What a beautiful job Nancy and David Muenker have done to introduce visitors to the Front Range of Colorado. Those who live in the area will also find it enhances their knowledge and enjoyment of places they see all the time.

This book is very well organized and user friendly. Each section includes great details of the history, followed by well written articles on what there is to see and do today. Special areas of interest to me are railroads and mining. The book has certainly peaked my interest in all the beauty of the Colorado front range. Both the writing and photography are top quality.

This book is an excellent tool for planning a Colorado vacation. I plan to do just that in 2003.

I've lived in the heart of Colorado's Front Range for over 30 years but I learned fascinating things about familiar areas, and enjoyed being introduced to some new places. This slim guidebook is packed full of historical info and peppered with fun facts. Outstanding photos, concise writing and a snazzy lay-out combine to make this a very usable guidebook. If you are a Front Range "local" this is a great book to have on hand when out-of-state family and friends descend. It's also a good resource for parents looking for close-to-home family outings. Although you can enjoy Colorado Front Range History Explorer as an armchair traveler, this book makes you want to get out and explore.

Alan Apt does a great job of describing every aspect of snowshoeing. The text is organized logically which makes it easily accessible. For anyone who enjoys the outdoors and lives along the Front Range this book is a must. Also, the two women pictured on the inside of the cover are a beautiful addition.

Apt's introduction does an outstanding job of discussing why this is such a popular sport, reviewing critical equipment decisions, and providing logical cautions relevant to the experienced as well as novice showshoe advocate. The trails are well defined, the information is accurate, and the writing style is casual with a sense of humor. Apt really did his homework and provides trail recommendations that are appropriate for EVERY skill level - even family outings! Great book and "must have" reference for outdoor lovers.

Anybody that starts his book off with a quote from David Brower is a hero of mine. Aside from my political views , the book is a wonderful, comprehensive, pratical guide to routes all over the State of Colorado . The author also seems to blend in the environmental ethic -a much needed touch for most "guide books ".

This book will be prominent on my outdoor shelf.

Dan B

This book simply does not fail to please. Keep it up, Father Dowling

This is an excellent book! A great guide for the novice to moderate bike rider, with wonderful suggestions for incredible scenery in the beautiful outdoors of Colorado. A must read for all bikers!

On analogy with another field of human pleasure, we can say that the brain is the most important piece of angling equipment we own. Some fishermen are of very little brain, others of massive. NOTES FROM AN OLD FLY BOOK issues from the latter species.
Let us first admire the sheer balls of the man. To commit yet another book of reflections on fishing! I mean, really Hedda, people don't do such things. They don't unless they can leap over that toppling pile next to your chair and bring something new to the party.

While it's easy to poke fun at earnest people (such as write about angling, there's no denying that Wickstrom is in large company with this book. I'm happy to report that he fits right in, while occupying his own unique niche.
That niche might be labeled "Sentimental Intelligence." Of course, sentiment is much maligned these days. Like any human faculty, it can, exercised in excess, produce a pretty loathsome babble, on and off the page. The current sentimental tsunami, Political Correctness, having swept clean our few remaining beaches of reasonable discrimination into a very mere pudding, only now recedes. Wickstrom bravely stands up in the undertow and dares to write with serious sentiment about his beloved avocation. Good on him, sez I!

Wickstrom's sentimentality directs itself primrily to the past, often the very distant past. He properly reveres the past and much of what he writes could be called history, in the best sense. That is, he mines the past for significance, for the odd shy fact no one else has noticed, the contribution of someone hitherto unknown or neglected.
More important, to my mind, he mines his own wide and thoughtful experience for those feelings we've all had but have mostly set aside in the press of daily affairs. Wickstrom boldly tells us about his past in order to bring life to our own. He evokes his personal history, not to parade its value or to wallow in regret for snows past, but to revel in celebration: again and again he creates history that illuminates the now, that offers his readers a chance to understand and celebrate their own feelings through their sympathy with his.

One last word: about the technical accomplishment of this fine book. Wickstrom manages with grace and vigor to create that most elusive quality of ggod writing: a sense in the reader that nothing but this writer's concerns matters very much. He does this in the time-honored way of the grat wriiters: he lays bare his own intense concern and bids us follow him. So indeed we do.
But this laying bare doesn't just happaen. There's laying bare and then there's laying bare. Wickstrom does the second kind, and skillfully. He makes sentences and paragraphs that display their content in shapes, frames, of clear, simple beauty. The best example I can give is this: I had thought to conclude this review with a quotation, a sentence or two lifted from the book that would both demonstrate the quality of his prose and neatly conclude this encomium. But I can't find a sentence or two that will consent to be so lifted. Everything's of a piece, each thought sliding effortlessly into the next. Effortlessly for us, of course, not for him. We know that effortlessness, how truly hard it is, how valuable when someone masters it, and how necessary that we love and celebrate it as Wickstrom loves and celebrates his new and ancient art of fishing with an angle.

