Hiking Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness (Regional Hiking Series)

I've done 35 backpacking trips, literally spent hundreds of nights out, and certainly read my share of backcountry books. I'd have to rate this one as only O.K.While Erik talks about the trails and even makes recommendations for multi-night trips, there is nothing about where one might find reasonable areas to set up camp at night. If I'm out for weeks at a time, I like to plan in advance and have a good idea where I might be setting up my tent. That's especially true if I'm planning on doing a couple of dayhikes out of that camp before moving on. Just because you see water on the map doesn't mean there's always somewhere good to set up your tent. If you're planning an extended adventure you will have to find another source of information to fill that void.The landmark distances and the altitude/mileage graph are very helpful.

I purchased this book as well as the author's book on Glacier NP. The Bob Marshall Wilderness was our backup if we couldn't get permitted to Glacier. Glacier was packed (even at the end of the season) so "The Bob" was where we headed. Without this book to guide us, we wouldn't have known where to go. The trail descriptions and pictures were very helpful and were consistent with what we experienced when hiked the trails the book described.There was one short-coming with this book was that I couldn't have found the trailhead based on the description in this book. If I were a Montana native relatively familiar with the area, I probably wouldn't have had problems. Just as a word of caution, if your circumstances match up with mine, I'd advise that you call ahead to the ranger's office in the area to make sure you get good directions. The book had phone numbers and addresses for each district ranger office, so we didn't have to search for those numbers.

The trail descriptions and locations don't correspond with the commonly used outdoor recreation/topo maps one would purchase to actually go into the backcountry, so cross-referencing has been frustrating. I am not generally a fan of Molvar's other guides I have purchased and find his trip reports to be long-winded and verbose. Better maps would be better than more words.

Great trail descriptions and accompanying maps, and nice pictures that lure you in-- it's all beautiful country and it's BIG and WILD- no roadway shortcuts or tour busses-- lots of back country! This is a good read (A FALCON Guide) and I recommend it highly! But I'd also highly recommend the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex map(s) by CAIRN CARTOGRAPHICS. Both products reinforce each other, and will help assure a great and safe trip!

This book has pretty good detail to it and is very simple to navigate.

An essential guide for anyone wanting to travel “the Bob”. Well organized, provides useful navigational tips in addition to great descriptions of a great many routes.

We used the book for one hike and it wasn't exactly accurate in measurement but it did get us to where we wanted to be. We look forward to many future hikes in the Rocky Mtn Front.

Lots of good info. However, since I'm not at all familiar with the area, I had difficulty making an itinerary. It would be helpful to include closest towns, resupply options, and the like.