The John Muir Trail

Along with the topography and elevation profile maps that I downloaded for free, this was the only trail book I brought for a solo thru hike in 2006 from Happy Isles to Whitney. The author has a knack for accurately describing the individual trail and terrain features creating a good overall snapshot of what to expect on the next day's hike. Yes some of the info around Red's Meadow and the Postpile have changed but otherwise as far as a solid resource for accurate trail descriptions, this is a great book that really presents the flavor of the different trail sections. Get the elevation profile maps as they are very handy for keeping track of where you are at in the all the ups and downs.

I have thru hiked the Muir Trail from north to south and found this book informative and containing some useful information. However, much of the info is of the common sense variety and could also easily be gleaned from the Internet. There is superfluous information on bear canisters, marmots and other hazards that any semi-experience hiker/backpacker would already know. The book is not marketed as being geared towards novices, but there's no doubt it would benefit a beginner and be less beneficial to a seasoned backpacker. There are route descriptions of each facet of the trail, such as explaining the drop off points, elevation gains and topography of Thousand Island Lake in Mammoth to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. You could do a thru hike without this guide, but if you're the least bit apprehensive, then this would ease your worries.