High Sierra Hiking Guide: Tuolumne Meadows

PACIFIC + SOUTHWEST. 
Hiking Guide, National Park Travel. 

“High Sierra Hiking Guides are based on first-hand observation. There is absolutely no substitute for walking the trails, so we walked all the trails.” Here is immediate proof that this series of guides to John Muir’s “Range of Light” meant business, arming serious backcountry campers and day-trippers alike with all the right steps, plus sights and flora and fauna to see, plus background on the area, plus, plus, plus, etc. etc. etc. These pocket-sized guides were packed full of info and ready to hit the trail … The Tuolumne are a band of the Miwoks, an indigenous people that range across the middle-north band of California, and have since long long before there was a state named California. Tuolumne Meadows is named in their honor and has long been one of the premier backcountry camping sites in all of the Pacific West. This particular guide (#4 in the series) covered a quadrangle (about 14 x 17 miles) that encompasses most of the eastern portion of Yosemite National Park, with the Meadows at its center. With detailed descriptions of over 100 miles of trail within the area, many converging on the Meadows, it combined an impressive amount of practical info, from history to geology to the climate (beware summer thunderstorms and the high chance of lightning strikes!) for serious hikers in the late 1970s. By way of a highlighter, the well-used map shows the route of previous owners up from Echo Lake about 8-9 miles to their campsite in the Meadows—a rugged trek all of which lies over 8000 feet up in the high Sierras … Along with a large cache of similar guides, we picked up this trail-ready handbook at the estate sale of a couple who had actually met while hiking, fell for each other, married, and hiked together all over the U.S., including many trips west from their Smyrna, Georgia home, including at least this one to Yosemite. [Condition: A solid if well-used pocket-size volume, there are expected creases and some edge wear on the travel-ready hard linen cover. The interior pages are in great shape with only an occasional number in pencil, likely coordinating trails to take; though the map is a straight topographical unlike others in the series with numbered hike and the rate of difficulty indicated. The map is in used, but good condition, the mentioned highlit trails plus a few small tears at the folds.] 

Condition: Used Good. 
Nature / Outdoors. 
Jeffrey P. Schaffer and Thomas Winnett. 
Wilderness Press / Berkeley, CA, 1977 (originally © 1970). 
Softcover Pocket-Sized, 117 pgs, 4.25 x 6" / 4 oz