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Friday, February 23, 2024

How to Hike the NCT

 I guess it's time to reveal a project I've been working on for about a year. At the urging of Matt Rowbotham, the North Country Trail Association's Mapping Specialist, I've been working on a book that can be used to help plan long hikes on the 4800+ mile NCT.
map of the North Country Trail


I hope to have it done before the Celebration in August. That means I need to keep working. I'm 16,000 words into it, but there is a ways to go. Here's the deal. This will not be a guide, per se. Things change too often along this trail yet. Any book put into print is outdated almost instantly. Also, a true guide would be so large it would be unwieldy if it included all the things a usual guide book has.

However, it should help people understand why planning a long hike on the NCT is such a challenge, and help those who use it to make plans of their own. It will contain a list of all known legal places to camp along the trail. This will change more than most of the rest of the information, but for the most part, if entities have spent the time to create campsites or shelters, those will not disappear in a few months time.

So, I have a question for you, yes YOU! Would you be more attracted to a book entitled "How to Hike the North Country Trail," or "Not a Guide to the North Country Trail," which is somewhat humorous, but tells people right up front that it's not going to have the kind of detail a data book would supply.

It will be reasonably priced.

Today, I edited, I wrote, I worked on a few other minor things.

See More Mapping Fun

8 comments:

trailmulematt@gmail.com said...

The Un-guide to the North Country Trail

Ann said...

I would be drawn more to "Not a Guide"

Bob Court said...

HI Joan!
I kind of like the Un-guide to the North Country Trail.
-Bob

Sharkbytes said...

Matt & Bob- cute, but not really descriptive

Ann- me too, but it will probably be the subtitle. How To gets the attention of search engines.

Eric Longman said...

Whatever the title I'll be looking forward to it! Thanks for the effort. One thing I know - you are a very good writer!

Sharkbytes said...

Thanks, Eric!

The Oceanside Animals said...

Java Bean: "Ayyy, that trail looks like it goes right through where Mama and Dada used to live! Maybe they've been on part of it!"
Lulu: "Our Dada is partial to those 'Not A' titles, as you can maybe tell from all the 'Not A Review Of XYZ' posts he does."
Charlee: "I thought he called those things 'Not A Review' because he likes everything so he doesn't really review stuff, he just tells people how long they took to put Mama to sleep."
Lulu: "He does. It's called Truth in Advertising!"

Bruce Matthews said...

How to hike works better for me.....