East Bay Trails: Outdoor Adventures in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties

Rating:
Summary: This is an ok hiking book - not my favorite
Review: As far as Bay Area hiking books go, this is the best one I have for the East Bay. However, it is not my *favorite* hiking book. There are a lot of parks & trails that you just won't find in regular Bay Area hiking books. I like that. BUT, I found the trail descriptions long winded & sometimes confusing. What I often do with hikes from this book is find the park & get a real map to sort out my route before I leave my car. Then I leave the book in the car. I just use it as a sort of pre-hike guideline for mileage & scenery, etc.

Rating:
Summary: This is an ok hiking book - not my favorite
Review: As far as Bay Area hiking books go, this is the best one I have for the East Bay. However, it is not my *favorite* hiking book. There are a lot of parks & trails that you just won't find in regular Bay Area hiking books. I like that. BUT, I found the trail descriptions long winded & sometimes confusing. What I often do with hikes from this book is find the park & get a real map to sort out my route before I leave my car. Then I leave the book in the car. I just use it as a sort of pre-hike guideline for mileage & scenery, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Really useful
Review: I'm glad I picked this up. It got me motivated to get out and enjoy the stunning beauty of the East Bay. The book has only a general description of the plant and animal life you would expect to see, so if you're into that you may want to bring an Audubon guide along for more detail. I only wish he was more descriptive about the steepness of some of these trails!

Rating:
Summary: This is an ok hiking book - not my favorite
Review: I'm really enjoying this book. I've been hiking in the east bay for long enough that I was in something of a rut and this book is really breaking me out of it. It has good coverage of the area, with one or two good trails per park instead of concentrating in any given area. The hikes are mostly loops, and the distances and difficulty measurements are more realistic than some of these books where the author seems to be trying to show how tough they are. The trail descriptions are actually interesting and there are nice maps, again unlike most hiking books.

Rating:
Summary: Really well done
Review: I'm really enjoying this book. I've been hiking in the east bay for long enough that I was in something of a rut and this book is really breaking me out of it. It has good coverage of the area, with one or two good trails per park instead of concentrating in any given area. The hikes are mostly loops, and the distances and difficulty measurements are more realistic than some of these books where the author seems to be trying to show how tough they are. The trail descriptions are actually interesting and there are nice maps, again unlike most hiking books.