60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Seattle: Including Bellevue, Everett, and Tacoma

Description

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-03-03
Summary: "This is a great hiking book -- new hikes!"

60 Hikes within 60 Miles is a gem for those of us looking for trails that are easier (EZ to mid-intermediate), long, and close to Seattle. There are trails I haven't heard of before I got this book. With this book and Beyond Mt. Si, you're set. These trails are so beautiful, old growth, some paved over railroad tracks, and the Preston-Snoqualmie Falls trail with the outlook is awesome.

One suggestion, however: Pet restricted trails should be noted. Went to the Watershed Reserve Trail in Redmond, and discovered that dogs weren't allowed (HORSES WERE ALLOWED! go figure) Luckily, the Arboretum is close by off 520, so that lowered a few raised hackles and saved the day. Dog-friendly is an important feature to add in trail descriptions.

Other than that, this is an excellent, easy to follow hiking book.

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-02-01
Summary: "60 Hikes within 60 Miles"

Got this book about an year ago and have since done almost half of the hikes described in this book. Can't say if these are the 60 best hikes (there are much more than 60 hikes in the covered area), but they've definitely all been great hikes so far.

The hikes can all be done as day trips from Seattle: The maximum driving distance from Seattle is 60 miles, except for the Mt Rainier hikes, which are more like 60 miles as the crow flies. Come to think of it, the driving time would be a more relevant criteria than the distance, but of course that wouldn't make for such a nice title.

The format of the book is quite practical. In particular, I appreciate the trailhead GPS coordinates, the easily accessible and detailed overview map, and the trail elevation profiles. There are more than a dozen criteria for choosing a hike, including trail length, crowdedness and various scenic features. Only, I wish this information was presented in a table rather than in list form, which makes choosing hikes based on multiple criteria a bit tedious.

I wasn't too enthusiastic about the schematic trail maps that lack topographic information. However all the trails I've seen so far were well marked, so this didn't turn out to be a big issue. On the other hand the book could use more pictures and perhaps less text: In this context, a picture (with a good caption) really can be worth a thousand (or at least a few hundred...) words.

Before you leave on any of the hikes, be sure to check with the WSDOT and the relevant park authorities that the roads to the trail (and the trail itself) are accessible. Look for recent trail reports on the WTA's site. At least two of the trails (Bare Mountain and Carbon Glacier) are no longer accessible (with no immediate plans to fix the access roads).

Finally, I can't help but think that the information in such books would be more useful if presented on the Web: People could upload or link pictures, add trail reports, download GPS routes etc. Searching and sorting through lists of hikes should also be much easier. In fact the hikes in this book seem to be on trails.com, might be worth a look...

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-09-11
Summary: "A template that should be followed by all hiking guidebooks"

The structure and organization of this books is really stunning and authors haven't left anything to complain about. This is one of very few books which has complete elevation profile for each hike instead of just elevation gain. The hiking maps are actually useful and well marked with all points of interests. Best of all, each hike contains GPS coordinates which I'm so pleased to have because wordy descriptions just doesn't cut it all the time. The descriptions long but actually useful instead like in other books where authors love to write them in painful and poor artistic styles. Each hike contains small B&W low quality photo which are usually OK and not always represents the best view from the trail. I also own 55 Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass: Mountains to Sound Greenway (100 Hikes In...) and given choice between two I will prefer this one because of its superb structure and organization plus modern details such as GPS coordinates.

I think this book should be template for all other hiking guidebooks out there.

Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2008-09-04
Summary: "Good content, but presentation could be much better"

What I like:

* I love how it features hikes *within* Seattle, Kirkland and Bellevue. Many guidebooks skip hikes within the city altogether. The one you can kayak to is pretty neat! I expect that these trails will be good for the colder months, when trails in the Cascades are snowed out. I'm looking forward to using this book more and more later in the year.

* The descriptions are quite thorough. The details help me visualize the hike, and this can be motivating sometimes. This has some cons though -- see below.

* It has a section for nearby activities. I find that useful when planning side trips/activities.

* It provides the GPS coordinates of the trailhead.


What I don't like:

* Each page has a header that is a black area with white text. On the left page it says "{hike #} 60 hikes within 60 miles" and on the right side, "Seattle including Bellevue, Everett and Tacoma". I think this space could be used better if it displayed the name of the hike and the general area instead of the same text over and over.

* Key at-a-glance information is shown in a black box with small white text. This information is quite important to me when deciding which hike to do, and I would rather have it in a more readable form. Better yet, have it in a form that I can actually digest "at a glance" (!) instead of having to read the small white-on-black text. Other guidebooks show some of this information graphically, with stars or hiker icons to indicate difficulty and/or rating. At the very least, I think the font should be the same size as the descriptive text.

* Driving directions and GPS coordinates are printed as black text over a light/dark gray background. Bad contrast!

* The descriptive text is loooong. I appreciate that sometimes, but I it's too verbose for my taste. The font size is rather small, which for me makes reading the description even less appealing.

* Whether or not dogs are allowed is also in the description text. Since I have a dog, I'd like to know this immediately, so again, I think it should be displayed more prominently.

* It would be nice if it had a topographical map for the longer trails. I find it hard to reconstruct the lie of the land from the map and the elevation graph, especially since the map doesn't have mile markers along the representation of the hike's trail. [Yes, I have my own topo map of the entire area, but a small one that I can carry with the trail description is convenient as a adjunct to a larger map.]


All things considered, I have mixed feelings about this book. It has good content, but I think there are better ones out there. Call me superficial, but I'm a weekend hiker, and the difference between an engaging/beautiful versus so-so/mediocre presentation can have a big effect on my enthusiasm for a particular hike :)

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-08-30
Summary: "Awesome"

An awesome book, very detailed descriptions, good maps, elevation profiles with every trip, GPS, driving instructions. This is far better than all the mountaineers books. Go get a copy today.