Outdoor Activities in Alberta's Heartland

Maryon McClary is a librarian in the Periodicals and Microform Centre at
the University of Alberta.

For the fit and experienced outdoor enthusiast who doesn’t know
Alberta very well, this is a great little guide to assist in planning an
active vacation. Bill Corbett, a seasoned outdoorsman, aims to serve the
physically active crowd by describing a diversified range of hiking,
backpacking, mountain biking, road cycling, cross-country skiing, and
canoeing adventure trips in southern and western Alberta.

The guide is arranged by outdoor activity, and under each category
various options (ranging from 13 hikes to five road cycles) are
presented. The trips in each section are arranged in increasing level of
difficulty, but all are cross-indexed by location at the back of the
book. Individual trip descriptions include difficulty rating, distance,
estimated time, elevation gain, topo map number, and access, followed by
a more extensive narrative than is commonly found in this type of guide.
Corbett’s aim in these descriptions is to provide “a general guide
to get from start to finish, without being so detailed as to remove the
surprise of discovery.” He includes a little history, a little
geology, and often a personal experience. Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper,
and the Kananaskis are most frequently represented, but there are a few
hikes in Waterton Lakes Historical Park and canoe trips that extend out
to the prairies.