Offroad and Backroad Books for Northern California, Part 2

Books reviewed: Backcountry Adventures: Southern California, and Backcountry Adventures: Northern California

Peter Massey and Jeanne Wilson have created what surely must be the offroad trail books to which all others must be compared.

I’m a firm believer in having a good reference library of trails and destinations. Having a proper collection is not only useful for trip planning, but for inspiration as well. These books stand out among my collection, both for their sheer size and for the amount of detailed information they contain.

The books in this series are large, heavy books, which run several hundred pages and cover many trails. The Northern and Southern California edition runs over 600 pages in length, and each is about 1-1/4th inch thick. I’m guessing that they weigh perhaps six pounds. Each. I’d weigh one, but that’s too anal for even me.

List price for these monstrosities is a surprisingly reasonable $34.95 apiece. The softcover books have short flaps on both the front and back covers, which serve as built-in bookmarks. That’s a nice touch, although I personally haven’t used them.

This series comes from the kitchen sink school of thought. Not only do they cover a lot of trails in the book, there are also sections on points of interest, history, and even the local flora and fauna. While the book may be huge, most people will never have to wish they’d brought along an appropriate Audubon field guide.

The Southern California book opens with a very brief introduction, followed by about a dozen pages covering basic offroading and trip planning advice. We then get into a larger (>80 pages) section covering historical points of interest, which includes towns, trails, ghost towns, and there is even a section on personalities, like Manson and Reagan.

We then get about three dozen pages of flora and fauna varieties, before the real meat of the book – the trails – finally begins on page 145 for the Southern book (page 160 in the Northern.)

As is typical for trail books, the area the book covers is split up into regions, which surely is why we end up with Southern California starting roughly at 37º North. Now, I don’t know anyone that considers Gilroy and Santa Cruz to be in Southern California, but for these books, they do. It’s not a problem unless you buy the Northern California edition and expect it to cover the area around Monterey, for example.

Each region has its own map, which shows the trails and where they are detailed in the book.

There are about 150 trails in each book, which is wonderful. For each trail there are maps, photos, directions, coordinates, and a list of basic information (trail length, estimated drive times, difficulty ratings, etc.) There are also points of interest, contact information for the latest road conditions, and a list of maps that are available. All in all, this is a treasure trove of information, and this is where you get your money’s worth and more.

The books wrap up with a suggested reading list (which includes many URLs), a few pages of trail lists (shortest, longest, and the authors’ favorites), and a good index.

Overall, when it comes time for me to look for trail information, the books in this series are almost always the first ones I reach for on my bookshelves. I have planned several day trips using these books as my primary source of information, and am eager to do more as time allows.

I have minor quibbles about the books, but they’re just that: minor. There are no maddening flaws to cope with. Still, it’s time to delve into my nitpicks.

Nitpick #1: Bay Area Black Hole. If you live in San Jose as I do, you won’t be finding anything within these pages that’s less than a two hour drive from home. Ouch. And as large as these books are, no trail book is canonical, and these are no exception. A few more trails anywhere near the Bay Area would have been appreciated.

Nitpick #2: Coordinates. They use a Lat/Lon format I don’t see much anymore, which is using decimal minutes, but only to two (and not the usual three) digits. That’s not a big deal, but if you’re not careful you might assume they were using regular, non-decimal minutes. Also, some of the coordinates are off by a pretty good distance. Luckily, none of the ones I have seen were so wrong that they would give you trouble out on the trail.

Nitpick #3: The region maps. These are buried in the book at the start of each region. You’ll want to mark or otherwise identify them ahead of time, or you’ll be forever searching for them. The master map that shows the various regions is also buried. I flag all of these maps with those little tabs that stick like Post-it notes.

Nitpick #4: Their size. These are large, heavy books which are cumbersome to use on the trail. As happy as I am with their size while I’m at my desk at home, it’s a two-edged sword.

Nitpick #5: No Offroad Parks. The authors have avoided listing any offroad parks, and places like the BLM’s Knoxville and Clear Creek lands. This may not have made my nitpick list if it was spelled out anywhere (preferably someplace obvious) in the books.

Those complaints aside, there’s no arguing that these books are a staggeringly good value. If I had to restrict myself to one guidebook for a given area, it would almost certainly be one of these books. The authors (including their team of contributors) deserve full credit for what surely was a massive undertaking. I rate these books highly and recommend them.

As of this writing, Amazon.com shows the price of the Northern book as an undiscounted $39.95, five bucks higher than the price on my copy’s cover. The Southern edition is shown with the same list price, but discounted to $26.37. You’ll find nothing but 5-star reviews there for either book, and glowing editorial reviews as well. All are well deserved.

Finally, regarding Nitpick #5… You can also purchase the individual regions covered in these books in smaller volumes, which would be more convenient for field use. It’s nice that they have this option available. The downside is the cost, as they list for $20 to $25 each. Buying from Amazon, you’ll pay more than twice as much(!) to get the same material contained in the Southern book, and over $23 more for the Northern books. I’d stick with the larger versions.