Santa Monica Mountains Trail Guide eBook John McKinney Tom Harrison
Download As PDF : Santa Monica Mountains Trail Guide eBook John McKinney Tom Harrison 
Fifty favorite hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains, suitable for families, nature hikes, and all-day adventures. Colorful stories, clear maps, easy-to-follow directions. These hikes take you to waterfalls, wildflowers, and mountaintop vistas. Classic trails and new pathways ramble through woodlands, canyons, foothills, and ridges in this mountain range between Los Angeles and Ventura County.
Santa Monica Mountains Trail Guide eBook John McKinney Tom Harrison
John McKinney, aka "The Trailmaster" has written about hiking all over California, and indeed all over the globe in his numerous guidebooks and popular LA Times column. But he has a special passion for Mediterranean climates. Living in Santa Barbara, he sees a lot of this relatively rare ecosystem and they feature prominently in his guidebooks as well. In addition to the Santa Ynez mountain backdrop for Santa Barbara, this climate and related ecosystems are also found in the Santa Monica Mountains just north and west of Los Angeles. Never very high, and often well developed, one can still find pockets of open space that increase the further west one travels. Don't let the name, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area fool you though. Very little of the land is actually owned by the National Park Service. Most of the preserved areas are state and county parks, with some absolute gems run by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. This book explores some 50 of the author's favorite hikes in the area.Because of the urban areas surrounding the range, and their relative lack of hieght, most of the hikes in this book are pretty short; over half are under 5 miles. But steep elevation gain make some of these hikes fairly challenging. And if you want to avoid crowds, stick to the overgrown trails instead of the broad fire roads, which are often shared with mountain bikers. Despite the proximity to LA, you can find a semblance of wilderness in this area. On my trip to Charmlee park, one of the routes described in this little book, I saw a mountain lion. Deer, coyotes, and countless bunnies, are all found in the range and this book will lead you to many nice locations to share with these creatures. A nice added feature are the maps. McKinney called upon Tom Harrison, the premier topographical map maker in California, to complete the sketch maps for this book. While not as detailed as Harrison's published 1:24,000 topos, his contribution adds to a fine book.
I was almost inclined to give this book 5 stars. There is a lot to like in this volume. But the many jurisdictions of public land in the range cry out for a more comprehensive guidebook. As a list of favorite hikes, this book succeeds in doing what it sets out to do: list some nice routes that urban dwellers can quickly escape to. I would just like to see even more. With that said, 4.5 stars for a nice guide to a unique region of California.
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Tags : Buy Santa Monica Mountains Trail Guide: Read 3 Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com,ebook,John McKinney, Tom Harrison,Santa Monica Mountains Trail Guide,Tom Harrison Maps,NATURE Regional,SPORTS & RECREATION Hiking,TRAVEL Hikes & Walks
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Santa Monica Mountains Trail Guide eBook John McKinney Tom Harrison Reviews
Very Helpful in finding new trails to explore.
The hikes themselves are fine, and the writeups are adequate. However, the book is a bit disappointing (1) there is no locator map so choosing a nearby trail is difficult, (2) there's no introductory natural-history section or anything else except a self-promoting foreword by the editor, (3) the individual trail maps are very poor, (4) providing only harrison map references (instead of the traditional topo map names) seems like a tawdry advertising strategy (Harrison is the coauthor), (5) there's no overview index of all trails, (6) there's no discussion of whether trails are suitable for dogs or kids.
Still, the hikes are pretty good - I just wish a bit more time was spent on the other parts that go into a hiking guide.
John McKinney, aka "The Trailmaster" has written about hiking all over California, and indeed all over the globe in his numerous guidebooks and popular LA Times column. But he has a special passion for Mediterranean climates. Living in Santa Barbara, he sees a lot of this relatively rare ecosystem and they feature prominently in his guidebooks as well. In addition to the Santa Ynez mountain backdrop for Santa Barbara, this climate and related ecosystems are also found in the Santa Monica Mountains just north and west of Los Angeles. Never very high, and often well developed, one can still find pockets of open space that increase the further west one travels. Don't let the name, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area fool you though. Very little of the land is actually owned by the National Park Service. Most of the preserved areas are state and county parks, with some absolute gems run by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. This book explores some 50 of the author's favorite hikes in the area.
Because of the urban areas surrounding the range, and their relative lack of hieght, most of the hikes in this book are pretty short; over half are under 5 miles. But steep elevation gain make some of these hikes fairly challenging. And if you want to avoid crowds, stick to the overgrown trails instead of the broad fire roads, which are often shared with mountain bikers. Despite the proximity to LA, you can find a semblance of wilderness in this area. On my trip to Charmlee park, one of the routes described in this little book, I saw a mountain lion. Deer, coyotes, and countless bunnies, are all found in the range and this book will lead you to many nice locations to share with these creatures. A nice added feature are the maps. McKinney called upon Tom Harrison, the premier topographical map maker in California, to complete the sketch maps for this book. While not as detailed as Harrison's published 124,000 topos, his contribution adds to a fine book.
I was almost inclined to give this book 5 stars. There is a lot to like in this volume. But the many jurisdictions of public land in the range cry out for a more comprehensive guidebook. As a list of favorite hikes, this book succeeds in doing what it sets out to do list some nice routes that urban dwellers can quickly escape to. I would just like to see even more. With that said, 4.5 stars for a nice guide to a unique region of California.
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