SacramentoTrailMix.com

Frustratingly Fantastic 2010-07-13

Reviewer: Derald

Just to echo some of the other reviews on here - the book has great finds but the directions themselves are often lacking. For instance on page 168 the directions for "Camp 4" are wrong. The book gives the wrong mileage marker from a reference point to Camp 4 (5.4 miles), when I measured it in two different cars at 3.8. And the map text markers don't alway match reality. On page 168 the map seems to confuse the "Parking" from "Camp 4."
Buy the book and plan ahead - use the net to bolster your directions where you want to go. Be prepared to ask random people for directions to the sites in the book.

Great book; difficult directions. 2008-09-03

Reviewer: Kaylene LePere

Following this book's directions, we went to the Marble Slides hole. We planned on going to the Marble Forks one, too, but I don't think we found it. Luckily we still had a lot of fun. The directions are more like vague guidelines, it seems. Also, it is confusingly organized; the maps aren't always next to the holes they belong to, due to several holes being on one map, so to find the map you have to flip around. Also, the full-pages pictures aren't always of the hole on the adjacent page.

My main gripe with this book is the ads for his other books inside this one. I bought a book. Not a bunch of advertisements. If I wanted advertisements, I'd watch television.

Still, a worthy buy.

great idea - poorly executed 2007-07-10

Reviewer: David Scott

What can you say about a guide which tells you about paradise but gives the wrong co-ordinates ?
Unfortunately, despite its claims I now have to check all sources (locals to google earth) before going to a new pool with this book. I have spent hours on dirt roads, following the directions and finding out it is the wrong way.
As my 10-year-old put it " Maybe he doesn't want people to find these places" !
Another example is repeating the same map for two differant places !!

A confusing treasure map 2007-06-21

Reviewer: Barry Allan Rice

This book is well written and clearly organized, with a straightforward and helpful system of rating swimming holes. However, as other reviewers have described, the instructions are truly atrocious. I am a scientist used to tracking down rare plants using old coordinates, rumor, misinformation, maps, Google Earth, etc. The skills I have honed come in very handy when I use Pancho Doll's book. For some of these sites, nearly all the information (the maps, the written instructions, the GPS coordinates) are all wrong. Even stranger, they are incorrect but consistent with each other. My guess is that Doll took sloppy notes on his navigation, then a few weeks afterwards he guessed where the sites were on a map, and generated hiking instructions and GPS coordinates using mapping software. Some of the sites have taken me two or three searches to actually find. That being said, I've been ticking the northern California sites off, one by one, and thanks to this book I have seen some of the most spectacular and pretty little places I have ever seen in California. Some of the places are so fabulous, my jaw dropped when I saw them. And I guarantee that unless you go to them because of this book or on a local's recommendation, you'd never find them.

Think of this book as a tattered pirate's map that is incomplete and smeared. You'll probably get lost, but with perseverance you may just reach a chest filled with treasure!

flawed 2007-02-14

Reviewer: Jeffrey B. Edwards

this book is riddled with flaws. the directions are misleading and dangerous. i have gotten lost on many of these excursions due to his poor trail descriptions. one will also be mislead by his money grubbing tactics. once you purchase the book you are lead to believe that you are allowed access to all of the holes in the book, but guess what? no. you have to join the serria club to get full access. lame, everyone knows the serria club is a cruel animal killing fratfest. i doubt this review will even stay up long enough to read because pancho is notorious for deleting these things the second they are written. i write this in the least slanderous way possible, but, he is in this for the money, not the love of swimmin. i recommend chris shaffer's book "the definitive guide to waterfalls of southern and central california" much better descriptions of waterfalls with swimmin holes with SAFE directions to and from.