On Fri, Jun 12, 1998 at 11:43:09AM -0400, Tomckayak_at_aol.com wrote: > What we do not need is more guide books:( > > Its one of the bigger rip-off's you can do to your fellow kaykers. > > A guide book is a sure sign that an area is over run or about to be. I don't find this to be the case at all. I think guidebooks are excellent resources to have on hand, and I consult mine frequently. They're especially useful in the case of wilderness rivers, where abandoning a run partway through is often not an option -- or where significant hazards are difficult to spot without prior knowledge of their existence. Two examples: Muddy Creek in south-central Pennsylvania is a class II+ run almost all the way - but with a class VI deathtrap on its lower section whose approach looks very much like the approaches to the previous several rapids. The fact that Ed Gertler's "Keystone Canoeing" mentions this has probably spared a lot of people a lot of trouble over the years. Or consider the Contoocook in the southern New Hampshire, which, when viewed from the several places where it approaches Route 202, looks like a placid stream suitable for a quiet Sunday float trip. But as soon as it's out of sight of the road, it pounds down through rapids like the solid class IV Freight Train. In my experience, 90% of the paddlers are found on 10% of the rivers. I see no indication at all that guidebooks -- which frequently cover a hundred or more streams -- are responsible for that statistic. It seems much more likely that factors like accessability, familiarity, and reputation have *far* more to do with where people go than guidebooks. ---Rsk Rich Kulawiec rsk_at_gsp.org *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Jun 12 1998 - 15:05:19 PDT
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