View Full Version : The atc and guidebooks..why not south to north?
Hi Folks,
It really strikes me as strange how the ATC designs the guide books in a north to south descriptive fasion when most folks hike south to north. I realize the trail was built north to south but wouldn't it make more sense to design the guide books to go with the flow? or perhaps they could make one set north south and anothe set south to north?
David
shades of blue
10-30-2005, 16:43
Some guides...like SW VA and NC have N/S side by side. It was a little awkward at first, but once I got used to it, I liked it. TN guidebook has N to S and S to N. The only problem with this is that it makes the guidebook a lot heavier. I tore mine up into sections anyway. You can get by with maps and the data book/companion or wingfoot's book.
Jack Tarlin
10-30-2005, 17:12
Maybe most THRU hikers go south to north, but the guidebooks aren't necessarily designed for thru-hikers, who constitute a tiny fraction of the folks who use the Trail each year. Most of the folks using the Guidebooks are day-hikers or sectioners, and there's as much chance these folks will be going southbound as northwards during their travels.
Most of the books designed for thru-hikers are written from a Northbounder perspective, tho some of them have their information available in both directions.
Mountain Dew
10-30-2005, 19:07
If most of the users of the Data and Companion books are section/day hikers and their direction of travel is about 50/50 north/south then why not do the logical thing and list all of the information south to north for the convenience of the 90% of attempting thru-hikers who travel north each year. If day/section hikers travel equally in both directions which common sense should dictact they do then it wouldn't matter to them which direction the books were printed in. I've never understood the logic behind the current listing of information especially since the first thru-hike was SOUTH to north. Thanks Earl !
Not sure what you're talking about but unless they've changed, all the ATC guidebooks and the databook go both south to north and north to south.
The Companion also goes south to north.
SavageLlama
10-30-2005, 22:41
Have to agree here. Even when I started out section hiking years ago, I always wanted to hike the trail North --> South and found many of the guidebooks infuriating. It's 'bout time they changed it.
Rain Man
10-30-2005, 22:53
Yankee imperialism, pure and simple. SNOBS.
Rain:sunMan
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Which guidebooks? Not the ATC state guidebooks and databook. There written for either direction.
As far as I know it's only the Companion and WF's that are written for northbounders and they don't describe the actual route very much.
You think the AT is bad, try hiking the PCT southbound using the one set of guidebooks written for northbounders.
Or maybe y'all should hike the CDT, the best guides are written for southbounders. I figured all you have to do is turn the book upsidedown and read backwards.