn't afford much equipment. As I started to hike more often and accumulate more gear, I loaded myself down more and more until one horrible trip where I resembled a pack mule carrying more than 70 lbs (and that is without water)! The 110 mile trip went uncompleted and was not very fun and I just assumed it was because I needed to be in better shape. Then I bought Ray's book... the simple idea of weighing everything you bring with you changed my camping life. By my next trip, I shed 40 lbs out of my pack and by the time I went back to the same 110 mile trip a few years later I had a pack weight of just under 11 pounds (that is with gear for those of you that have packs that themselves weigh 8 lbs) not including water and food. I laughed as I flew by the people weighed down by 70 lb packs... it was the most enjoyable and easy I had taken... 110 miles with most of it over 10,000 feet. There is no reason to do everything Ray says, he does get a little spiritual... Take what he says and apply it to you. I would never go hiking without shoes like Ray sometimes does, but I threw out my insanely heavy and expensive "hiking" boots and bought some very light trail running shoes--they work great--as an application of Ray's philosophy to my hiking. More of the Same A Good book if you haven't already got "The Pacific Crest Trail" by Ray Jardine. Much of the same information is in "Beyond Backpacking" as was in "The Pacific Crest Trail". This shows me Ray Jardine gave out all his information in his first book so now he really has nothing more to tell. You might as well have put one cover on the other with the exception of a very few changes. In fairness though, it is a great book if you don't have "The Pacific Crest Trail". But I don't think you need them both. It is all the same ultra-light backpacking techniques, and backpacking safety,equipment,and hiking methods in both books. I liked the "Pacific Crest Trail" better. Best Advice Regarding This Book: Don't waste your money buying one of these used for 40 bucks. Get the updated version of the book for 25 new. These are excellent backpacking books and a supreme addition to your backpacking library packed with tons of useful ideas. Worst advice you could give The guy is a eccentric Millionaire. Not just a eccentric, he's a millionaire that wants to cry poor. The more you get into Jardines life you will see on his webpage he advises you to buy $10.000 sewing machines and buy $100 worth of materials and a 100 hours to make what basically is a $6 army duffel bag, you know the ones with the shoulder straps. Then he takes any labels off any gear or covers the labels, because he won't endorse any gear without his name. Dah you endorced Pfaff,Elna,Bernia and Viking sewing machines. What's with that then? Oh and on his website he crying about the bugs and afraid his Giant North face V-25 geo dome don't blow over, but broke a tent rod and didn't know how to fix it. I'd get a real charge out of his tarptent followers when he knows better than to really use one. Looks like a $20 dollar tarp to me that you had to buy a $10K sewing machine to make. Don't follow this advice he gives. For in real life, he pays someone with a big van to follow him to every road crossing with over 500 pounds of gear or take him to the motor inn like bear grills did. That's the way. the real rayway. We could all do one up on him, just carry a credit card a cell phone and have the van follow you. Enough said. But if you really want to start backpacking. the book to buy is by the past Colin Fletcher, "THE COMPLETE WALKER". And if you don't want to get nasty like me, don't read Nessmuk. Nessnuk is the real deal, they didn't have vans back in the day. For example; Jardine used a 110 pound Coleman canoe on one of his rich vacations and cried so much, I think he took down that journal. Nessmuk on the other hand over 100 years ago made a 11 pound canoe and his full pack weight was ligher yet and canoed right across the great lakes. That takes some guts. Jardines on a head trip to, he's mental, he's got no proof that he invented freinds, yet he keeps claiming he did. Everyone that climbs knows better, that he is nuts.Global Climbing, how expensive is that of a hobby anyway? Well if your in that rich eccentric group upper level group, trying to fit in us lower level slumdogs. Then go for it. Otherwise the rest of you would do better with real life book by the late Colin Fletcher. And if you read this ray, think I'm full of it, lets do a test on the old canol trail, with no support teams, with your RAYWAY junk, and see who wins. Lets go in the fall to. When the winds of November come early. I personally really want to stay as far away from Jardine nonsense as I can, except its a good laugh though. It's not about the backpack. In a society whose population has grown soft from the amenities and conveniences of modern culture, few can begin to comprehend what it takes to complete the mega-hikes accomplished by the author. Even within the backpacking world, much is revealed as far as fitness, assimilation with environment, self-reliance, and goal setting are concerned. Yet this book really does go beyond backpacking; in its iconoclastic views on foot travel, in its celebration of minimalism, and most importantly, in it's subtle questioning of society's values. Rather than merely an esoteric blueprint for the hardcore backpacker, this book is an uplifting example of what can be experienced athletically, logistically, and even spiritually if one can let go of the expectations of modern life and simply walk unencumbered for months on end. "Beyond Backpacking" revolutionized the world of long distance hiking by calling into question what is truly needed to sustain an epic trek. It will, at the least, make you re-evaluate the gear collecting dust in your closet. I hope it forces you to re-evaluate a whole lot more.
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