Just read first 20 pages and love this new 2012 book. Author Daniel Arnold hikes off trail from Badwater to Whitney. Includes not just his personal story but lots of history, geology, and stories. He starts off well by referencing Mary Austin of Land of Little Rain fame.

http://www.amazon.com/Salt-Summit-Vagabo...6529&sr=8-1

No way I'll resist getting this one.

Alan, I just (sadly) finished it. I could have kept on reading his style forever. And the setting, of course, is magic.

I hope all the regulars here on the board see this post and get the book

Edit: Looks like I posted the info below a few months late!
But it still looks like something worth reading.

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Here's an interesting intro to a book. He got from Torrance to Lancaster by bus and train, then hitched rides to Death Valley. It doesn't say how he got from Death Valley to Mt Whitney, but sounds like an interesting read.

Metroactive: Features & Columns Daniel Arnold: Salt to Summit



"Getting pinched between the salt and the sun there feels like hanging out in a jerking oven. It's the apocalypse as written by a banana slug."

I bought the book during the summer but it got buried. I rediscovered it recently and have been reading it for the past a few nights. I am really enjoying it. Now I have an itch for a Death Valley trip.