This is the fourth edition of a book which first came out in 1968, which I read probably around 1970, and which as the name implies is all about walking. Or more accurately about hiking, backpacking and camping in all sorts of environments and situations.
The author is a colorful character named Colin Fletcher, although for this edition (which came out in 2002) he has a co-author named Chip Rawlins. He needs the co-author since he was just short of 80 in 2002, so wasn’t getting out on the trails as frequently as he used to. And there’s a lot of new gear out there.
Over the years Fletcher has written a number of books about his long hikes, including a six month walk through the Grand Canyon. Wikipedia has a good brief biography right here: Colin Fletcher – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Complete Walker IV contains a huge amount of information, much of it irrelevant to me, since I wont be snowshoeing through mountains or crossing the Colorado river on my air mattress. But it also contains great information if, like me, you are planning on doing some brief campouts in the spring and summer, including possibly a two or three night backpacking expedition with young boys.
This is why I decided to re-read the book in it’s new edition. After all, there’s plenty of stuff that didn’t even exist in 1970, like fleece clothes and self-inflating sleeping pads, as well as huge improvement in things like tents and backpacking stoves. So figured it was worth re-visiting the book.
And I wasn’t disappointed. The Complete Walker IV is still a breeze to read (skimming or skipping the irrelevant sections), written with "elegant humor… and vigorous prose" and loaded with advice on equipment and technique. It is very comprehensive, and also offers many suggestions for additional reading. For example, based on their recommendations I looked at a number of books on first aid and mountaineering medicine and have purchased two through Amazon.
So highly recommended if you have any interest at all in the subject – still "the hiker’s Bible" as it was first labelled by Field and Stream in 1968.
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