An Outdoor Guide to The Big South Fork

Rating:
Summary: Manning's book will get you in trouble! Far from Updated !
Review: The 2000 Edition of this book is certainly NOT UPDATED. The cover claims: "A thoroughly updated, comprehensive guide to the Big South Fork..." This is misleading. One wonders who reviewed this edition and why the information is so misleading and why changes due to a huge 1998 snow storm are not discussed or reflected in the trail maps and descriptions. I would like my money returned!

Since Manning's First Edition in 1994, the Big South Fork area suffered a 100-year snow storm which devastated the forest knocking millions of trees down, closing hundreds of miles of trail. This storm occurred in February 1998. I have recently tried to follow two separate horse trails in Manning's book and found one barely passable - had to dismount my horse and very carefully squeeze under fallen trees not once, but several times. The other trail described simply does not exist due to trees downed. The directions for this trail are so poor that once you have traveled several miles into the gorge, there is no way you could find the route described in the book even if it did exist. The acknowledgements in the new addition indicate the same people reviewed this edition's content as did in 1994. Several of these people have been gone from Big South Fork since 1996,'97, and 98.

One gets the impression that a new cover has been put on the 1994 edition and a few sentences changed. The book advises visitors to check with a ranger on trail conditions, but totally omits any discussion of the effects of this huge storm event on the environment, and does not warn visitors of its possible consequences in planning a trip that depends on trails being open. Also, in Manning's 2000 Edition, trails do not match the trails system shown on the official Trails Illustrated Map by National Geographic for Big South Fork published in 1998. This edition does not benefit the trailrider!