Afoot and Afield: Inland Empire: A Comprehensive Hiking Guide
The Inland Empirethe area east of Los Angeles and located primarily in San Bernardino and Riverside countiesis known as Southern California’s big backyard. And with its mountain, foothill, valley, and desert recreational opportunities, it’s a hiker’s paradise. Afoot & Afield Inland Empire describes nearly 200 noteworthy hikes ranging from easy to very strenuous in this first comprehensive hiking guide to the length and breadth of Inland Empire. These hikes explore Southern California
15. January 2012 at 3:17 am
A “Best of” hiking for the Inland Empire,
When I moved to Riverside, California from Idaho in the late 1980s, the best hiking guides were the Afoot and Afield series created by Jerry Schad and published by Wilderness Press. Schad began with San Diego County and worked his way north, writing volumes on Orange County and Los Angeles County. Back then, I eagerly awaited a volume covering the Inland Empire but it never came. The best resource at the time was John Robinson’s San Bernardino Mountain Trails. Two decades later, John Robinson has given up active writing, but his successor, David Money Harris, has given us a new edition of Afoot and Afield for the region. Like the earlier Schad books, this one is well organized by region, with excellent sketch maps of trails and trail heads. Like Robinson’s book, this guide includes extensive natural and local history as well as several extreme cross country routes. In all, it is an excellent addition to the hiking literature of southern California.
Harris (and his wife, co-author Jennifer) begins the Inland Empire in the Mt. Baldy region of the Angeles National Forest and also includes several urban hikes in the Claremont-San Dimas area. I was not very familiar with the latter, but it seems that in the last decade or so regional parks have flourished in and around these college/commuter towns. Already in chapter 1 (Mt. Baldy) readers will get a feel for some of the diversity of hikes included. Route descriptions include the brief but pleasant San Antonio Falls trail (.6 miles) to an all day (and much of the night) 28 mile traverse of 9 major named peaks in the Baldy region, a fair portion of said route being without trail. I have never done the latter route and after reading the description, probably never will.
Continuing east, Afoot and Afield covers the San Bernardino mountains in 3 chapters includings such favorites as Deep Creek, Gray’s Peak, and a variety of treks in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. Short chapters on the desert near Victorville and urban hikes near Riverside fill some space (this guide does aim for the “comprehensive” part of the title) before it finishes with longer chapters on the San Bernardino Mountains, Palm Springs area, Joshua Tree National Park, and the Mojave National Preserve. In all, this book covers 205 hikes ranging from easy nature walks to strenuous cross country routes on which there is no available water. I was pleasantly surprised to find new routes even having lived in this area for over 20 years. I think everyone who hikes in this area will find something of value in this book. Some will want to do all of the routes described. I am not one of the latter, but I think this will be a valuable resources in planning hikes over the next few years. Final recommendation: get it.
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|15. January 2012 at 3:28 am
Doesn’t get any clearer than this…,
This is a good, concise guide to hikes in the IE. While it goes out to the deserts, far from the ‘metro’ IE, these are frequent hiking spots for some, so good to include them. This is a good guide if it is your only one, or as a local supplement to other general guidebooks. Remember to tell someone where you are going!
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|15. January 2012 at 3:42 am
Best Yet,
This sets a new standard for Inland Empire and Coachella Valley hiking books. The GPS data available on the companion site are useful and accurate. As the editor of the hiking site at http://www.mydesert.com, I have been through them all. Buy it, and use it.
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