What hiking adventures are on your “life list?” What the heck is a life list? Many people have a bucket list, filled with things they’d like to do before they “kick the bucket.” I prefer a list that helps me plan a full and satisfying life. I call it my life list.
With each year of experience I gain (I’m now up to Level 56!) my life list grows, even as I plan, go and complete previous list goals. The new book, Epic Hikes of the World just made my list even longer. I got a pre-release copy of the book to review, and took it with me on our recent week-long trip in Washington state. We were up there scouting peaks for the Pacific Northwest Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge, and this made the perfect campsite reading material.
Epic Hikes of the World is a collection of two hundred hikes in locations all over the world, written by authors with first-hand experience. Fifty of these big adventures are given special treatment, with beautiful photos, diagrams and details that let you explore the trail from your arm chair (or camp chair, in my case). Each of these adventures is followed by a shorter section with three “more like this” trips.
Of course, the first thing I did was scan through the book to see which of these I’d already hiked. There were Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, the Lost Coast Trail in Northern California and one of my favorite adventures, the John Muir Trail. My mom hiked the Camino de Santiago last year. My daughter and her fiancé got engaged while backpacking the W in Patagonia. And three of our SoCal Six-Pack of Peaks Ambassadors recently summited Mount Kilimanjaro (congrats to Tony, Carissa and Jason!).
While most of the hikes in North America I had some familiarity with (and hiking the entirety of the Pacific Crest Trail was already on my list), what really piqued my interest were the adventures in far-flung places that I’ve yet to visit. Some, like Scotland, New Zealand, Norway, the Alps were already on my radar. Others took me by surprise, such as the crowd-free alternative to Machu Picchu or bagging three peaks in a day in Capetown.
And I had never even thought of hiking Mt Kinabalu in Borneo before now.
The book is beautifully illustrated and makes a perfect coffee table book for yourself or the aspiring adventurer in your life. It will give you just enough detail to whet your appetite and help you kickstart your next adventure. Once you’ve narrowed down your adventure list, you’ll still need detailed guides, maps and advice for many of these trips, but this book makes a great launch pad.
Now if you’ll please excuse me, I have to start training for my next big adventure.
You can order Epic Hikes of the World on Amazon now. It is available beginning August 21, 2018.
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