I agree with the other commentaries. The book is outdated. Trailheads and trails have changed too much to use this book.

It is good for finding Hikes - but take a hiking map with you (from Appalachian Mountain Club or elsewhere) and have a better day.

This book is currently out of print because it has become so outdated. I'm taking issue with Backcountry Publications and their parent firm, WW Norton, for allowing the book to appear, be sold, reviewed, rated, or in any way passed off as "reliable". This book was contracted in 1982, appeared in 1984, and has been very, very successful until the past few years. A new edition appeared in 1994, but this new edition was not accurately updated. I wrote the Catskill (northern) chapters to this book, while my coauthor(s) wrote the southern sections, which are the most outdated (for one reason or another). I would like to invite all of you to contact me personally if you have any problems with the Catskill chapters in this book (so far, nobody has mentioned any).

If you do purchase it, do so only for historical interest. This book is NO LONGER RELIABLE FOR FIELD USE. Thank you, Peter Kick peterwkick@aol.com

My friend and I have attempted five of the hikes described in Kick's book, and there have always been difficulties. Often, the trail continues accordingly, the scenery reflecting what Kick has described. Once you are deep into the wilderness, quite isolated from civilization, the descriptions in the book no longer match what you are seeing: yellow trails, red trails, blue trails, all disappear, and you find yourself thinking evil thoughts about Peter Kick. I will say this - Mr. Kick is quite the practical joker; lead people deep into the woods, and leave them hanging high and dry. My advice to those courageous enough to use this imaginary hiking guide: bring a week's worth of water and provisions, and a cell phone. Perhaps this book needs serious updating - or termination of publishing. Good luck and God bless.

To those who want a good and scholary commentary on James from a traditional Protestant perspective should definitely look elsewhere. Davids' comments on James 2:14-26 should make any good Protestant have the shivers. Davids' (contrary to Calvin and other good Protestant exegetes) argues that James promotes justification before God by our works. He also promotes the heresy of the New Perspective advocated by the likes of E. P. Sanders, James D. G. Dunn, and N. T. Wright. Davids (and all other New Perspectivists) have no problems with the idea of works being a means of obtaining future justification (since Paul was combating Jewish exclusivism not legalism). Let's be honest with ourselves. Any soteriological system that advocates works as a means of obtaining an eschatological justification is outside the boundaries of historic Protestantism.