West Virginia Hiking Trails, 2nd: Hiking the Mountain State

If you are into trails... this is the book you need for West Virginia... everything from how to get there to what you can expect on the trail. I know Mr. DeHart personally and he walked every inch of every trail that he wrote about.

If I were to choose one word to sum up this book, it would be "quantity." Allen states that he describes over 500 trails, and though I did not count them, that number sounds about right. Trail length ranges from about 1 mile to overnight backpack trips. Some background information is provided for each area, and a brief trail description (usually one paragraph) is provided. Maps are provided for the national forest lands (about half the hikes) but not for state parks or other land. The book is pocket-sized so that it can be carried easily on hikes. No matter how much hiking you have done in West Virginia, you will certainly find some destination in here you have not been.Unfortunately, to fit 500 trails into 350 pages, something has to be omitted, and in this case what is omitted is details. I already mentioned the lack of maps, but many of the trail descriptions are nothing more than directions for walking. Few insights are given as to what will be seen on the trail. This lack of detail combined with a lack of trail summary (a table listing all the trails in the book) make it very hard to choose a trail to hike.In summary, if you are looking for a comprehensive trail guide to the state of West Virginia, this is definitely the book for you. If you are looking for the best hiking West Virginia has to offer, this guide will help only slightly. Despite its shortcomings, this is still the best guide to West Virginia hiking on the market. It should be considered by those planning a hiking trip to the Mountain state.

This book has excellent information on a large number of trails in the Mountain State. The descriptions are detailed and, on the trails I followed, are very accurate. However, little attention is paid to summit data such as elevations, directions for side trips to reach summits, etc. As a person who is interested in "peak bagging", I was somewhat disappointed. There are about 173 summits in West Virginia over 4,000 feet and there is almost no reference to this attribute. This book is essential and has a tremendous amount of useful information, but does not go far enough.