Gordon Wickstrom is a WWII Navy veteran, a graduate of Standord with a Ph.D., a college professor, and a serious student of Shakespeare. For the past sixty years, when asked about his occupation, he said he was a fisherman and a teacher, in that order. With the publication of this book he can truthfully include author, a good author, to the list.
This is a elegant book about fly-fishing and so much more. Wickstrom has spent sixty years fishing in his native Colorado streams and rivers as well as legendary rivers in Ireland and the fabled chalk streams in southern England. During that time he has not only studied the intricacies of the sport but thought about it's connection to literature, music, Shakespeare, friends, family and other things that matter. Drawing upon his storehouse of knowledge and experiences he has written this small, remarkable account of anglers and their calling that is destined to become a classic. The book contains stories, essays, poems, biblical passages, and a song to explain who fihermen (and women) are and why they do what they do. Indeed, it is an attempt to understand WHY anglers do what they do rather than simply what they do.
In numerous short essays he suggests that given the "...vast, detailed, and powerful..." expanse of literature and its impact on anglers, that perhaps fishing is really the material expression of the literature. Thus, it could be that literature came first and then the angler. In his elegant, understated, sometimes humorous manner he summarizes such literature and how it has affected the sport in general and himself in particular. This is an interesting thesis that will give the reader pause. The story of his affliction common to the most serious anglers, the never-ending accumulation of rods, reels, lures, and other "essential" tackle, and how he came to realize that really the most important item was his 1937 Chevy Coupe, is a delight. The essay on the catch-and-release program now in vogue is a thoughtful treatment of the subject, both pro and con, and will give the novice and serious angler alike pause for reflection. Interspersed throughout the book are short stories about the history and characteristics of legendary flies that a surely found in many an anglers Fly Book.
This book will speak to the heart and soul of any reader remotely interested in the fly fishing phenomenon, literature, music, family, friends and a host of other things that matter in life. I am usually skeptical about the need for another book on fishing but this is a worthy exception.

This bouldering guide is truely remarkable. The hand drawings add a unique character to the book not seen in any books of this kind to date. The information here is written from a top notch local's perspective. The classics you find in this book are well mapped and described in text. Other books attempting to copy this original guide have not nearly the overview map quality and descriptive precision seen here, A must buy for any true boulderer.

This is one of the best mountain biking books that I have ever read. I tested a few of the rides and found the descriptions to be accurate. I also enjoyed the sense of humor exhibited by the authors. Is that one of the Ryters on the cover? What a dashing figure!

Dr. Brosnan's book is a rigorously researched work that documents the interplay between economics, law and natural resources in the development of the Rocky Mountain front range. The book is not just a thoroughly engrossing history of the growth of the Denver region, but is an excellent study as to the general development of regions that are dependent on the extractive industries. As such, Dr. Brosnan's study is an incredibly important, timely and relevant book.

I am looking forward to Dr. Brosnan's next book.

William J. Kresse
Assistant Professor
Graham School of Management
Saint Xavier University
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Bob Horn has obviously gone to every one of these areas, or gathered info from other climbers and detailed them well in this book. His line drawings and sketches are better then usual and are easy to find and follow.
My only gripe is that a lot of the southern front range bouldering classics are on private property and no directions are given to several areas. I think when a climber is accessing private property, a simple stop at the owners residence will often gain you legal access to these precious gems.
From and ex-greenhorn valley dweller, enjoy!

This book offers easy to read maps and drawings with a personal touch not seen in other guides of this type. A wealth of information has been gathered and revealed within the text. This just one of a series of books that has a unique handcrafted touch were value will increase with time. In Front Range Bouldering texts the author has obviously taken the time to walk around and observe each individual boulder by drawing them and notating their features. Great bargain.

I've taken a number of the hikes in this book and been very pleased. Very useful for wildflower photogs or anyone who enjoys nature. Directions and descriptions are easy to follow and accurate.

Quick, easy reference for day hikes. I have bought this book as a gift for many people.

The return of this beautiful book is as inspiring as the book itself. Never having seen the original however makes it hard to compare editions but as I am a BIG Adams fan the work is stunnning, the neat catergories help the beginner to understand Mr Adams and where he is coming from.