The Ultimate Desert Handbook: A Manual for Desert Hikers, Campers and Travelers (INTERNATIONAL MARINE-RMP) - Softcover

Johnson, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 007139303X ISBN 13: 9780071393034

Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2003

Synopsis

Discover the joys of desert camping, hiking, and travel. Harsh, yet hauntingly beautiful; arid, yet teeming with life; inhospitable, yet profoundly peaceful - the earth's deserts beckon the poet and the backpacker, the artist and the adventurer. If you're heading into the desert, however, you should know what to expect, what to look for, and how to withstand extreme desert conditions. Richly illustrated with photographs and drawings, "The Ultimate Desert Handbook" is your complete guide to hiking, exploration, and survival in fascinating but unforgiving desert terrain.It gives you the crucial information you need to make the most of any desert sojourn, including detailed descriptions of North American deserts, their plants and wildlife, and their distinctive geological features. You'll also find the most comprehensive tutorial on desert navigation ever published and expert advice on equipment, safety, and first-aid techniques. You'll learn how to: select the perfect desert campsite; manage your water supply; share the landscape with desert wildlife; maintain vehicles in desert conditions; protect yourself with the right clothing and equipment; and be at home in a vast and elemental terrain.

About this title

Review:

a reference book that people who want to be serious [desert] hikers should own in their collection -- Judy Hedding, Book Reviewer, About.Com

full of practical information for anyone who spends time in the desert -- John Stanley, Desert Hiking Editor, The Arizona Republic

this is a book written on deserts by someone that loves and knows them -- J.M. Saingery, Outdoors-Magazine France

From the Author:

I intended The Ultimate Desert Handbook to be the reference I always wanted to have when exploring the desert, but could never find on the bookshelves. Far from being an ordinary trail guide or 'survival' manual, the Ultimate Desert Handbook was written to provide hikers and other outdoors lovers with useful information on the deserts of the world, and how to safely coexist in a different and perhaps unfamiliar environment. There are chapters on hiking and backpacking all types of desert terrain, camping, clothing and equipment, desert navigation, and information on plants and wildlife of the desert. The book uses real-life news stories and actual events to demonstrate the importance of desert skills to the reader, from ancient times to present day.

About this edition

• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 007139303X
• ISBN 13: 9780071393034
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296