Wisconsin is a premier backpacking state, with outstanding opportunities for weekend trips. Drawing on years of experience, Jack and Liz Hailman provide first-hand information for trails in every corner of the state. Includes hints on how to choose equipment, schedule of fees, a checklist for backpacks, and a list of trail, outdoor, and conservation organizations. 105 maps, 44 photos.

In thirty-six thrilling days, Melanie Radzicki McManus hiked 1,100 miles around Wisconsin, landing her in the elite group of Ice Age Trail thru-hikers known as the Thousand-Milers. In prose that’s alternately harrowing and humorous, Thousand-Miler takes you with her through Wisconsin’s forests, prairies, wetlands, and farms, past the geologic wonders carved by long-ago glaciers, and into the neighborhood bars and gathering places of far-flung small towns. Follow along as she worries about wildlife encounters, wonders if her injured feet will ever recover, and searches for an elusive fellow hiker known as Papa Bear. Woven throughout her account are details of the history of the still-developing Ice Age Trail—one of just eleven National Scenic Trails—and helpful insight and strategies for undertaking a successful thru-hike. In addition to chronicling McManus’s hike, Thousand-Miler also includes the little-told story of the Ice Age Trail’s first-ever thru-hiker Jim Staudacher, an account of the record-breaking thru-run of ultrarunner Jason Dorgan, the experiences of a young combat veteran who embarked on her thru-hike as a way to ease back into civilian life, and other fascinating tales from the trail. Their collective experiences shed light on the motivations of thru-hikers and the different ways hikers accomplish this impressive feat, providing an entertaining and informative read for outdoors enthusiasts of all levels.

From the founder of the Fat Girls Hiking community, this inclusive and inspiring guide to the great outdoors will inspire people of all body types, sizes, abilties, and backgrounds.

Best Lake Hikes Wisconsin includes detailed hike descriptions, maps, and color photos for approximately 100 of the most scenic lake hikes in the area. Hike descriptions also include history, local trivia, and GPS coordinates. Best Lake Hikes Wisconsin will take you through state and national parks, forests, monuments and wilderness areas, and from popular city parks to the most remote and secluded corners of the area to view the most spectacular lakes and rivers.

Carrying only basic camping equipment and a collection of the world's great spiritual writings, Belden C. Lane embarks on solitary spiritual treks through the Ozarks and across the American Southwest. For companions, he has only such teachers as Rumi, John of the Cross, Hildegard of Bingen, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Thomas Merton, and as he walks, he engages their writings with the natural wonders he encounters--Bell Mountain Wilderness with Søren Kierkegaard, Moonshine Hollow with Thich Nhat Hanh--demonstrating how being alone in the wild opens a rare view onto one's interior landscape, and how the saints' writings reveal the divine in nature. The discipline of backpacking, Lane shows, is a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Just as the wilderness offered revelations to the early Desert Christians, backpacking hones crucial spiritual skills: paying attention, traveling light, practicing silence, and exercising wonder. Lane engages the practice not only with a wide range of spiritual writings--Celtic, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sufi Muslim--but with the fascination of other lovers of the backcountry, from John Muir and Ed Abbey to Bill Plotkin and Cheryl Strayed. In this intimate and down-to-earth narrative, backpacking is shown to be a spiritual practice that allows the discovery of God amidst the beauty and unexpected terrors of nature. Adoration, Lane suggests, is the most appropriate human response to what we cannot explain, but have nonetheless learned to love. An enchanting narrative for Christians of all denominations, Backpacking with the Saints is an inspiring exploration of how solitude, simplicity, and mindfulness are illuminated and encouraged by the discipline of backcountry wandering, and of how the wilderness itself becomes a way of knowing-an ecology of the soul.

This updated edition of Hiking Wisconsin brings together seventy-one of the best hikes in the Badger State. Hike to hidden waterfalls in Lake Superior country and along the Apostle Islands National Lake-shore, or hit the trails of Black River Forest in Central Wisconsin. Venture along Lake Michigan in Door County or stroll amid the birder's paradise at Horicon Marsh. Each hike profile provides detailed maps and directions, and at-a-glance information helps determine the best path for the day. Look inside to find: Hikes suited to every ability, Full-color maps and photos throughout, GPS coordinates, Directions to the trailhead, Mile-by-mile directional cues, Difficulty ratings, best seasons to hike, and much more, Details about the area's unique climate and geology Book jacket.