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Rating: 
Summary: A good guide to eastern Tennessee hiking
Review: Before getting to details about the book, let me first say that this book does not describe 50 rugged mountain hikes as the title "Tennessee Mountains" would suggest. Rather, it describes 50 hikes of various difficulty in eastern Tennessee (i.e. points south and east of Cookeville). This region includes Big South Fork, Fall Creek Falls, Great Smoky Mountains, and Cherokee National Forest.
Hikes range in distance from 0.5 mile to 11.2 miles, with the average being around 6. Each hike contains excellent directions to the trailhead, always starting from an easy-to-find town. Each hike has a trail map, usually taken from a USGS topographic map. The maps are therefore excellent. As in most of the newer 50 hikes books, there is a summary table in the front of the book that allows you to find a particular hike of interest easily. The author's writing style is pleasant and friendly but well-informed. She brings a lot of practical, "first-hand" knowledge to the table with her writing.All of the ingredients for a great trail guide are present, but I have to say that rather often I felt underwhelmed after reading about a hike. What I mean is, based on the trail description, I did not feel excited about hiking the trail myself (although I am an avid hiker who has personally hiked a few of them). This result may be due to poor trail selection (there are hundreds of trails in eastern Tennessee, and Doris had to choose just 50) or a poor job of "selling" the hike. Great trail guides create interest in hiking by either describing great trails or making the reader think they are describing great trails, but this guide does not do either one on a consistent basis. In summary, I would recommend this work to people who want information on trails in eastern Tennessee. This book makes for an excellent source of information, but disappoints as a source of reading for the reason mentioned above. Therefore, this is a very good guide that just misses being great.
Rating:
Summary: A good guide to eastern Tennessee hiking
Review: Before getting to details about the book, let me first say that this book does not describe 50 rugged mountain hikes as the title "Tennessee Mountains" would suggest. Rather, it describes 50 hikes of various difficulty in eastern Tennessee (i.e. points south and east of Cookeville). This region includes Big South Fork, Fall Creek Falls, Great Smoky Mountains, and Cherokee National Forest.
Hikes range in distance from 0.5 mile to 11.2 miles, with the average being around 6. Each hike contains excellent directions to the trailhead, always starting from an easy-to-find town. Each hike has a trail map, usually taken from a USGS topographic map. The maps are therefore excellent. As in most of the newer 50 hikes books, there is a summary table in the front of the book that allows you to find a particular hike of interest easily. The author's writing style is pleasant and friendly but well-informed. She brings a lot of practical, "first-hand" knowledge to the table with her writing. All of the ingredients for a great trail guide are present, but I have to say that rather often I felt underwhelmed after reading about a hike. What I mean is, based on the trail description, I did not feel excited about hiking the trail myself (although I am an avid hiker who has personally hiked a few of them). This result may be due to poor trail selection (there are hundreds of trails in eastern Tennessee, and Doris had to choose just 50) or a poor job of "selling" the hike. Great trail guides create interest in hiking by either describing great trails or making the reader think they are describing great trails, but this guide does not do either one on a consistent basis. In summary, I would recommend this work to people who want information on trails in eastern Tennessee. This book makes for an excellent source of information, but disappoints as a source of reading for the reason mentioned above. Therefore, this is a very good guide that just misses being great.
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