Colin Fletcher backpacked the length of California knowing he had to do it but not knowing why. During this trip he discovers how to backpack efficiently, develops a rare understanding of wilderness, the Mojave, and the Sierra.

A Walk in the Woods - Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson 1998
This is an entertaining account of a series of backpacking adventures demonstrating just about every thing that can be done wrong on a backpacking trip and how these events were resolved. Yet even then the hundreds of miles traveled were reasonably considered a success.

Survival Skills of Native California by Paul D. Campbell 2009    
A comprehensive work acquired from extensive interactions with California’s Natives over twenty years. Included are detailed descriptions of shelters, food gathering and cooking, household and personal implements, and hunting and fishing as well as demonstrations of how they lived well in desert wilderness environments. The information provides a firm foundation for wilderness survival insight as well as background information for interpreting archaeological sites and cultural artifacts that we encounter when exploring the California and Nevada deserts.