Books for your inner mountaineer
When weather turns warm, the outdoor bookshelf predictably begins sprouting new titles. Among those ready for picking off the bookstore rack:
Trail guides
"60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Seattle" (Menasha Ridge Press, $16.95) is a new installment in a popular series from Alabama-based Menasha Ridge that focuses on urbanite-friendly nature walks near major cities.
Authored by Bryce Stevens, co-founder of Seattle-based Trails.com, and Andrew Weber, the book's outings (all-day hikes) range from pastoral strolls in urban parks to well-trod mountain routes near Interstate 90 and along U.S. 2.
Fitness walkers, novice adventurers and newcomers to Seattle seem to be the target customers of this guide. Trip suggestions are diverse and generally tame: a dozen-plus local park meanderings, half a dozen hikes in the Issaquah Alps, and some edge-of-the-wilderness hikes (Mount Pilchuck, Mount Rainier's Spray Park).
The authors take 280 pages to describe just 60 day hikes; quite generous since many of the trips are modest (e.g., a two-mile stroll in Mercer Slough). The space is filled with good maps, clear directions, elevation charts and helpful trip summaries. But really — four pages on the Annette Lake trail?
Yet that leaves room for a brief bio of Asahel Curtis (founding member of the Mountaineers) for whom the adjoining nature trail is named, and later in the description a starting point for a scramble up 5,605-foot Silver Peak is recommended — all good info to know. Bottom line: a useful guide for selecting casual hikes close to town.
"Take a Hike: Seattle" by Scott Leonard (Moon Outdoors, $16.95) is based on a similar intent, though the author includes a few longer excursions (up to 16 miles), offers more choices (81 hikes) and stretches its subtitle ("Hikes within Two Hours of the City") to include hikes on locales as distant as the Chuckanut Mountain near Bellingham.
Leonard's book shares about a dozen destinations with "60 Hikes" yet provides more options along the Mountain Loop Highway and Interstate 90 than Stevens/Weber. And some of Leonard's picks (Kendall Katwalk, Mount Dickerman, Necklace Valley) give his book an overall higher vigor level.
A student of environmental law at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Leonard has also authored the synoptic "Washington Hiking" (with 400-plus hikes, $17.95). That volume serves as the Washington section of "Pacific Northwest Hiking" ($21.95), both released in 2005.
Much of what appears in "Take a Hike" is also found in "Washington Hiking" and "Pacific Northwest Hiking" minus maps and photos. Consumer tip: If you're willing to do without such extras, the better values reside in the larger books.
"Best Hikes with Kids: Western Washington and the Cascades" by Joan Burton (The Mountaineers Books, $18.95) consolidates much of her previous two volumes into a single guide with 183 trips, all rated for difficulty from a child's perspective. It's one of the few guides I've found that describes the way to 600-foot Otter Falls along the Taylor River near North Bend.
"Hiking the Trails of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest" is a self-published guidebook (hand-drawn maps and all) detailing 40 trails by retired Forest Service staffer Kent Meyer of Vancouver, Wash. (360-574-0784; emeyer1@mindspring.com; $11.70).
"Gardenwalks in the Pacific Northwest" by Alice Joyce (Globe Pequot, $14.95) supplies a nice listing of public gardens in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Downside: Joyce too often provides sketchy directions, referring readers to a Web site for details — not so helpful for readers on the road searching for a garden.
How-to guides
"Lightweight Backpacking and Camping," edited by Ryan Jordan (Beartooth Mountain Press, $24.95), ironically uses a hefty 434 pages to explain how to master minimalism in the backcountry.
Many interesting, persuasive, even radical concepts (five-pound overnight packs!) are effectively presented here. A few ideas — condoning open fires (albeit "low-impact" fires) to avoid the weight of a stove; recommending reinforced food-storage bags (e.g., Ursack) for use in restriction-free wilderness areas (though most bear-management officials and national parks disapprove of their use) — reflect the traces of a fringe mentality that still circulates in the ultralight community.
Still, blend your sense of personal responsibility and your own parameters for comfort with some of the ideas found here, and your pack will likely grow lighter.
"Tent and Car Camper's Handbook" by Buck Tilton with Kristin Hostetter (Backpacker/Mountaineers, $16.95) is a good newbie's guide to camping. Need some tips for your inaugural camping trip? This is an above-average resource.
"Camping with Kids" by Goldie Silverman (Wilderness Press, $16.95) can supplement the previous book with some grandmotherly advice for helping kids embrace the great unplugged outdoors.
"Hikers' and Backpackers' Guide for Treating Medical Emergencies" by Patrick Brighton (Menasha Ridge, $9.95) is a take-along-size book that uses some odd, ostensibly humorous illustrations to amplify its otherwise sound advice on multiple topics.
Notable updated editions
"Wilderness Ethics: Valuing and Managing Wild Places" by the National Outdoor Leadership School (second ed., Stackpole Books, $19.95) ponders how stewardship ideals can effectively merge with consumption-hungry society.
"Wilderness Survival" by Gregory Davenport (second ed., Stackpole, $19.95) comes from a former Air Force survival instructor and founding member of the Simply Survival program in Stevenson, Skamania County. Here he shows how to improvise primitively and take care of the basics: food, water, protection, health.
"100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington" (third ed., Navillus Press, $16.95) is a well-researched guide that surveys trails from Mount St. Helens to Oregon's Clackamas foothills, authored by hard-working Oregon trail whiz William Sullivan.
"Best Hikes and Walks of Southwestern British Columbia" by Dawn Hanna (second ed., Lone Pine, $15.95), is a splendid, rugged, compact, full-color package.
"Afoot & Afloat: North Puget Sound" (plus a separate South version, both third editions) by Marge and Ted Mueller (Mountaineers, $16.95 each).
"Best Easy Day Hikes: Mount Rainier" (second ed., Falcon, $7.95).
