View Full Version : Guidebook advice...
hey,
keen to get hold of a CT guidebook &/ or databook... is the 2008 guide the latest one out? Is anyone looking to sell their unwanted copy cheap? I have been on the Colorado Trail Foundation website & postage to send both books from their online store to Aussie is $48.45 USD (the guides only cost a total of $36.90)... $85.35 all up...
Seems a bit excessive, but hey, I need all the info I can get especially being over this side of the planet. :-?
Soon Man
07-07-2010, 20:41
hey,
is the 2008 guide the latest one out?
New one is coming out soon. Don't recall year of the last one. CT is only 52 miles of the AT so it's your call to get older version or wait a few more weeks.
New one is coming out soon. Don't recall year of the last one. CT is only 52 miles of the AT so it's your call to get older version or wait a few more weeks.
This is the Colorado Trail. :)
The last version of the CT guidebook was the 7th Revised Edition.
Personally, I think you can do the CT with just a databook and good maps.
longhiker
07-08-2010, 10:36
Mags obviously knows a lot more about this than I do , especially since I haven't started my CT hike yet (next month).
So far, I have the guidebook, databook and many Trails Illustrated maps.
I feel like having the guidebook helps me during the planning stages because I get a better sense of the trail while living far from it (NJ).. on the other hand, you could get this sense by reading trail journals etc online. I have the 7th revised edition.
For the hike itself, I do agree with Mags - I feel like the databook and the TI maps should be great and more useful than the guidebook.. you don't want to read through a bunch of text to know where the next water or campsite is. The databook is very concise and gives you all the #s you need -- elevation profile, miles and a series of about 10 - 15 landmarks / point along the trail for each section (typically stream crossings, road crossings, water, campsites etc). The guidebook is pretty much this + a sentence describing each landmark + extra info about trailhead access + a few warnings about lightning and such.
We might still take the guidebook (torn apart into sections) with us on the hike.. esp. since we are two and can split it up.
I'll also add that the TI maps are good if you are into doing alt routes and/or need bailout points. They are a little expensive, but I already owned most of them.
The Bear Creek survey maps are very good..but only show the 'official' trail and lack alt routes, bailout points and nearby 14ers (popular for many CT hikers esp ones from out of state). You may want to couple the Bear Creek maps with the Delorme Gazetteer for CO just so you can get a wider view of the trail corridor if you go this route.
I enjoy alt routes and enjoy a wider view...but it is your hike..so take the maps best for you. :)
Hey, thanks for the advice folks, think i will go with the databook & maps (same deal as on the AT)... looking forward to jumping up and down the mountains in Colorado soonish... smashing!:eek:
longhiker
07-10-2010, 09:07
I looked more carefully through a couple of segments of the guidebook, with the Trails Illustrated map and databook in front of me.
The guidebook occasionally notes that an intersection is not well marked or notes a camping area / water at a private campground a few 100 feet off the trail which is not always noted in the databook. But with the map, you'd at least know that a campground exists, even if the guidebook says a little more about it.