The Hiker’s Guidebook Second Edition is now available!
The second edition of the California Mission Walk: The Hiker’s Guide to California’s 21 Spanish Missions Along El Camino Real is now for sale! This fully-revised second edition is the result of close collaboration between a group of experienced Mission Walkers with input from the California Mission Walkers community and includes up-to-date changes to routes, services, and points of interest along the way.
Ron “Butch” Briery wrote his trailblazing first edition hiker’s guidebook in 2012, leading hundreds of people to start walking the Mission Trail and form the California Mission Walkers community in 2013. His guidebook connected the twenty-one California missions from San Diego to Sonoma, and kept daily segments as close to fifteen miles as possible with a place to stay at the end of each day. In the past nine years the California Mission Walkers organization has grown to over 2,000 members, many of whom have either completed the 800-mile walk or are in various stages of completing it by following Butch’s original guidebook.
Although the new second edition guidebook is based on the original guidebook (south to north, daily segments, historical information on each mission, services along the way, etc.), it also includes route improvements and alternate routes. In this new edition you will find the following:
- An introduction to the California Mission Walk and how to prepare for it
- Detailed day-by-day directions with multiple options for dining and places to stay
- Landmarks, museums, Anza expedition campsites, presidios, spiritual and sacred landmarks, and many other historical sites
- Daily maps and alternate route options.
In addition there is a Kindle electronic book version of the guidebook available on Amazon, and the companion GPX navigation files are available for download from the California Mission Walkers Facebook group for those who prefer an electronic version of the route directions.
As you plan your mission walk, keep in mind that your walk is yours alone to modify and sculpt as you see fit to meet your needs. The second edition of the Hiker’s Guide is organized to allow you the flexibility to walk it from start to finish in stages, in segments, as a thru-hike, or however you choose to break it down. Or as Butch wrote in the original Hiker’s Guide, “Whatever works for you is the best method.”
~ Julie