Cool blog for armchair hikers, and a book review too!

While catching up on other people's outdoors blogs today, I found that I had rated a post on the Best Hikes blog. It's an interesting concept for a blog since the hikes posted there are from all over the US and several other countries. Odds are, you'll never get the chance to do most of them yourself, but it's fun in an armchair travel way to check out other people's favourite hikes.

One of their recent posts recommends a book called South Island Weekend Tramps, which is a guide to 2-3 day trips on New Zealand's South Island. I have the North Island edition (North Island Weekend Tramps) and have used it many times to find a route that works when we just have a couple of days free.

The main drawback to the routes in the book is that many are not loops, but one-way treks. So getting back to your car requires a car shuttle with other trampers, or some kind of commercial shuttle service.

Aside from that pet peeve of mine, the route descriptions have been pretty accurate, including warnings about which places are likely to get crowded over the summer, and which are not to be attempted over winter.

The sad truth is that most of us have to fit the majority of our trips into little, weekend getaways. That makes many of the top trails impossible to complete in the available time. But a book that caters to our pressed-for-time needs should be applauded. Which raises the question: what is the sound of one blogger clapping?