See details Five-Star Trails Ann Arbor and Detroit
Greg Tasker
Five-Star Trails Ann Arbor and Detroit will steer you off the beaten path where you’ll find exceptional beauty and peace of mind. Each trail description provides directions and commentary on what to expect along the way. Each hike features an individual trail map, elevation profile, and at-a-glance information, helping readers quickly find the perfect trip.
Sized to fit in a pocket, the book's detailed trail descriptions will help readers find their way on and off the trail. Driving directions and GPS trailhead coordinates will help with navigating the myriad of unnamed roads. The trails covered range from those best suited to the novice, families, experienced hikers, or backpackers.
See details Five-Star Trails in the Adirondacks: A Guide to the Most Beautiful Hikes
Tim Starmer
The revised edition of Five-Star Trails: Adirondacks by Tim Starmer features six new popular trails and provides a detailed guide to some of the most stunning views found across the Adirondacks. Included are rugged and steep ascents up Snowy Mountain in the Central Adirondacks, which many consider the 47th high peak, and isolated Debar Mountain in the northern Adirondack region. Distance hikers will love the long trek into the High Peak Wilderness to see the amazing Hanging Spear Falls along the Opalescent River.
Also new to this edition is the less difficult but equally scenic vistas of the Eastern Adirondacks and Lake George described along the Black Mountain trail. Each hike features an individual trail map, elevation profile, and at-a-glance information, helping readers quickly find the perfect trip. Sized to fit in a pocket, the book's detailed trail descriptions will help readers find their way on and off the trail.
See details Five-Star Trails Lake Tahoe, 2ed
Jordan Summers
Covering the region surrounding the 22-mile-long lake, author Jordan Summers guides hikers along 40 of the region’s best trails—all located within 25 miles of Lake Tahoe’s shoreline.
Trekkers can easily find the perfect hike with the complete trail descriptions for 27 day hikes and 13 overnight destinations. An accurate map, directions to the trailhead with coordinates for GPS use, and an elevation profile of each trail prepare hikers with the full picture of the route ahead.
Generally intended for outdoors-people of all ages and abilities, Five-Star Trails: Lake Tahoe describes great hikes from the Desolation, Mt. Rose, Granite Chief, and Mokelumne Wilderness areas and along sections of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and portions of the Tahoe Rim Trail. While ranging across forest- and granite-covered terrain to more than a dozen peaks and several dozen lakes, hike profiles include details on natural history, geologic features, and places of historic note.
With Five-Star Trails: Lake Tahoe, hikers will follow in the footsteps of pioneers, such as Kit Carson and the historic Donner Party, along the Pony Express Trail and the Emigrant Trail, often with stunning vistas of Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay, Fallen Leaf Lake, or the Crystal Range.
See details Five-Star Trails: Asheville, 2nd edition
Jennifer Pharr Davis
The definitive guide to hiking in Asheville.
Five-Star Trails: Asheville by accomplished hiker and writer Jennifer Pharr Davis covers 35 hikes in the greater Asheville region, from area nature preserves to treks along the Blue Ridge Parkway and in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Asheville resident has sought out her favorite hikes, as well as a cross section of adventures on foot that exhibit the variety of hikes found in the greater Asheville region. Hikes include treks along the famed Appalachian Trail to waterfalls of the Pisgah National Forest. Other walks take you to the rhododendron blooms atop Craggy Gardens. Solitude can be found on remote Hickey Fork. And then there’s the granite domes and crashing cataracts of Dupont State Forest. Mix hiking and history at the Cradle of Forest or Mount Pisgah via Buck Springs Lodge. Soak in inspiring panoramas from Shining Rock Wilderness or Looking Glass Rock.
These fantastic hikes are laid out in an organized fashion by a professional hiker and speaker who exemplifies the heart and spirit of Asheville. Hikes range widely in elevation, distance, and difficulty, providing a variety of experiences for everyone. The guide provides in-depth trail descriptions, directions, and commentary on what to expect along the way. Each hike features an individual trail map, elevation profile, and at-a-glance information, helping readers quickly find the perfect trip.
Thomas M. Spencer
In the first decades of the 21st century, Birmingham is building again on its natural resources, but this time it’s not to fire steel-making smokestacks. Instead, where railroads ran and mines burrowed into mountains, the healed landscape is being repurposed for hiking and biking. New and expanding venues around the city are providing more opportunities not only to get outside and exercise but also to appreciate the labor and industry that built the city.
Birmingham is not only a collision point in history but is also a crossroads of biological and geological diversity. Within a short drive of Birmingham, you can find yourself on an Appalachian Mountain peak or on the banks of the Cahaba River as it broadens to snake through the Coastal Plain. You can visit old growth forest in the Sipsey Wilderness or hike down into the “Grand Canyon of the East” at Little River Canyon. And that's only the start. Across this landscape, you’ll find a level of diversity of plant and animal species, some rare and endangered, that rivals anywhere in the North America.
So get off the couch, skip the same-old-same-old and hit the trails. You’ll be rewarded.
Joshua Kinser
Your Guide to the Area's Most Beautiful Hikes
Five-Star Trails: Charlotte is a handy guide for area residents, vacationers seeking outdoor fun, and for business travelers with a free afternoon. With a diverse collection of hiking routes, the book offers choices for everyone from solo trekkers to companions to families with either youngsters or oldsters to consider.
