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Foghorn Outdoors Pacific Northwest Hiking: The Complete Guide to More Than 1,000 of the Hikes in Washington and Oregon (Foghorn Outdoors Series)

Foghorn Outdoors Pacific Northwest Hiking: The Complete Guide to More Than 1,000 of the Hikes in Washington and Oregon (Foghorn Outdoors Series)

List Price: $21.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Trusted source, and a bargain
Review: Complete, accurate, comprehensive, and entertaining, to boot. Amazing inventory of trails for the money. Maps are only so-so, but functional. BTW: The review below is a joke: Most people would give up on an "unreliable" guidebook after about five hikes and skip the other 95.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Do not rely on this as a guide.
Review: I have attempted to do more than 100 hikes in this book -- 90% in Oregon. At least 30% of the trails do not exist or the driving directions were so poor you could not find the trailhead -- and some you simply could not get to in a standard vehicle. The descriptions were not accurate. It seems like the author wrote by using maps, not by visiting the trails. I ended up using a few of the pages to start a fire on one of the hikes. That was the best use I got out of the guide.

Some information was reasonable.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Trusted source, and a bargain
Review: I love this book. I've been in the Pacific NW for 3 years and have been impressed with all the hikes I've chosen in this book. It catalogs the hikes by location, so you can easily narrow down your list of choices based on how far you want to drive or what region you want to drive to. It also has a rating system for each hike, one for difficulty and the other for scenery. I've found both to be reasonably accurate. This is THE book to get if you want a comprehensive guide to hiking in the Pacific NW.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Hiker's Bible
Review: I love this book. I've been in the Pacific NW for 3 years and have been impressed with all the hikes I've chosen in this book. It catalogs the hikes by location, so you can easily narrow down your list of choices based on how far you want to drive or what region you want to drive to. It also has a rating system for each hike, one for difficulty and the other for scenery. I've found both to be reasonably accurate. This is THE book to get if you want a comprehensive guide to hiking in the Pacific NW.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good overview, predictable flaws
Review: Never had any problems with directions myself. I have come across a few trails in this guide that are hard to get to -- sometimes impossible. Reason: There are *1100 trails* in it. This is both the strength and weakness of these all-in-one gides. Some trails are bound to be washed out or in ill repair at any given time. That's why all the Foghorn books suggest -- in fact, urge -- that you call the contact number before you go. Prudent advice. No guide can be updated every 15 minutes. Anyone who's not a complete wilderness neophyte knows that. For me, the most frustrating thing about the book is the map grid system, which doesn't make much sense. But overall, it's a good NW trail inventory with a good index. Great for quick reference -- and contact info to check on the trail. Anybody who needs a search party on a road should consider staying home.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good overview, predictable flaws
Review: The previous review states that another recent review of the book by Reader From Lake Oswego must be a joke. However, I must agree with RLO. I have attempted 20 plus hikes using this book as a guide and found that several of the reviewed trails don't actually exist or that the driving directions are so incorrect that they are impossible to find. It is obvious that a number of the trails were not even visited by the authors - if they had been, they surely would not have made it into publication. For example, after spending hours searching for Bobsled Trail in the Umatilla National Forest I finally found an old weather beaten sign in the brush and the faint remains of a trail that had clearly not been used in a decade. Also following the book's "directions", I spent hours searching for Ninetop Trail in the Umatilla Heppner Ranger District. Not only did the trail not exist, but my SUV got stuck forcing me to walk seven miles to the nearest maintained road to obtain help. This could have been very dangerous situation for someone with a lack of supplies or outdoor knowledge. As a result, I have taken the previous reviewers advice and given up on this guidebook. If you decided to utilize the book, the pages may be used to build a fire (as Reader in Lake Oswego suggests). However I recommend saving them to spell out HELP on the ground to alert the rescue plane that will be searching for you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I got lost
Review: The previous review states that another recent review of the book by Reader From Lake Oswego must be a joke. However, I must agree with RLO. I have attempted 20 plus hikes using this book as a guide and found that several of the reviewed trails don't actually exist or that the driving directions are so incorrect that they are impossible to find. It is obvious that a number of the trails were not even visited by the authors - if they had been, they surely would not have made it into publication. For example, after spending hours searching for Bobsled Trail in the Umatilla National Forest I finally found an old weather beaten sign in the brush and the faint remains of a trail that had clearly not been used in a decade. Also following the book's "directions", I spent hours searching for Ninetop Trail in the Umatilla Heppner Ranger District. Not only did the trail not exist, but my SUV got stuck forcing me to walk seven miles to the nearest maintained road to obtain help. This could have been very dangerous situation for someone with a lack of supplies or outdoor knowledge. As a result, I have taken the previous reviewers advice and given up on this guidebook. If you decided to utilize the book, the pages may be used to build a fire (as Reader in Lake Oswego suggests). However I recommend saving them to spell out HELP on the ground to alert the rescue plane that will be searching for you.


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