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Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Sneak Peek - How to Hike the North Country Trail

 This project is all Matt Rowbotham's fault! I'm only half kidding. He approached me at the Celebration in October of 2022 and suggested this would be a worthy and easy project. He was half right.
cover of How to Hike the North Country Trail


The first part of the book is about 30K words of text that explain why the NCT is different from other long trails, both in experiences and management. This is more or less done. I've sent it to some fact checkers and have to go back through and incorporate their feedback.

The second half is going to be a listing of all the known legal places to stay overnight along the trail. This is the daunting task. It has taken a while to get a format that is understandable, and works with all the odd configurations we have to deal with. Huge thanks to Marianne Duvendack and Cathy Laman for helping me get that whipped into shape.

Here is a sampler pdf with the opening to the campsite half, including the legends. Then it skips to a list from western Wisconsin.

Link to a Sample pdf of How to Hike the North Country Trail

I did my editing quota and then worked like a fiend on this book. I have to keep my nose to the grindstone or I'll never get it done in time. But I'm also supposed to be doing other things... I have campsites listed for about 1200 miles (that's about a quarter of the trail), and not all of those are formatted correctly yet.

Also, my car has new brakes. Driving is an expensive hobby.

See More Mapping Fun

6 comments:

Doug said...

Oh my! That's a big project. It'll take me a bit to memorize the legend/code. I like the "what three words" handy in a paper format as I stand a decent chance of remembering them. Whereas in digital world I can copy and paste GPS coordinates.

Ann said...

That's awesome. Sounds like a ton of work.

Sharkbytes said...

Doug- if you use the book when planning a hike, you'll catch right on.

Ann- it is, but it's all good

kim said...

I can't wait to see the finished product and start planning some backpacking trips on the NCT!

The Oceanside Animals said...

Lulu: "Is there a section about how you should bring your dog? Or is that just taken as a given?"

Sharkbytes said...

Kim- yeah!

Lulu- Well, the good news is that dogs are welcome on most of the trail. Only a few places are not pup-friendly