Researched, experienced, and written by a local author, the guide provides in-depth trail descriptions, directions, and commentary on what to expect along the way. Each hike features an individual trail map, elevation profile, and at-a-glance key info, helping readers quickly determine the perfect trip for them when they are ready to head out the door.
Sized to fit in a pocket, the book is convenient to keep in the car or toss into a backpack. Driving directions direct hikers to the nearest trailhead parking areas, and GPS trailhead coordinates get them to the start of the trail.
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See details Five-Star Trails: Chattanooga
Johnny Molloy
Five-Star Trails: Chattanooga is a handy guide for area residents, vacationers seeking outdoor fun, and for business travelers with a free afternoon. With a diverse collection of hiking routes, the book offers choices for everyone from solo trekkers to companions to families with either youngsters or oldsters to consider.
This book profiles close-in urban and suburban locations that can satiate scenery-hungry residents and also offers routes of superlative beauty in the adjacent local, state, and national parks. All this adds up to a hiker’s nirvana.
Chattanooga is ideally situated to enjoy some of the Southeast’s best scenery. To the east and south are two huge tracts of sublime and primitive national forest land -- the Chattahoochee and the Cherokee -- much within an easy drive of Chattanooga. The national forests also offer camping, hunting, fishing, nature study, and more. To the west rises the Cumberland Plateau, with its finest features protected under the umbrella of Tennessee’s state park system, centered by the Volunteer State’s master path, the Cumberland Plateau. The geologically fascinating Cumberland offers hiking routes along rushing rivers, deep gorges, wild waterfalls, and other rock features.
Other parks lie within the bounds of Alabama and Georgia, from Little River Canyon to Cloudland Canyon to Chickamauga Battlefield. Lookout Mountain and other local hiking destinations only add to the possibilities. The wide variety of trails, distances, difficulties, and destinations will suit any hiker’s mood and company.
See details Five-Star Trails: Columbus
Robert Loewendick
Yes, a few guidebooks do feature hiking in Ohio, but none is as detailed, authoritative, and inviting as Five-Star Trails Columbus. Nor does any other guide showcase--and rate--these five key attributes for which the series is named: Scenery, Trail Condition, Difficulty, Appropriateness for Children, and Solitude. But that is what each guidebook in the Five-Star Trail series does for the destinations covered across the United States.
In the Columbus guide, an impressive collection of routes ranges north, east, south, and west from the metro center, as well as within the urban setting. This capital city is rich in metro parks, natural areas and preserves, state parks, and state forests. And this diversity of hiking terrain invites all levels of abilities and skills. Thus, this guidebook is geared not only to avid trekkers seeking more challenge than a paved neighborhood path, but also to families and senior citizens. Outdoor enthusiasts of every stripe will have reason to grab this book and, well, take a hike.
Text and photos reflect the author’s extensive outdoor knowledge and experience within the natural environments that the routes cover. Each hike features an individual trail map, elevation profile, and at-a-glance key info, helping readers quickly determine the perfect trip when they are ready to head out the door. Once on the trail, the guidebook becomes a hiking companion that will enhance the overall trail experience from start to finish. Descriptions detail landmarks, flora, fauna, and local history.
Sized for easy carrying or tossing into a backpack, this handy guide will quickly become a treasured resource among Columbus locals and visitors alike.
See details Five-Star Trails: Finger Lakes and Central New York
The Finger Lakes and Central New York are not known for rugged mountains and their panoramic vistas which are so commonly sought in the Adirondacks to the north. They hardly could be - the area was scoured clean by glaciers millennia ago. But don’t let that fool you, the region is full of natural wonders of its own. Instead of mountains and ridges, the region is known for rolling drumlins, an abundance of scenic gorges, quiet woodlands, beautiful waterfalls and picturesque lakes. The trails included in Five-Star Trails: New York's Finger Lakes and Central Region feature a broad mixture of these landscapes and were carefully selected to give the most varied but also rewarding experience when picking a trail.
An assortment of state parks, local parks, state forests, conservancy areas, wildlife preserves, and nature centers riddle the region, and choice selections from each means you can find a trail that suits your preference for how civil or wild you might desire. Trails for all experience levels are included and provide opportunities for adventure for novice and expert alike.
Some of these trails are well known and their inclusion in this new guide is no surprise. However far more are lesser known and a little more off the beaten path. Though these trails are not hard to find they are hard to find any real details about. What should you expect along the trail? Is the terrain rough? Will there be interesting things along the trip? Is the trail appropriate and/or safe for children? Well that lack of information is no longer an issue.
Each trail has been thoroughly researched, recently hiked and includes a detailed description, trail profiles and map. At a glance ratings in important categories such as Scenery, Trail Condition, Difficulty, Solitude and appropriateness for children let you quickly select a trail that fits your tastes and ability. Other useful information such as fees, restrictions for dogs on the trail as well as advice on when to visit offers you the best information so you can plan your trip with ease.
Sized to fit in a pocket, this guide is convenient to keep in the car or toss into a backpack. Driving directions direct hikers to the nearest trailhead parking areas, and GPS trailhead coordinates get them to the start of the trail.
See details Five-Star Trails: Flagstaff and Sedona
Tony Padegimas
Each hike features an individual trail map, elevation profile, and at-a-glance information, helping readers quickly find the perfect trip. Sized to fit in a pocket, the book's detailed trail descriptions will help readers find their way on and off the trail. Driving directions and GPS trailhead coordinates will help with navigating the myriad of unnamed roads. The trails covered range from those best suited to the novice, families, experienced hikers, or backpackers.