Customer Rating:  
Summary: Left it at home
Comment: On my 2008 thru-hike attempt of the Trail (I had to go home because of my knees) I bought both the Data Book and the Thru-Hikers' Companion. I wound up taking the Companion with me and leaving the Data Book at home. There wasn't much of anything in the Data Book that wasn't in the Companion, and the latter had much more detailed and useful information.
When I do it again I'll take the Companion along with the extremely detailed section guidebooks for each section, which would have helped me out in a few circumstances this time around.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource Guide
Comment: My daughter started hiking the Appalachian Trail on 3/16/08 and as a mother I was extremely worried about her hiking 2175 miles with just her dogs. But with this book, I realize what an amazing journey it will be for her. She has made an amazing number of friends along the way. I feel more secure in knowing that there are well-spaced shelters along the entire trail and help readily available if necessary.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Necessary item for thru-hikers
Comment: I've been collecting these books since I hiked the trail in 2000, and this edition is every bit as useful as the others. It's small and lightweight, which means you should carry it with you the whole way. When I went thru, I only carried the pages I needed ripped out of the book to save a little weight - and now I regret that I did. You should carry the whole book, mark your mileage in the margins and whitespace, where you meet people, etc. It'll be a great memento after you're done.
The one suggestion I would have to the designers is to leave a little more margin room for writing.
The picture on the cover of this 30th edition is also one of the best in recent years. It's a picture of Whitetop Mountain in Virgina - covered in snow.
Good luck to anyone going thru this year!
-Bullfrog GA-ME 2000
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Indispensable Guide
Comment: The Appalachian Trail Data Book, updated annually, has proven time and time again to be the indispensable Guidebook for those contemplating spending any length of time hiking on the A.T. Among thru-hikers, (those attempting to hike the entire Trail in one continuous journey) the book's usage approaches 100%. This is excellent testament to the worth of this little volume, and it's easy to see why the book carries the imprint of the Appalachian Trail Conference, the organization charged with the care, protection, and maintenance of the Trail. In an easy-to-read format, the Data Book contains everything the hiker needs to know in order to plan their day's travels, and in order to know what lies ahead of them. It'll tell you where shelters and established campsites are located; where principal water sources can be found; where road crossings and towns are located; and where primary stores, re-supply sources, and lodging places are located. Other works, most notably the Applachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion, will provide more detailed information on these matters, but it is the Data Book that is the work used most frequently on a day-to-day basis by those actually hiking the Trail. Also, the fact that editor Daniel Chazin meticulously updates and fact-checks the book each year in order to take into account changes on the Trail, ensures the hiker that this is the most accurate work of its sort on the market. A key addition and improvement to this year's edition is keying and matching of sections of the Data Book to the official A.T. maps, i.e., the ones used by most hikers. This makes it much easier for the hiker to locate their actual position on the Trail; also, as always, the book's mileage tables are printed in order to facilitate simple reading by both Northbound AND Southbound hikers, so it can be used by everyone, regardless of the direction of their hike. In short, if you're going to spend any serious ammount of time on the Trail, this little book will prove to be incredibly useful to you, tho one may well wish to purchase other works with "expanded" information. One should, of course, also use the best maps available, regardless of the length of your intended trip. But if you bring ONE guidebook with you on your trip, bring this one. In a few weeks, I'll be leaving to hike, for the seventh time, the Trail in its entirety. I would not think of setting out without a copy of the 2002 A.T. Data Book, and neither should anyone else.
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