‘The Pacific Crest Trail: A Visual Compendium’ Showcases the Natural Visual Details of Its Namesake

Author, designer, and illustrator Joshua M. Powell and art director Anna Goldstein have teamed up to create The Pacific Crest Trail: A Visual Compendium. The book focuses on the natural and visual details of the scenery, trails, and memorabilia. This book is a treasure trove of visual details from depictions of wildflowers, feathers, wildlife, and volcanoes.

"The Pacific Crest Trail: A Visual Compendium" is a look at the PCT and the experience of long-distance hiking through the lens of a graphic designer. Joshua M. Powell worked in book design and production for several years before deciding to hike the entire PCT from Mexico to Canada. He knew he ultimately wanted to create a book that conveyed the experience through design and visuals as much as through writing, and that provided a completely unique perspective on the trail. Design, illustration, maps, and infographics convey a wealth of information, details, and statistics about the PCT meticulously recorded during Powell's hike. There is a focus on both natural visual details, such as wildflowers and bird feathers, and the types of manmade visual details that a designer would notice: vintage Forest Service signs, typography on trail signage, neon signs and other ephemera found in the small towns near the trail. It has all been beautifully designed and packaged in book form, by an author and designer with a clear love for the printed book.

It includes:

– Over 70 original illustrations of scenery, trail towns, and ephemera – both natural and manmade

– Over 40 infographics detailing the volcanoes of the PCT, Passes of the High Sierra, Trail Towns, Wildlife, Native Lands Traveled on the PCT, and much more

– Over 20 original maps with a variety of data, both universal and unique to Powell's experiences on the trail

The Pacific Crest Trail Association calls it "a first-of-its-kind PCT book, and a must-have along with other classics of the trail."