Award-winning travel writer David T. Page lives on the side of a volcano. But that doesn't mean that he spends all his nights sleeping in a lava bed. And you won't either if you use the second edition of his An Explorers Guide: Yosemite & the Southern Sierra Nevada to plan your next trip to 
the mountains and deserts fringing the California-Nevada border.I am a little longer in the tooth than David (shown at right in a 1971 photo), a fellow member of Bay Area Travel Writers. And while I still own a sleeping bag and love to spend time day-hiking in California’s mountains, my old bones prefer bunking in a bed with a real mattress, safe inside a structure that isn’t going to blow down on top of me in a late-night thunderstorm.
The book’s publisher, The Countryman Press, says that it “is not a guide to the backcountry… but to the spectacular roads, towns and scenic wonders along its edge, with detailed reviews of accommodations, dining, recreational activities, guides, outfitters, provisions, campsites, trailheads, and the many points of historical and cultural interest along the way.” In short, it is just the kind of guidebook that should appeal to Baby Boomer “Mountain Men” like myself who want “creature comforts” to go along with scenic wonders.
