Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies: The Opinionated Hiking Guide

I have been backpacking throughout the American and Canadian Rockies and the Sierras. This book is by far the best hiking/backpacking guide I have ever read. The opinions of the authors led my husband and I to the best two hikes of our life. The book gives detailed descriptions of what to expect. If you don't have much time and want to pick out an amazing hike of your life in the Canadian Rockies - pick up this book!

I am an "over 50" hiker with more than 30 years of hiking in the North Cascades and have been to the Canadian Rockies four times in the past five years. I have hiked 12 of the "Premier" and "Outstanding" day hikes and 3 of the backpack hikes including three perfect days at Berg Lake. (For someone who is interested in photography and scenery, their rating system is very fair.) However, the scenery is so spectacular that you would be hard pressed to make much distinction between the "Premier" and "Outstanding" hikes. Remember, the book is opinionated but you don't always have to agree. Don't always rely on the ratings. Often, they "downgrade" an area because of crowds rather than a lack of scenery or a long approach. (For example, Cavell Meadows, Parker Ridge, and the Beehives tend to be crowded but are worth "sharing" with others.) And thanks to this book, you had better get used to sharing ALL of the hikes and backpacks with others!!! (I would also highly recommend their book, Don't Waste Your Time In The North Cascades. It is the best single reference book for hikes in the Cascade Mountains.)

As an experienced hiker, I found this to be one of the best guides I've ever encountered. Trails are ranked as "premier," "outstanding," "worthwhile," and "don't do," and the book is organized by ranking, so it is easy to find the very best hikes right away. Also useful are the suggestions for rainy day hikes and shoulder season trips. Rough maps of each of the parks showing the general locations of the hikes are helpful for overal itinerary and base planning. The "fact" section for each hike, showing directions to the trailhead and general route finding directions in the field is right on, and the "opinion" section adds just the right amount of subjective commentary. Photos of key sights are also helpful in evaluating trails. Lacking are any maps of the hikes themselves, but serious hikers should have proper topographical maps anyway, and the book tells you exactly which ones you need to acquire for each hike. The difficulty ratings may be a bit optimistic (Kathy and Craig are in better shape than most of us), but the book also gives the hard facts on distances, altitudes and elevation gains, to allow an informed evaluation of the difficulty involved. The general sections of the book on the hazards and realities of hiking do a tremendous job in covering critical safety information (including bears) in a scant 27 pages - must reading for any beginner, and a good refresher even for verterans. If I have one criticism, it is the author's obvious bias against trails frequented by other hikers. As my my most frequent hiking companion (my wife) has often said, sometimes there's a REASON all those other people are on the trail! However, even considering the book's inordinate concern with solitude, it's still an outstanding reference. I used it on a recent hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies, I will use it the next time I go, and I am pleased to add it to my library.

We used this book on a recent day-hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies. While the "rad" writing style isn't exactly our cup of tea, the hike descriptions and ratings are right on. Every "premier"-rated hike we took was an absolute winner. Note that the book does not include any maps at all -- not even sketches -- so getting good hiking maps to go along with it is a must. When we traveled from the Rockies to Southwest British Columbia we were devastated not to find the authors' "Don't Waste Your Time" for that region in any local bookstores or hiking shops we passed. We've used many, many hiking books for various regions around the world over the years, and "Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies" truly stands out as the most useful and fun. Congratulations to the authors.

We got this book in Canada and knew nothing about the different trails in the parks covered by the book. We really liked it - very good descriptions and selection of wonderfully senic trails, and all the hikes we took were really neat - we only took hikes in the premier or outstanding class. We changed our (loosely) planned itinery to do some of the hikes described as premier and were not disappointed. "Opiniated" yes, but most hikers would share the opinions and preferences. We avoided several less desireable hikes because of their lower senic ratings. Only possible criticism is that the difficulty rating and times for hikes was aimed at those who are not in the over 50, over 50lbs overweight category like me and I was slower and worked harder than the rating. Would be accurate for younger hikers in better shape. Overall, however, a very, very good guide.