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| | Location: Home » South America » General » 100 Classic Hikes in Washington: North Cascades, Olympics, Mount Rainer & South Cascades, Alpine Lakes, Glacier Peak (100 Best Hikes) | November 22, 2008 |
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| 100 Classic Hikes in Washington: North Cascades, Olympics, Mount Rainer & South Cascades, Alpine Lakes, Glacier Peak (100 Best Hikes) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Ira Spring, Harvey Manning
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $3.64
You Save: $18.31 (83%)
Buy New/Used from $3.64
Avg. Customer Rating:  (13 reviews)
Sales Rank: 160153
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.7 x 0.7
ISBN: 0898865867
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.970443
EAN: 9780898865868
ASIN: 0898865867
Publication Date: August 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Fully detailed, best-selling hiking guides. These "best of the best" guides feature full-color photos and maps throughout.
Amazon.com Review
Classic Hikes is a greatest hits of previous Mountaineers guidebooks for Washington, collecting in a single volume 100 hikes from the guides to the Alpine Lakes, North Cascades, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, and South Cascades and Olympics regions. The intelligence behind the selection comes from Ira Spring and Harvey Manning, who between them have more than 100 years of hiking experience in Washington. Owners of other Mountaineers guides will notice that the production values of this volume are even higher than usual; color maps and photos adorn high-quality (recycled) paper. At-a-glance information for easy browsing includes the following: mileage, suggested duration in hours or days, high point, elevation gain, seasonality, topo map codes, and additional contact information. The text synopses are colorful and politically opinionated (woe to the dirt biker who crosses paths with these two!). Their sense of tradition is also readily apparent: "To start with the ice cream and work through the meatballs and potatoes to the soup is not esthetic. Coming to the Enchantments by way of Aasgard is in very bad taste." While avid hikers will have plenty to argue about concerning the sins of omission, it's hard to argue with the inclusion of Mount Rainier's Wonderland Trail, Whatcom Pass in the North Cascades, Image Lake in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, the Enchantments in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and the Olympics' High Divide. These represent some of the most spectacular hikes in North America. The downside is that you're not likely to find solitude in such places, no matter how remote. But there are 95 more trails to choose from, many of similar scenic beauty and slightly less fame.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Awfully chatty, but a good first guide to Washington State hiking July 6, 2008
100 Classic Hikes in Washington is one of the nicer-looking books on trails in the area, and is not a bad first guide to discover hiking in the Cascades, Olympics and Mount Rainier.
Written by Ira Spring and Harvey Manning, I get the sense the guide is a local favorite, although I personally don't like the chatty style and lack of consistent structure in the trail descriptions. For some people, notably armchair readers, or area residents seeking local color and history, this style would be considered a bonus.
As a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest, I would forgo knowledge of Ira or Harvey's personal experiences on the trail, in order to quickly reference, say, driving directions. A more user-friendly book would have that information teased out from the chatty text, so the navigator can easily tell the driver which exit to take before they pass it.
What is nice are the smooth-feeling clay-coated pages (more water and tear resistant for taking on the trail) and the full-color layout. Lots of photos show off alpine lakes and mountain passes, with attractive, although very basic, trail maps.
Spring and Manning take the time to provide information on aspects of conservation and environmental protection for each area - and in most cases, within each trail. The authors make no bones about telling you which lakes it would be immoral to camp at - those either overused or very fragile, mostly.
I also appreciated the information provided on spur trails and the portions of the trails past the intended dayhike destination. I would like to have seen expanded trail descriptions, though.
This trail guide is certainly a step up from some guides that are mainly a collection of trail descriptions lifted straight from the Forest Service handouts.
 Not for the casual hiker April 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a beautifully illustrated book - I'll certainly give it that. I didn't get into the prose, though, because as I thumbed through the summary description of each hike, I was disappointed to find how few of them are accessible to the casual hiker.
I'm going to Seattle in mid-May and I wanted to take a few hikes while I was there. Of the 100 hikes listed in this book, less than 5 of them are accessible in May, and all of those are either on the coast or east of the Cascades. The weather isn't the authors' fault, but one would hope there would be a few "classic" hikes that would be accessible at other times than mid-summer.
The other disappointment was that a very large percentage of the hikes involve trips of multiple days. I'm sure they're gorgeous, but this borders more on camping trips than hikes.
I found Foghorn Outdoors Washington Hiking: The Complete Guide to More Than 400 Hikes (Foghorn Outdoors) to be a much more useful guide.
