Adventure New England

Ah, New England! Land of fall foliage, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and salt-water taffy. This particular guide is targeted to the vacationer with a love of the outdoors. Diane Bair and Pamela Wright must be a daring duo, because instead of writing this book stock full of jargon from the tourism bureau, the authors have written about each excursion from their own experience. And it has everything from orienteering to fly fishing to ice climbing. I wonder if they went to all of these places and then decided they were experts enough to write a book about it or if they were commissioned to write and paid the fees for all the adventures.

Outdoorsy people make me jealous. As much as I love hiking and camping, I've done very little of it. Books like this one do inspire me to some degree to do things like canoeing and spelunking. Things like kayaking and downhill skiing however will never make my list. "Wet exit" can't be natural. After reading this book I desperately want to ride aboard the Brilliant in Mystic, CT. I hope she's still floating.

The writing is of a high quality, being both entertaining and fully informative. I would strongly recommend the book if it weren't for one crucial point: it was written in 1996. The contact info, pricing, even locations and proprietor names are outdated to the point that one may as well start their search for adventure with an entirely different book.

Rating - 2