Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula

Rating:
Summary: A good guide, compliments Wood's book
Review: Although I wouldn't call this the best Olympics hiking guide (that would be by Robert Wood), this book is excellent and not especially redundant with the Wood's book. Author writes well and with good humor, making for nice reading. One very noteworthy thing about this book is text devoted to off-trail hiking and a number of death-march hikes of 20+ miles.

Rating:
Summary: A good guide, compliments Wood's book
Review: Although I wouldn't call this the best Olympics hiking guide (that would be by Robert Wood), this book is excellent and not especially redundant with the Wood's book. Author writes well and with good humor, making for nice reading. One very noteworthy thing about this book is text devoted to off-trail hiking and a number of death-march hikes of 20+ miles.

Rating:
Summary: What planet does Seabury Blair live on?
Review: Although well written and generally humorous, the hikes described in this book are often not day hikes, or barely on this side of being day hikes. It seems Mr. Blair doesn't include looking at flowers, trees, animals, views, etc. on hikes, but instead sprints as fast as possible from point to point. A hike estimated at a "conservative" 7 hours took a triathlete and a disance runner NINE HOURS to complete. One hike he describes as a day hike (High Divide) is described in EVERY OTHER book as a 2-4 day hike. Fast and light is one thing, but Seabury Blair is living in a fantasy land. Be forewarned: unless you are a VERY strong hiker who doesn't enjoy hiking for reasons other than for a good workout, this book downplays the difficulty and potential seriousness of these hikes. I strongly suggest a book such as Wood's "Olympic Mountains Trail Guide." Don't waste your money on this one.

Rating:
Summary: At first I wasn't sure...
Review: But I've come to like the book. I was very impressed by the North Cascades book in the DayHike! series, so I bought the Olympics one. The author does have a very good sense of humor, and understands the whining that accompinies 3,000 ft elv gains! I was a little disapointed that some of my favorite hikes were not included(oh well, then I won't have to share them!) in the Eastern Olympics and that I found a few errors-such as when bridges fell in,and some of the FS road directions could be better-with this book if you don't know the NF rd system, a FS rd map is a wise investment!. Still, it is a nice addition to your library-and it won't drag your pack down like Wood's book. And his love of hiking is very noticeable :)

Rating:
Summary: The only way to day hike the Mount Olympic Peninsula!
Review: I purchased another book about hiking Mount Olympic, which was good but not really what we needed since we were doing all of our hiking as day hikes. If you don't buy this book and you plan to day hike Mount Olympic you will surely be wasting your time. You will spend most of your time on trails that were designed for backpackers. I know that you may not understand this comment but, if like us you backpack and day hike most of the time, you will understand the comment. Most of the trails in Mount Olympic are very long trails. The are not loop trails and some are 40-50 mile long through hiking trails. A day hiker cannot possibly cover 80% of these trails on a day hike. This book gives you just what you will need to make a decision on which trails to hike. It gives you a difficulty rating along with a beauty rating of 1-5 backpackers, meaning 5 is the best. I found these ratings to be very accurate discriptions of the beauty. Also it tells you each trails elevation gains. Which is very essential to this Floridian. You may have mountain goat legs but I don't. The ratings of easy to extremely difficult make for easy decisions. My son's who are late teenagers always choose the more difficult trails where my wife and I tend to choose the easier trails. This park is very diverse and without this book we could have wasted lots of times driving. Instead we spent our time just where we wanted to go. Happy hiking!!! The trip was worth it.

Rating:
Summary: The Author Should Put On Hiking Boots
Review: It was obvious from the first trail we picked from this book that the author had not even viewed the trailhead from inside his car let alone set foot on the trails. Simple things like finding the trailhead were confusing, and downright wrong in some instances. Descriptions of trail landmarks and crossings were confusing, wrong, or nonexistant. This book is likely a compilation of very old trail descriptions that were not truthed now or in the first place. Best check in at the visitor center befor venturing off with ths unreliable trail guide.

Rating:
Summary: Best read
Review: Most hiking guides are pretty dry, but this one is entertaining and fun to read. It's only been on the shelf for about a week, which obviously is not enough time to take all 70 of the hikes listed in this book.
But I have read about all of the hikes and the writing style of this book makes the " talk" almost as nice as the "walk." There's a trail for just about every taste and every ability, from beginner to hardcore hiker.
A real plus are the maps. They are topos, so they show the kind of terrain you'll be hiking, and the trail and direction of travel is clearly shown. There's also an elevation profile for each hike.
Another feature I liked are the little capsules of each hike, right at the top of the description, so you don't have to scour through a bunch of stuff to find out whether you'll like the hike.
I've got all the Olympic Peninsula hiking books, but this is the best one I've seen so far.

Rating:
Summary: Trustworthy
Review: Not sure what problem one of the previous reviewers had with getting herself lost on the way to a trailhead, but her criticisms are completely off base. A LOT of longtime Olympics trail veterans know the author personally, because he's spent the better part of his life on these trails, and is undoubtedly better equipped to decribe them than someone from say...oh, Kansas. Based on our own extensive local knowledge, we can attest that this book is a worthy survey of some of the nation's greatest day-hiking lands, by one of the region's acknowledged local experts.

Rating:
Summary: Great guide
Review: Not the best Olympics hiking book out there (that would be the bible written by Woods), but this one definitely gives some great ideas for dayhiking, and is an excellent supplement to Woods. Like the other reviewer said, this book is a pleasure to read, very funny and nice descriptions. One excellent feature is descriptions of off-trail hikes, some well-known, others not. In addition, the author proposes and dscribes a number of death-march hikes of 20+ miles. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Great guide
Review: Not the best Olympics hiking book out there (that would be the bible written by Woods), but this one definitely gives some great ideas for dayhiking, and is an excellent supplement to Woods. Like the other reviewer said, this book is a pleasure to read, very funny and nice descriptions. One excellent feature is descriptions of off-trail hikes, some well-known, others not. In addition, the author proposes and dscribes a number of death-march hikes of 20+ miles. Highly recommended.