Hiking Centennial Trail: A Guide to Hiking South Dakota's Centennial Trail

We depended on this guidebook almost exclusively during our thru-hike of the Centennial Trail. Comprehensive, accurate, well-written, this guidebook will get you through your Centennial Trail Hike, or sections of it if you prefer, with flying colors. The Centennial Trail is an excellent mid-range backpacking trip with constantly changing, breathtaking scenery. I rank it at the very very top of backpacking trips I've been on. This guidebook makes it possible. My own note: I recommend planning for crazy weather changes and dramatic shifts in temperature as this region is impacted by the unpredictability of mountain weather.

Just recently returned from thru hiking the Centennial Trail. Used this book as a daily guide and it was invaluable for giving us updated and thorough information on the trail, which we had been unable to find from any other sources. It was also very helpful when trail signs were missing due to fire melting, lumbering removing or knocking down signs, or cattle/bison knocking them over. Authors gave tips for how to find the trail when signs are gone. Very useful before the trip to plan a tentative itinerary, and during to plan trailhead meet-ups with our support system, who kept us well supplied with fresh water, food treats, and hauling our heavier packs when we wanted to slack pack for the day. Thank you, Cheryl and Jukka, for doing all the hard work of gathering this information all in one place!

I used this book on a South bound thru-hike. It ocassionally helped, but I would not consider it a true guidebook. In my opinion, a guidebook helps you maintain a firm idea of your location at all times. Quality maps are important. The maps provided by the guidebook are only slightly better than a squiggly black line on a white page of paper. They lack detail. It's also important (in my opinion) that trail users maintain awareness of their location in regards to the beginning and end of the section they are hiking, and how to get to a road as soon as possible, in case of injury or adverse weather. Why doesn't the guidebook mention when the trail crosses a road, or a fence line? For example, if I know I cross a road at mile 3.2, and again at mile 5, that helps me know where I am along a 5.5 mile section. This book does not offer much help at all as far as maintaining knowledge of my location. There is an elevation profile for every section, which would be a great little place to stash info on road or fenceline crossings. This book mentions trees. Groves of birch trees and stuff. I am hiking to observe many things, and informing me of some trees I might pass are not helping me much, unless it's an exceptionally... unique...tree. Brief, pertinent info, along with some quality maps - thats really all this book would need! With less frivolous text, the book could be just slightly smaller, like the size that would fit in a water bottle pocket so it could be accessed several times a day, or hour, without being folded. Also, I feel it's worth mentioning some of the more reliable water crossings. Again this is my opinion. Until then, if I decide to walk this trail again, I am just going to try to find some good maps. I no longer have this book. I decided not to carry it to the end.

It is difficult to find information on the Cent. Trail since there are at least three different agencies that the trail goes through. In each section of the book, it lists trail difficulty, if there is water (potable), nearby campgrounds, mileage, GPS coord for the trailheads and elevation changes along with a trail description. I think using this along with the Nat Geo maps is a perfect combo. There are maps in this book but the NG is a little more detailed and I am a little OCD about getting lost.

I found this book to be really helpful during our hike of the trail. Lots of great information on level of difficulty, distance between trail heads, elevation, duration of hiking time and where to find water. Also loved the description of the hike and what to watch for along the way. Great pictures included as well!

This book is very detailed and breaks the trail down in sections, I haven't been there yet but I'm looking forward to it.

Great guide to a great trail.

The authors provided additional information at my request. They responded within a day when I had a question about shuttle services. Thanks! Very helpful indeed!