Hiking Great Smoky Mountains: Hikes along the Cades Cove Loop, Cucumber Gap Trail, Ramsay Cascades, Shuckstack-Appalacian Trail, and many others

Rating:
Summary: Our copy is well-used.
Review: Forty-two walks are detailed in this guide to hiking the Great Smoky Mountains. Numerous other walks are briefly listed at the end of each chapter. Hikes are listed geographically in 11 areas, with two to six hikes per area.

The description for each hike includes the distance, difficulty (easy, moderate or strenuous), elevation (including elevation changes), location of the trailhead, and a description of the walk itself. The descriptions are sometimes rather wordy, but do often include interesting historical or natural information. A trail map is included for most of the walks. The appendix includes a thorough bird list.

We found many very interesting walks in this book. Some of the walks listed are the more popular ones, but there are enough of the infrequently visited trails for those who don't want a lot of company on their excursions.

As the book mentions, it frequently rains in the Smokys. We found ourselves in the rain on several of our walks. However, the book itself doesn't take getting damp as well as I'd like. Yet, even though it's been wet several times, the our copy is still very usable.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, but not user friendly or quick.
Review: I bought two books for my trip to the Smokies. This book and Johnny Molloy's "Day and Overnight Hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park" I tried to use both books, but I consistently returned to Molloys. The Albrights book would be all right to use if you wanted to sit down and read it from cover to cover, or at least a section of the park you want to explore. It is nearly impossible to flip through and find any specific trail. Beside this, their tone especially in the introduction put me off from this book. I think its designed to encourage anyone to try hiking, which is good, but for someone that has hiked for years, it treats me, the reader, as a simpleton, who has never stepped off the pavement in my life. This book is useful, but not as useful or concise as Molloy's guidebook.