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.