Hot Springs of Western Canada 3rd Edition Review

The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa

Hot springs hunting has long been one of my favorite excuses to explore explore ever more remote parts of Canada and the Northern USA.

Very early on I realized how amazing Glenn Woodsworth’s Hot Springs of Western Canada: A Complete Guide was, and it quickly became my most valued and used guide book. My copy of the 2nd edition is now very well tattered and covered in my notes and directions to little known springs.

I was extremely happy to hear Glenn and his son David have put together a 3rd edition in 2014, and I was flattered to have Glenn send me a personally signed copy a couple of months ago.

It quickly becomes obvious the guide has had a serious overhaul:

• Every page is in full color, as are all maps.
• All the photos are new, extremely clear and high quality and do an excellent job of capturing the beauty of so many wilderness springs.
• There are now photos for the vast majority of springs, a massive step up from the last edition.
• Almost all the descriptions have been updated or modified to reflect changing access and conditions at the springs.
• Virtually all springs now include GPS c0-ordinates.
• Many springs that were previously listed as “uncertain” or “unknown” now have complete descriptions and directions where possible.
• New springs have been added, including many that have never before been listed in any guide book.

All told, it feels like an entirely new guide, rather than just an update to an existing guide.

I have only one complaint about the new edition, and it’s a personal preference thing.
In the old edition, many springs were listed along the lines of “we think there is a spring roughly here, happy hunting”, or “there are rumors…” which was all the encouragement I needed to strike out looking. Sometimes I was successful, sometimes not, but of course the enjoyment was in the looking. It felt romantic.

This new 3rd edition has removed the romantic element of “hot springs hunting” and is a little more factual. Now that more information is available, and more people have gone looking, many springs are now listed in detail rather than vaguely. Almost all rumored springs are dismissed as non-existent.

By a copy now on Amazon:

-Dan

P.S. I was overjoyed to see mention of my name and The Road Chose Me in the acknowledgements and references section. My new friend Nick gets a mention too!