Outdoors Books

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Hiking America’s National Parks

Published by Rizzoli (2023 )
Winner, 2024 Lowell Thomas Gold Award for “Best Guidebook”

Photos by Jonathan Irish. Foreword by Sally Jewell. This beautifully illustrated coffee-table book was my fourth for Rizzoli’s great hiking trails series. It contains descriptions about all 63 American National Parks: along with hiking recommendations for each park . Featured hikes range from short day-hikes to multi-day backpacks.

America’s National Historic Trails

Photos by Bart Smith, Foreword by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan. Smart editing and beautiful design by the awesome team at Rizzoli. I am so grateful to them and the fantastic team at Rizzoli! To be quite honest, it was the most difficult book I;ve ever worked on, The 19 trails Congress designated as “national historic trails” encompass a broad sweep of American history from the ancient Polynesians in Hawaii to the CIvil Rights movement in Alabama, In between were explorers, soldiers, settlers, religious refugees, gold miners, and Indians being torn from their land. This book is about the intersection of story and landscape, and about the places where we can walk the paths of our forebears.

Essential Knots

Published by Adventure Publications, 2019

In between my narrative writing projects, I was asked to write a little book on how to tie 21 of the world’s most useful knots and secure your gear when camping, hiking, fishing, and playing outdoors. Clear, handy, and useful. Also beautifully designed, with step by step instructions and illustrations.

Great Hiking Trails of the World

Published by Rizzoli (2017 )
2018 Foreword Magazine/IndieFab 2017 Gold award winner in Nature.
Included in the New York Times Book Review‘s holiday round-up of outdoors books.
Included in People magazine’s best books guide for the holidays.
Included in Associated Press best travel books roundup; also USA Today, Entree Travel Newsletter, Travel Past 50, Passport Magazine, and Forbes.com.

This book contains essays about pilgrimage, historic hikes, alpinism, wilderness, diverse environments, and long-distance trails, and describes 80 trails worldwide. 38 of the world’s greatest hiking trails are described in detail, with photographs that will make even the most dedicated armchair traveler consider putting on a pair of hiking boots. 42 more trails are described more briefly. Once again, Bill McKibben agreed to write the foreword for the book. Some of the proceeds are being donated to the American Hiking Society.

America’s Great Hiking Trails

Published by Rizzoli, 2014
New York Times Bestseller in Travel
Gold: Lowell Thomas Awards, best travel book
Gold: IndieFab/Foreword Magazine, best adventure book
Gold: Eastern Chapter, Society of American Travel Writers, best travel book
“2014 Top Book Pick” (Barnes and Noble)
“One of the year’s best books for travelers” (Yahoo Travel)
“One of the top 10 books of the year” (Colorado NPR)
Also published in German by National Geographic
Barnes and Noble: “Top Book Picks 2014”

America’s Great Hiking Trails, contains essays and photos of America’s eleven national scenic trails, with a final chapter dedicated to 30 other important long American trails. A celebration of America’s national scenic trails, this lavish coffee table book features photography by Bart Smith, an introduction by Bill McKibben, and essays about America’s great long-distance hiking trails. Here’s a YouTube trailer for the book.

More info from Rizzoli

The Pacific Crest Trail: A Hiker’s Companion

Countryman/W.W. Norton, 2000; Second edition published in 2014

Karen Berger and Daniel R. Smith break the PCT into 18 sections. For each one, they tell you about the route, gear, seasonal considerations, what you’ll see (history and natural features), thru-hiker considerations, trailheads, resupplies, best hikes, and thru-hiker info.

Be Prepared: Hiking and Backpacking

DK, 2007, in cooperation with Boy Scouts of America

An outdoors primer based on Karen’s 2005 title, Backpacking and Hiking

Backpacking and Hiking

DK Eyewitness Companion, 2005

Beautifully illustrated, chock-full of facts, and up-to-date with pictures of the latest gear and techniques and destination information for hikes around the world.

This book has been published in 12 languages: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and English. The American edition includes write-ups of more than a hundred US parks and trails; the European editions include more than 100 European parks and trails.

Hiking Light Handbook: Carry Less, Enjoy More

Mountaineers Books with Backpacker magazine, 2004

This book is written for anyone who has ever lugged a too-heavy pack up a too steep hill.

Contains safe, sane strategies for reducing packweight without sacrificing comfort or safety.

More Everyday Wisdom: Trail Tested Advice from the Experts

Mountaineers Books with Backpacker magazine, 2002

This books assumes you’ve got a little bit of trail mileage — and a lot of questions. Based on hundreds of questions hikers have asked in lectures, on the trail, and via letters and the Internet.

Hiking & Backpacking: A Complete Guide

W.W. Norton, 1995, Updated edition: October 2002

Written in cooperation with PBS’s award-winning TV show, Trailside, this is one of the best-selling hiking books in America. Covers planning, food, destinations, gear, camping, and more. More than 125,000 copies in print.

Hiking the Triple Crown: How to Hike America’s Longest Trails

Mountaineers Books, 2001

Only about two dozen people have completed thru-hikes of the Triple Crown — the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide National Scenic Trails. Karen is one of them. In this book, she shares the knowledge gleaned from hiking nearly 8,000 miles of some of the best wilderness in America.

Scuba Diving: A Complete Guide

W.W. Norton, 2000, Trailside series

The only YMCA/Scuba-sanctioned guide to the wonders of the underwater world. Trailside’s Scuba Diving is a comprehensive diving guide that covers the information standard in all certification courses, with chapters on gear, dive planning, safety and first aid, the science of diving and how it affects the human body, diving techniques, the underwater environment, using dive tables and computers.