Second edition.

The Mountaineer reprinted my two hiking guides (or mini-guides, or guidelets). The price went up from $5 to $6.95 but the offset is a fresh design and color photos. Although the photos are not mine overall it's a much nicer looking book.

These hikes grew out of the weekly hiking column that I wrote for The Mountaineer and The Guide when Laura and I lived in Waynesville. I think I put together the first guide -- Western North Carolina's 25 Best Hikes -- midway through the third hiking season, or when I had done about 60 weekly hikes. But since I kept on hiking -- I think I did some 110 hikes -- it was inevitable that almost as soon as the guide book came out I found hikes that were better than the aforementioned 25 "best". But -- there's a caveat. The best hikes I found in Western North Carolina were longer ones -- generally 17 miles or more, and although they were much higher quality hikes I doubt the book would be as sellable if the hikes described were 20 miles instead of a more manageable 5. (After the first guide came out, I was talking with Jay, who worked at Mast General Store, one day, trying to pitch the idea of "Western North Carolina's 25 Most Difficult One-day Hikes." "I don't think that would sell," he said.)

The second guide was easier and I probably would not change a thing -- Western North Carolina's 25 Best Easy Waterfall Hikes. There are far fewer waterfall hikes than there are non-waterfall hikes, so what I cataloged in the second guide was just about all there was. Anyway, it's fun to reread the descriptions of those earlier hikes. Those were some good times.

Hiking in the South was much different than hiking in Montana -- not that the hikes in North Carolina are not as good as those in Montana, but it's safe to say they are on different planes of existence. So just to keep it real, here's a picture of a baby wielding an ice axe: