Olympic Mountains Trail Guide: National Park & National Forest

Rating:
Summary: Enrich your Olympics Experience
Review: Really the best thing you can buy to maximize your enjoyment of these mountains. A wealth of practical advice on trails as well as enough "extra" to stimulate your interest in this area.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: Recentley, one of my older customers at my work gave me some old topo maps of the Olympic Pennisula-with Wood's book I was able to match up trails on the maps with waytrails in his book(trails that are no longer on the new topos). The history he writes about is fun to read and he is through with his descriptions of the NF trails, which many books ignore. I also love how he gives elevation at every trail junction, not just at the start & end. A definte must have book if you would like to hike in the Olympics.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Robert L. Wood is the recognized expert on the trails of the Olympic Mountains. I don't think a backpacker will find a better guide, but the real beauty of this book is Wood's descriptions of the trails, which can put even armchair hikers in the middle of the mountains.
I guess the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that the maps are terrible and you've got to buy a separate guide if you want to hike the beautiful, wild beaches of the Olympic Peninsula.
A very minor quibble, considering the fine, lyric writing, is the way the trails are organized. For example, many of the named trails don't begin at trailheads, but rather from junctions at other trails. Thus if you want to plan a short hike, you must make certain the named trail does not begin 15 miles up the path of another trail.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Robert L. Wood is the recognized expert on the trails of the Olympic Mountains. I don't think a backpacker will find a better guide, but the real beauty of this book is Wood's descriptions of the trails, which can put even armchair hikers in the middle of the mountains.
I guess the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that the maps are terrible and you've got to buy a separate guide if you want to hike the beautiful, wild beaches of the Olympic Peninsula.
A very minor quibble, considering the fine, lyric writing, is the way the trails are organized. For example, many of the named trails don't begin at trailheads, but rather from junctions at other trails. Thus if you want to plan a short hike, you must make certain the named trail does not begin 15 miles up the path of another trail.

Rating:
Summary: Consider this the Bible of hiking in the Olympic Mountains.
Review: This is not your average modern hiking guide with detailed maps, charts of elevation, photographs and how-to's with the discovery done for you, in advance. What Bob Wood has done is to write a scholarly book that happens to be a fine companion on a hike in the Olympic Mountains. It is common to find a hiker sitting near a rock at Marmot Lake, at Three Prune or Home Sweet Home or under a particularly unusual tree or flower paging through the book. It is quite common to over-hear a hiker saying, "Well, accoring to Bob Wood, the trail is easier whern you go north to south." Bob should know the Olympic Mountain trails because he has hiked over 1000 miles of them, in both directions at least one time and he makes extremely exact, if not scholarly, notes on flora and fauna, adds historical notes in just the right amount, adding caution, humor and some personal observations. But he keeps himself out of it and leaves the discovery to you. The true beauty of this book -- and you can call it a classic -- is that it lets the reader, or the hiker, discover the magic of LaCrosse Basin, Honeymoon Meadow and the thousands of bends in the hundreds of trails in this beautiful national park. You'll be enthralled reading this book at home in the winter as you will when you pull it out on the Skyline Trail to see where the Elk will cross the trail. It is factual, extremely helpful -- if not vital -- in the hands of the experienced hiker on a Bailey Range Traverse as it is in the hands of the day hiker, venturing out for the first time. Best of all, the Olympic Mountain Trail Guide does not take away the surprise and discovery of putting on the boots, lifting the pack and walking in some of the most beautiful country in the world.

Rating:
Summary: Consider this the Bible of hiking in the Olympic Mountains.
Review: This is not your average modern hiking guide with detailed maps, charts of elevation, photographs and how-to's with the discovery done for you, in advance. What Bob Wood has done is to write a scholarly book that happens to be a fine companion on a hike in the Olympic Mountains. It is common to find a hiker sitting near a rock at Marmot Lake, at Three Prune or Home Sweet Home or under a particularly unusual tree or flower paging through the book. It is quite common to over-hear a hiker saying, "Well, accoring to Bob Wood, the trail is easier whern you go north to south." Bob should know the Olympic Mountain trails because he has hiked over 1000 miles of them, in both directions at least one time and he makes extremely exact, if not scholarly, notes on flora and fauna, adds historical notes in just the right amount, adding caution, humor and some personal observations. But he keeps himself out of it and leaves the discovery to you. The true beauty of this book -- and you can call it a classic -- is that it lets the reader, or the hiker, discover the magic of LaCrosse Basin, Honeymoon Meadow and the thousands of bends in the hundreds of trails in this beautiful national park. You'll be enthralled reading this book at home in the winter as you will when you pull it out on the Skyline Trail to see where the Elk will cross the trail. It is factual, extremely helpful -- if not vital -- in the hands of the experienced hiker on a Bailey Range Traverse as it is in the hands of the day hiker, venturing out for the first time. Best of all, the Olympic Mountain Trail Guide does not take away the surprise and discovery of putting on the boots, lifting the pack and walking in some of the most beautiful country in the world.

Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a favor...
Review: We used the book to research our hikes before we arrived in the area. It helped us plan our route, time and stopover points. It gave a number of clues to things we didn't want to see as well. Couple of things you should know when using the book though. Trail descriptions don't always start at a trailhead so you might have a longer trip to get there than you think. Significant information is contained in the introduction to each of the sections and without it you will be confused by some of the trail information. But the biggest clue is this...don't try to use this book without a detailed map of the area. You will have lots of trouble finding trailheads if you use only the book. For example, Hike 133 tells you to take a specific FS road. However, there are two major forks that are not marked and without a map you'll have the opportunity to spend 3 hours driving each option like we did, on some "interesting" logging roads. You can get the maps at local stores like the Merchantile in Lake Quinault. We are very happy that this book directed us to the South Fork Hoh Trail (Hike 162) which was outstanding. The trails from the visitor center are a disappointment after that great trail.