Books to Inspire Your Outdoor Adventures

As the trail name Reading Rainbow might imply, I’m kinda into books. (Working in a library tends to help with this). So it’s only fitting that I share some books that have inspired and aided me in my outdoor adventures. I’m providing Amazon links for the sake of convenience, but you should be able to get lots of these books at your local REI or Barnes and Noble. Or see if your local library has them available to check out for free before you buy!

 

MY ESSENTIALS

100 Classic Hikes in New England by Jeffrey Romano

This book of mostly dayhikes leans toward the Green Mountains in Vermont and the White Mountains in New Hampshire, but it includes some of the best Connecticut hikes. This is my FAVORITE hiking guide, with full-color topographic maps and clear directions. It has proved very useful in transitioning from day hiking to backpacking, too.

AMC’s Best Day Hikes in Connecticut by Rene Laubach and Charles W.G. Smith

My go-to guide when I’m staying in-state on my dayhikes. It gives you a great variety of hikes from easy 2-mile walks along the shore to the fun stuff in Litchfield County, and it lets you know which trails are dog-friendly, kid-friendly, winter-friendly, and wallet-friendly. The maps don’t have contour lines like the ones in 100 Classic Hikes, and its difficulty rating is relative to Connecticut instead of to the New England region as a whole*, but otherwise this is a great guide that has given me dozens of weekend excursions.**

*A “strenuous” hike in CT , where the highest point is 2380′, is NOT the same as a “strenuous” hike in New Hampshire where peaks go to 6289′.

** The Appalachian Trail is curiously underrepresented in the book, but to fill the gaps I use the Guthook’s AT Guide section from Delaware Water Gap, NJ to Great Barrington, MA. And a 10-year-old guidebook, taken with a grain of salt, that helps me plan distances.

The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide by Andrew Skurka

If you only use one source to help you choose backpacking gear, Andrew Skurka’s gear guide is THE book. Using friendly charts, he lays out all the pros and cons for almost every type of gear you could consider from stoves to rain protection (the only exception being hammocks), and reading it gave me the tools to confidently evaluate my gear purchases for years to come.

Sibley’s Guide to Eastern Birds by David Allen Sibley

When you’re at home, no wildlife identification app can quite compare to being able to hold a book in your hand. I love Sibley’s illustrations, which show regional variants and juvenile plumage patterns. (When I’m out in the field, though, I like iBird Pro with its downloadable database.)

Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America by Roger Tory Peterson

Oh, but I have such fond memories of the Peterson’s field guide, I had to include it too! Do you need Peterson AND Sibley? No, but it doesn’t hurt if you are like me and love perusing field guides at home.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Teenage Me plowed through this book in two days and was completely fascinated. I don’t want to go live on a bus in the Alaskan wilderness, but this definitely planted a seed and led me to Jon Krakauer’s other outdoor adventure narratives, like Into Thin Air.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

When people learn I’m into hiking long trails, inevitably they ask me if I’ve read Wild. Of course! It’s the best thru-hiking narrative I’ve read. I enjoyed A Walk in the Woods and AWOL on the Appalachian Trail which was written by the guy who does the best AT guide out there, but Cheryl Strayed’s excellent writing has stayed with me and with those to whom I gave this as a gift.

Connecticut Walk Book by Connecticut Forest and Park Association

I feel like I have to include this, since it’s the official publication of our blue-blazed systems. I don’t find it as user-friendly as the other hiking guides, but that might be me projecting my frustration at the lack of backcountry camping options in Connecticut compared to nearby states. CFPA, if you’re reading, please remedy this! Anyway, this goes even deeper into the state than the AMC guide.

 

OTHER GREAT READS & RESOURCES

• I learned how to prevent blisters by taping my feet, and why I should finally get a pedicure, from Fixing Your Feet: Injury Prevention and Treatment for Athletes by John Vonhof.
• If you want to explore the blue-blazed trails of Connecticut, I recommend the Connecticut Walk Book by Connecticut Forest and Park Association. I don’t find it as user-friendly as the other guides, but that might be me projecting my frustration at the lack of backcountry camping options in Connecticut. CFPA, if you’re reading this, please remedy the camping options and make this state as fun as New York and Vermont!
• To complete the Long Trail, I used the super-durable Long Trail map and End-to-Ender’s Guide from Green Mountain Club, from which I ripped out the pages I wouldn’t need on the trail (more for ease of use than weight).
• For Catskills adventures, I purchased the full set of waterproof Catskills maps from New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. The distances in the maps are sometimes way different from the wooden signs along the trail, in which case I favor the maps since I know when they’re been updated.
• I love paging through a copy of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America that I got from the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble, then going to eBay and buying cheap prints of native hawks and woodpeckers and owls to decorate my apartment.
• Did you catch the Saint Francis of Assisi medallion in the photo? He’s known for his love of creation, he’s the patron saint of animals and ecologists, and there’s a story of him giving a sermon to the birds. I have an affinity for St. Francis because I also find God in nature (that’s a whole other set of stories for another time), so I read about him when I can and one day will pick up a copy of Canticle of the Sun.
• Okay, confession time: as of May 2018, I have only read nine pages of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Its mythology has been inspirational, though, and it’s on my immediate reading list along with A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, The Book of Noticing by CT writer Katherine Hauswirth, and John Muir’s writings.
• The little turquoise thing with the barred owls on it? My trail journal! I write down a page or two for each day I’m out, recording location, distance, elevation, time, speed, wildlife, mood, gear hacks, fun things that happened, etc.