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Rating: 
Summary: WORST GUIDEBOOK EVER WRITTEN-DANGEROUS!
Review: DO NOT EVEN LOOK AT THIS VILE,PESTILENT BOOK! IT WILL GET YOU LOST IN THE WILDERNESS! The author may be a very fine fellow, and is probably a better backpacker than I am, but he can NOT tell anyone how to get from point A to point B. I wasted days getting lost from this awful book, as he yakked endlessly about flora, fauna, and geology. Meanwhile, you the sucker stand there at unmarked trail intersections getting no help. Do NOT follow the author's dangerous contention that you don't need maps if you buy this book-its maps don't show you the OTHER trails, and get you lost. The Tuolomne and Devil's Postpile sections just may constitute the worst writing of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book; the standard for a thruhike
Review: First it is important for me to respond to David Sloan from Menlo Park, CA. This is not the venue to display your ignorance of distance backpacking and/or backpacking guides in general.That aside, here I go. This JMT guide is excellent. It does not advocate any one backpacking philiosophy over another. It simply presents the JMT trail beta. Used with the data book you would be in excellent care. The JMT pushed me over 3,000 long distance miles and this guide fullfilled my very picky requirements for a trail guide. Just buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Great book; the standard for a thruhike
Review: First it is important for me to respond to David Sloan from Menlo Park, CA. This is not the venue to display your ignorance of distance backpacking and/or backpacking guides in general. That aside, here I go. This JMT guide is excellent. It does not advocate any one backpacking philiosophy over another. It simply presents the JMT trail beta. Used with the data book you would be in excellent care. The JMT pushed me over 3,000 long distance miles and this guide fullfilled my very picky requirements for a trail guide. Just buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: If you're planning a thru hike, this is it
Review: 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. The first section of the book consists solely of topographical maps, so the text portion is not especially lengthy. 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.
Rating:
Summary: Comments about the book from a 1997 JMT hiker
Review: I hiked the JMT from Tuloumne Meadows in Yosemite to the Whitney Portal in July/August 1997. We used the book to plan the trip as well as for our exclusive guide book/map source on the hike. The book weighs next to nothing and I found it easier to keep track of one book rather than a whole bunch of maps, so it was worth taking. The book contains all necessary maps, trail descriptions in both directions, and a mileage/altitude chart. With the book, we always knew how many miles we had to hike in a given day and what the terrain would be like (elevation changes etc.) My only suggestion for improvement with the book would be for it to discuss recommended camping spots in more detail (perhaps by placing symbols on the map for particularly scenic spots, spots with bear boxes etc.) In general though, as someone who has hiked most of the JMT using this book as a guide, I'd highly recommend it. For the money and weight, you're unlikely to find anything better.
Rating:
Summary: Descriptive of trail both ways, plus planning helps
Review: One of the other reviewers said the book has nothing for planning a trip, but someone must have ripped out those pages from his copy. The book is more than a trail description; it includes descriptions of mid-way trailheads, resupply options, and other planning guides. This book is a great resource both for hiking the trail and planning to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Descriptive of trail both ways, plus planning helps
Review: One of the other reviewers said the book has nothing for planning a trip, but someone must have ripped out those pages from his copy. The book is more than a trail description; it includes descriptions of mid-way trailheads, resupply options, and other planning guides. This book is a great resource both for hiking the trail and planning to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Descriptive, but not useful
Review: The first time I did the John Muir Trail I diligently bought this book like good little Internet researcher. I assumed, like everyone else, that this book would help me plan my trip. Not so. This book is like a play-by-play description of walking down the trail. It doesn't mention preparation, weather, seasons, services, rest stops, food drops, transportation...nothing. I quickly shelved this book and moved on to Ray Jardine's bible of the PCT. Although Ray's book often borders on insanity, it is full of trail wisdom. If Winnett's guide is the GEO Metro of trail books, Jardines is the Ferrari.
Rating:
Summary: Descriptive, but not useful
Review: The first time I did the John Muir Trail I diligently bought this book like good little Internet researcher. I assumed, like everyone else, that this book would help me plan my trip. Not so. This book is like a play-by-play description of walking down the trail. It doesn't mention preparation, weather, seasons, services, rest stops, food drops, transportation...nothing. I quickly shelved this book and moved on to Ray Jardine's bible of the PCT. Although Ray's book often borders on insanity, it is full of trail wisdom. If Winnett's guide is the GEO Metro of trail books, Jardines is the Ferrari.
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