How to Become A Hike Tester In the Berkshires And Beyond
When we heard that Bill Siever, a Berkshires-based freelance editor, was looking for volunteers to help him test out hikes he’s including in his book-in-progress, 100 Hikes in the Southern Berkshires and Just Beyond, we knew where to turn. RI readers, at least many of you, are avid trail adventurers, not to mention a generous bunch. Coming to the aid of a fellow hiker seems right in line with the ethos of this group. And not only that — testers will be mentioned by name in the acknowledgements section of the book. Who hasn’t ever thought it would be neat to be a name among an author’s thank you’s?
It was a hike that brought Siever to the region in the first place. His parents brought him to Bartholomew’s Cobble in Sheffield when he was a teenager. After school at UConn, he visited it again and fell in love with the area. He moved here in 2006 and, as he explored more trails, came to realize that although guidebooks have been written on the Hudson Valley or the Berkshires or Litchfield Hills, none of them focused on the tristate area where Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut meet (which, as it happens, is the exact same coverage area as Rural Intelligence). While Rural Intelligence makes a point of blurring the state boundaries, hiking guides can leave hikers at a loss when they’re crossing state lines.
“Those books tended to show the same hikes over and over again,” he says. “There are so many different land trusts and hikes that never make the guidebooks. I wanted to correct the situation.”
The guide, which is being published by K. Daniels and Associates for launch in late 2020, will include 100 day hikes as well as brief descriptions of the long-distance trails found in the region: the Appalachian Trail, the shorter South Taconic Trail, the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, and the Yukon Ridge Trail. Each description will include essential information, including a map, difficulty ratings, hike highlights, and a brief description of what you might expect along the way.
And that’s where your involvement, if you choose to accept it, comes in. Siever is asking to be fact checked (isn’t that refreshing?) on his hike information. Are his directions to reach the trailhead accurate and clear? Has he accurately recorded the estimated trail lengths and times, descriptions of parking and map/info kiosks, distant mountains, lakes and other features, including compass directions?
Each hike is ranked by difficulty and trail conditions, and to take part in the testing, you’ll need to tell Sievers what difficulty level you’re comfortable with as well as the approximate geographical area you’d prefer. You’ll agree on a trail, and he'll provide a complete checklist. All hikes are within 45 minutes of Great Barrington and range from Lenox/Richmond in the north to Canaan/Salisbury in the south, and from Hillsdale in the west to Chester in the east.
Testing will take place in the winter, spring and early summer, which will allow Siever to verify his data about things as ephemeral as elements that change with the seasons, to as practical as a plowed parking lot in the winter, since he wants to point out when trails are good for skiing or snowshoeing.
“I’m looking for hikers to follow my directions and see if they’re accurate. If I say you can see the Catskills, is that actually true? I’m really leaving it up to the hikers as to how they want to give me feedback,” Siever says, adding that he doesn’t want them to pull any punches.
So far he’s had about 25 people testing trails (a lot of them are retirees, he points out) and he’s already learned a few things.
“The feedback has been very helpful. For instance, I like to include a lot of historical details, which some people found confusing. Keeping all that in mind, I’ve done revisions. I’m learning to simplify.”
Indeed, simplifying is one of the main reasons Siever feels a guidebook like his is necessary, the internet notwithstanding.
“This area needs a good hiking guide exactly because of the internet being so full of information — and much of it wrong, incomplete and scattered,” he says. “If you’re like me, you don’t want to depend on TripAdvisor for hiking directions. Even AllTrails.com currently lists only about a third of my hikes.”
Siever is hoping he can get five or six people testing the more difficult hikes, but no matter what level or area you’re up for, he’d like to hear from you. You might even be able to join the author as he does his own trail testing. All of this is totally voluntary, and you can stop at any time.
"I hope they have fun and discover new places," he says.
Bill Siever
Email: billsiever@gmail.com
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