Rating: 
Summary: Awesome guide, but...
Review: There's a ton of paper in this book, overboard, in my opinion. Wading through the pages in search of a hike is downright laborious. I've taken quite a few of the Sierra hikes and the information hasn't been detailed enough to really give me a feel for what to expect on the trail. They miscalculated the mileage and sometimes the elevation. I think it would be a better book if they chopped out half of the listings and concentrated on the truly best hikes in California.
Rating: 
Summary: Refinement Needed
Review: There's a ton of paper in this book, overboard, in my opinion. Wading through the pages in search of a hike is downright laborious. I've taken quite a few of the Sierra hikes and the information hasn't been detailed enough to really give me a feel for what to expect on the trail. They miscalculated the mileage and sometimes the elevation. I think it would be a better book if they chopped out half of the listings and concentrated on the truly best hikes in California.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome guide, but...
Review: This book is an almost perfect guide to hiking in Northern California. It's UNBELIEVABLY thorough. My only two quibbles are: 1. Directions to trailheads are a little iffy in places, and (perhaps more importantly) 2. The difficulty ratings are sometimes waaay off. The book uses a 1 (easiest) through 5 (most difficult) difficulty rating. And yesterday, my husband and I went on a hike in the east bay area that the book deemed a 1 in difficulty, and it was considerably more difficult than many 3s we've hiked in the past. What's up with that?! If an inexperienced hiker showed up in tennis shoes relying on that 1 rating, that person could potentially be in physical danger in places.Having said all that, we've used this book for nearly 3 years and have found it completely spot-on when it comes to identifying beautiful hikes. It's been particularly useful when we've been vacationing in a part of the state with which we're not very familiar. I recommend using this book as a way to identify awesome hikes you want to try, but then you should contact the state/national/whatever park you're about to visit and get more detailed information about the hike before embarking on it.
Rating: 
Summary: The only hiking book I use
Review: This guide has a lot to offer. I'm an avid day hiker who lives in Northern California and spends a lot of time in Southern California. I can always find a hike suited to my time, my mood, and my companion's fitness level. Other guides are more narrowly focused. This book is like a Chinese menu, I can choose a hike from column A or column B depending on if I'm hiking with my nephews or looking to kick my brother's butt. I find the descriptions and directions very reliable. I keep this book in my truck with my hiking boots!
Rating:
Summary: California Hiking 2001 edition
Review: This is a great book. No so-so hikes here. The scenery is beautiful and the difficulty from easy to hard. We used this as a guide to hiking Mt. Shasta and Marin County this summer. Most information good. One draw back is some of the directions to the trailheads is faulty (like Thousand Lakes and Mt. Shasta). Also some roads are questionable without 4 wheel drive. However, we did find the trailheads eventually even when the directions were off. We would suggest checking a topo map of the region. Definitely would recommend this book to others.
Rating:
Summary: The California Hikers Bible
Review: This is an indispensible guidebook for any hiker in California. I use it almost daily during hiking season and it helps in selecting hikes, planning them, reaching the trailhead and gauging whether a hike will be worthwhile. Each hike contains a ranking system, one for the beauty of the hiking, the other for the difficulty factor in reaching the summit. Occasionally I quibble with the authors ranking of a given hike, but usually they are on the mark. A few cautionary notes: there are no maps in the book, except general maps which introduce the hiker to each specific region. Don't expect detailed maps for each hike because there are none. The descriptions of how to reach each trailhead also leave a little to be desired. A few I have found to be outdated, but in a book including 1,000 hikes, that's to be expected. Plan accordingly and expect a few glitches. There are also some outstanding hikes that are (inexplicably) not included in the book. One prime example would be the Lone Pine campground to Lone Pine Lake hike near Mt. Whitney. This omission is a curious one, but one can't expect one book to cover every hike in a state as large as California. My favorite part of the book is the ranking system used at the beginning. The authors have various categories and list the hikes they think are best suited to be placed in every league. For example, they have "butt kickers" and "most beautiful views." Again, many readers might quibble with their choices (is the view from the summit of Whitney really anything special?) but they are correct more often than not. If you spend any time hiking in California, this book is essential.
Rating:
Summary: Decent list of hikes, but some bad information
Review: This is probably the most comprehensive listing of hikes in California, but it's not without its flaws. First of all, the authors have clearly not updated information on all of the hikes. The 2001 edition, for example, gives an extensive description of a hike through Bear Gulch Caves in Pinnacles National Monument. As anyone who's been to the park knows, these caves have been closed for over four years. The book's cover claims it's been updated, but, given this glaring error, it's likely that there are other hikes for which it's best to independently verify the information. Second, there are many places in California that the authors skip over. For example, there are no hikes listed in the Dome Land Wilderness in the Southern Sierra, except for the section of the Pacific Crest Trail that goes there. Third, while the book does list hikes across the state, it doesn't have any trail maps. While I know that adding trail maps would make the book much longer, it would also make it more useful. As it is, some of the trail maps are very hard to get a hold of. So, while still worth buying for its coverage of hikes across the state, this book could have been much better.
Rating:
Summary: great hiking guide
Review: This is the ultimate guide for California hiking! The descriptions were concise and provided all the information I needed to pick a hike that suited my needs. If you have room for one hiking guide- this is it.
Rating: 
Summary: Carefully consider the book's scope
Review: This review speaks only for the book's format and NOT for the accuracy of its information.
Good Points
· Indexes more than 1,000 hikes covering all of California. Provides a good overview of trails in any area you may be visiting while still being small enough to carry in a day pack
· Has a rating scheme for both the difficulty and scenic quality of each hike. If you agree with the authors' opinions, this scheme allows you to concentrate on the "best" hikes given limited time in an area
· Has a "Best Hikes" summary that lists the choice trail picks given hiker-desired categories (such as waterfalls, wildflowers, views, for kids)
· Easily understood writing style that gives the high points (and cautions) for each trail
Weak Points
· No trail maps or trail profiles. Of course, adding a trail map for each of 1,000 trails would add another 1,000 pages. But general area access maps would have been nice and wouldn't have added that much bulk
· Not all-inclusive. It you want a complete listing of all the trails in a specific area, you should buy a guide specifically for that area
· Not current. Of course, when the scope is 1,000 trails, you can't expect each trail description to be updated every year
· No naturalist guide. This book is strictly for trail info
· No GPS waypoint info. Many of us now have handheld GPS receivers and want waypoints for trailheads, trail intersections, and scenic points as a minimum requirement
Summary: If you buy into its rating scheme, this book is one of two you should own if generally investigating California regions for hiking potential. The second book should narrowly focus on the area and include the trail maps and naturalist info that this book lacks.
Rating:
Summary: Rating very accurate and reliable!
Review: Too bad this guide is not available for other regions. When traveling into Northern California I found the hiking scale for difficulty & view to be very accurate. I really appreciated the User Group section, which let me know where I could take my dogs (they like to hike too). Excellent guide & I hope more are to be coming.
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