Preparing for Hiking Season Part 2

Backcountry Bookshelf 

As soon as some of that pesky snow melts out, Washington's trails will open up for some of the best hiking in the US. While you're still housebound, why not spend some time pouring over guidebooks and planning where you want to go this summer? After all, part of the fun is researching and dreaming about where you are going to go.

Hike #122 in Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula by Craig Romano - Point of Arches on Shi Shi Beach. Photo by Inge Johnnson.

Is your bookshelf up-to-date with the books that would best help you plan your summer fun? There are a dizzying array of guidebooks out there, so we took an informal poll of the WTA staff to see what they are reading...

Staff's Favorite Comprehensive Guidebook

100 Classic Hikes in Washington by Ira Spring & Harvey Manning (Mountaineers Books)
Generally, guidebooks that cover the state comprehensively either offer too little information about too many hikes or highlight too few hikes. 100 Classic Hikes is the exception. After decades of hiking hundreds of trails, the authors hand-picked their favorites. The write-ups are peppered with lots of opinion and accompanied by Ira Spring's gorgeous full-colored photographs. The downside: 100 Classic Hikes was published in 1998, so the descriptions are a bit out-of-date. Use this for inspiration only.

Staff's Favorite Regional Hiking Series

Mountaineers Books' Day Hiking series by Craig Romano & Dan Nelson Mountaineers Books is replacing the beloved 100 Hike series of guidebooks with their new Day Hiking series. There are now five new books that are available: Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula (Romano); Day Hiking South Cascades (Nelson); Day Hiking Snoqualmie Pass (Nelson); Day Hiking North Cascades (Romano); and Day Hiking Mount Rainier (Nelson).  We love the added hikes, the elevation profiles and the fresh and accurate reports from the trail. We miss Harvey Manning's commentary and the features on backpacking, but overall, these are well worth the new investment. Plus 1% of the proceeds benefit WTA. Upcoming: Day Hiking Central Cascades (2009); Day Hiking Eastern Washington (2010) Backpacking Washington (2011).

Staff's Favorite Area-Specific Guidebooks

Best Desert Hikes by Alan Bauer & Dan Nelson (Mountaineers Books)
We can't keep this guidebook on our bookshelf; someone is always going home with

it. This book is great because the authors sniffed out terrific spring and fall hikes in Eastern Washington that had never been written up in a guidebook before. These are places where you will find plenty of solitude, wonderful spring wildflowers and geological wonders.

Day Hike! Columbia Gorge by Seabury Blair, Jr. (Sasquatch Books)
Whether you want to hike on the Washington or Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, this is the guidebook you'll need. It provides a comprehensive roster of trails, with informative write-ups, enlarged topo maps and helpful trail notes that let you know about dog etiquette, kid-friendliness and bikes.

Did you know that there is extensive hiking in the Chuckanut Mountains south of Bellingham that is accessible year-round? Some of these hikes are now being incorporated into various other guidebooks, but the best resource remains this pocket-sized book of 62 hikes. There are trails in here that you'll find nowhere else. The publisher also offers titles for Skagit County, Snohomish County and the San Juans.

Issaquah Alps Trails Club Guides (Issaquah Alps Trails Club)
If you really want to know where you are going in the Issaquah Alps, you should invest in these guides to Cougar, Tiger & Squak Mountains. They are incredibly detailed, with information on all of the spur trails and each guide includes a pull-out map. Buy them directly from the Issaquah Alps Trails Club.

Staff's Favorite User-Specific Guidebooks

This is the must-have guidebook for families with kids. It's comprehensive (183 hikes are featured), with lots of thoughtful detail about why the hike is good for kids and things to watch out for. Two nice features are an appendix of campgrounds and lists like "Best Hikes for Swimming" and "Best Winter Hikes." In addition, this book is a great resource for winter and early spring hiking.

The White Bluffs of the Hanford Reach (South) is #47 in the Best Desert Hikes book by Alan Bauer & Dan Nelson - WTA's favorite spring hiking book. Photo by Kim Brown.

Best Hikes with Dogs: Western Washington by Dan Nelson; Best Hikes with Dogs: Inland Northwest by Craig Romano & Alan Bauer (Mountaineers Books)
If you have a dog and you like to hike, you should own these books. Dan Nelson's Western Washington book is the first in a series that has now gone national. These books details a wide variety of appropriate hikes for dogs with canine-specific details like water availability, leash requirements and dog-hiking tips.

Snowshoe Routes: Washington by Dan Nelson (Mountaineers Books)
The only snowshoe book for Washington, it details routes from a snowshoer's perspective. If you snowshoe, you must have this guidebook. We'd like to see a sequel.

Summit Routes: Washington's 100 Highest Places by Scott Stephenson & Brian Bongiovanni (Alpen Books)
Anyone who likes to bag peaks should own this book! The details offered here will decrease the time needed to plan out your route because the authors have already done the heavy lifting for you.

75 Scrambles in Washington: Classic Routes to the Summits by Peggy Goldman (Mountaineers Books)
Not ready for the rigors of mountain-climbing with ropes and other technical gear but want to bag a few peaks? Try this book. These routes detail off-trail travel, sometimes across rock and snow, to gain access to peaks throughout the state.

Backpacker Magazine's Trekking Washington by Mike Woodmansee (Mountaineers Books)
Surprisingly, it's hard to come by good backpacking information for Washington. A few backcountry treks used to be incorporated in Mountaineers Books' 100 Hike series, but their new format favors day hikes exclusively. Fortunately, this book by Backpacker Magazine provides not only ample inspiration but useful information for someone planning a multi-day backpack. Suggested itineraries, trail summaries with mileage markers, elevation profiles and camping information are all incredibly valuable. 

Guidebooks by Publisher

Mountaineers Books - More than two dozen (perhaps three dozen!) titles of well-researched and informative guidebooks.

Sasquatch Books - Well-written Day Hike! regional series and a few other interesting guidebooks to look into.

Falcon Press - One of the largest guidebook publishers in the country, it offers more than a dozen titles for hiking and backpacking in Washington.

Wilderness Press - They have a few titles for Washington, including a backpacking book that looks interesting. Our favorite was the Don't Waste Your Time in the North Cascades, which appears to have gone out of print.

Foghorn Press - Publishes compendiums for hiking, camping and fishing.

Northwest Wild Books - Offers small pocket guides for Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and San Juan Counties.

Issaquah Alps Trails Club - Guides to Tiger, Squak & Cougar.