{"id":53233,"date":"2020-06-20T13:33:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T19:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/john-peel-releases-new-edition-of-hiking-trails-of-southwestern-colorado\/"},"modified":"2020-06-20T19:33:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T19:33:09","slug":"john-peel-releases-new-edition-of-hiking-trails-of-southwestern-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/john-peel-releases-new-edition-of-hiking-trails-of-southwestern-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"John Peel releases new edition of \u2018Hiking Trails of Southwestern Colorado\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Local
Local writer John Peel has updated his popular book on area hiking trails as the fifth edition of Hiking Trails of Southwestern Colorado. It will be available next week at Maria\u2019s Bookshop.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It was time for an update.<\/p>\n

Durango writer John Peel will introduce the fifth edition of the highly popular guidebook \u201cHiking Trails of Southwestern Colorado\u201d on Tuesday during a special virtual presentation on Zoom hosted by Maria\u2019s Bookshop.<\/p>\n

It is the first update to the book since 2006 and is the second done by Peel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been awhile, and it was time,\u201d Peel said. \u201cThe first four editions of this book have been so popular \u2013 one of Maria\u2019s best-selling books, and other places carry it, too. It has been and still will be the bible of hiking in this part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peel took over the writing of new editions after Paul Pixler wrote the first three, with the first released in 1981. Pixler, who climbed all of Colorado\u2019s 54 fourteeners, died in 2011 at age 90.<\/p>\n

\"Peel\"
Peel<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI moved here in 1990, and I\u2019m pretty sure it was the first book I bought when I moved to town. I\u2019m sure others could say that, too,\u201d Peel said. \u201cI was reading back over the new edition today, and there\u2019s still a lot of Paul Pixler in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new edition, published by West Margin Press, includes 12 new hikes with updated color photos and maps. There are now more than 60 trails and climbs in the book that covers Durango, Silverton, Vallecito and Colorado Trail areas. There are also six fourteeners detailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not focused on backpacking, though some you could make into a backpacking trip,\u201d Peel said. \u201cReally, it\u2019s day hikes and stuff you can drive to from Durango, hike in a day and get back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peel, who spent 22 years writing for The Durango Herald<\/em>, said the book caters to savvy veterans of the trail and beginners alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to have fun with it,\u201d Peel said. \u201cHopefully, mine isn\u2019t as dry as some hiking guide books maybe are. I like to keep it light. I think it comes back to working in the newspaper business where it\u2019s part entertainment as well as putting facts in there. But it\u2019s definitely focused on trail descriptions and mileages, making sure everything is accurate and trying the best to not mess people up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peel has continued to take notes since the last edition he worked on in 2006. It was in the summer of 2019 that he set out with the goal of completing a new edition. He spent every bit of free time he had getting out to hike and take notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work is so fun,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t make a ton of money doing this, but it is fun to write it up. It\u2019s neat when you see someone in a parking lot looking at the book or when you see someone buy it at the store. That\u2019s when you know that the work matters and is being put to good use.\u201d<\/p>\n

The online event with Maria\u2019s Bookshop will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday<\/a>. It will include an informative question and answer session with some detailed introduction of the book and it\u2019s newest entries. Signed editions of the book are available at Maria\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s still a great guide,\u201d Peel said. \u201cYeah, you can get info online places these days, but it is scattered and you\u2019re not always sure if you can trust the stuff you\u2019re getting online. This is a good, solid bunch of info right there in you hand, and you don\u2019t have to search all over to get info you can trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The bible of hiking for this part of the world\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,658,29,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-hiking","tag-newsletter","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53233"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}