 By far the best hiking book I have ever read February 3, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Ira and Harvey," as my hiking partner and I fondly refer to the authors, are probably the best hiking writers / photographers I've ever encountered. Yes, the book is opinionated; there is no doubt about that. However, that is what makes it special. If you want a book with 1000 hikes and a short listing of facts, this book isn't for you. However, the authors have pulled together their favorite 100 hikes and feel free to tell you exactly why they think they're great. Ira (Spring) was a famous photographer in his day, and I enjoy drooling over his photos of the sites I'll see on the way to hike. We usually preface our hikes from this book by reading the hike description aloud and laughing over Manning's excesses.
My edition is one older than this listing, and in it, as another reviewer remarks, the authors do rail against motorized vehicles. Anyone who's been asphyxiated by a 4-wheeler and coughed for minutes after its departure can appreciate and agree with their rants.
In the edition I have, there is no negative mention of dogs or horses. In fact, Harvey references hikes with his dog fondly. I have noticed in later editions of Mountaineers books anti-dog writing which bothers me - a lot. However, I have never seen that in this book.
If you can only own one hiking book for Washington, this is the one. It's entertaining, informative, recommends fantastic hikes, and has great photos.
 Experienced WA hiker does not recommend this book.......... June 8, 2004
27 out of 37 found this review helpful
...and recommend in its stead : Hiking Washington's Geology, ISBN: 0898865484. I live in WA state, and have owned "100 Classic Hikes in WA" for 5 years; I repeatedly "try" to reference for new hiking ideas, but every time end up closing the book in disgust. Here is why:
1. The prose is terrible (excessively 'flowery' and overblown);
2. Non-stop negative "preaching" against the forest service, motorized vehicles, horses & dogs on the trail.
3. Hike descriptions, when not oriented on preaching, are not very descriptive of the specific features as seen on the hike. Because of this, the valuable information, such as difficulty of hike, accesibility of trailhead, & attraction of hike (view, flowers, etc) is very hard to extract from the hike descriptions. I consider myself an experienced outdoors-person, and hit the trails almost every weekend during good weather. Sometimes I hike with friends, sometimes I take my dog, sometimes I bring the trailer & ride with my horse, and sometimes I take a mountain bike. My point is: these men found innumerable ways to slam almost every activity I do in the mountains: according to their never-ending negativity, the only good trail is one in which only a walking human is allowed. My recommendation to the authors is to spend less time 'educating' the public with your incredibly biased opinions and more time on the purpose of the book: educating people on the best places to go in WA for a great hike. "Hiking WA's Geology" is a much better book, even if you are not interested in geology for the following reasons:
1. Hike descriptions are written by authors experienced in technical writing, i.e. you recieve the most amount of pertinent information in as few words as possible.
2. Many of the trails are 'off the regularly beaten path'
3. Descriptions give detailed information along each section of the hike, so the hiker knows not only the 'what & why' of what he is seeing, but also any technical challenges that might arise (paraphrased e.g.: 3 miles down the trail, the trail becomes difficult to follow, watch for campsite #22, walk to the left, find the trailhead again).
Opinionated guide but great in all respects October 2, 2003
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have read countless hiking books but never have I encountered a preface like this book. Authors Spring and Manning spend many pages going into a diatribe about how the Forest Service has ruined many Washington trails and how ATV's and encroachment has destroyed much of the pristine beauty of the state. I agree with their comments wholeheartedly, but wonder if such "strident" opinions (to some people) are really suitable in a hiking guide. For me, the political opinions were not a distraction, but I want to mention them in case you are expecting simply a typical guidebook with no ancillary commentary.Now, to the book itself. Washington is a magnificent and beautiful state to hike. Even without the magnificent hikes in and around the Seattle, there are plenty of other trails to explore and enjoy. This book does it all! It is an exceptionally well-designed book for hikers across the spectrum. Whether you're a neophyte or have climbed Denali, this book contains all the essential information you need to tackle the hikes listed. The photos are all in color and are breathtaking! You really get a sense of what each hike will look like before you undertake it. Every hike also has a brief map to accompany the text description. The maps are easy to follow and instructive. There are also black and white photos of each trail, with two color sections. Equally pleasing is that the authors take the time to describe each hike in extensive detail, though they are never wordy. They list the elevation gains, give succinct but necessary directions to each trailhead and provide ample analysis of the strengths/weaknesses of each trek. The book is small and light enough to carry in your backpack, if you feel the need to consult it while on the trail. I have over 50 hiking books in my library and it would be hard to imagine a more complete, more photographically stunning or better written guide. From desert to mountains, Washington has it all. I enthusiastically recommend this gem with the small warning about the authors injecting personal opinions about the Forest Service.
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