Great Hikes in the Poconos: And Northeast Pennsylvania

This is a decent book and it's fair to say worth the $20.00 even though I was able to withdraw it from the Library ;) ! I agree with the previous reviewer about the directions being vague while on the hike. I am an avid hiker and familiar with the area and even I had trouble. SEVERAL TIMES I WAS FRUSTRATED BY THEIR TRAIL GUIDES... The one about Shohola Lake comes to mind immediatley -- that was a long day LOL. The authors need to realize that the more info you can give the better -- there is never such a thing as too much info when you're trying to find trailheads and trails! As far as directions to the trailheads (which really is the most important and hardest to get information for) I was satisfied with...They gave directions down to the last 10th of a mile! But I recommend purchasing a map of the region as well so you can cross reference the information. Please also note that this book has featured a limited number of hikes in the area, but definitely enought to get you started.... -- I was aware of most of them but it's fun to follow along with the authors as you make your journey...just don't use it as your hiking bible -- internet search for any and all info you can obtain about the hike that you're about to embark on. You'd be surprised about how much info you can find out there! localtrails.com

This is a good book, it gave me lots of ideas for hiking that I doubt I would've found otherwise. The hike descriptions are generally informative, giving you an idea of interesting features, terrian, elevation changes, ect. Also, a great idea is the use of GPS coordinates for locating trailheads- I found them very useful. The only thing keeping this from a 5 star rating is the maps/directions once your on a hike. To be fair, I'm a recreational hiker at best, but using the directions and reference points given, it was easy for me to get off course and I often spent alot of time backtracking. I've had several disappointing hikes where I didn't get to see all of the features that I had wanted to. I wish they would've went further with the GPS locating and listed coordinates for different features and waypoints along the hike to make it easier to stay on course. But, overall this is a good book for hiking NE Pennsylvania.