Olympic Mountains Trail Guide: National Park & National Forest 3rd Edition | 
| Author: Robert L. Wood
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $12.09
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 51587
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3rd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 350
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0898866189
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.97940444
EAN: 9780898866186
ASIN: 0898866189
Publication Date: May 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Amazon.com
Whether you're planning an actual trip to the Olympic Mountains or searching for the vicarious thrills of a smart guidebook, Robert L. Wood's encyclopedic knowledge of this enchanting wilderness at the edge of the Pacific will inform and enthrall. This is not a quickie job: the author has hiked every one of the trails he details here (over a hundred) backwards and forwards, most of them more than once, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Before you know it you'll be an expert too--rattling off, for instance, peaks visible from Dodger Point (Rainier, Olympus, the Bailey Range), and the name for the "noisy chatter" along the Putvin Trail (Whitehorse Creek). Divided into two main sections--Leeward and Windward--this handy guide covers the bulk of national forest and parklands worth venturing into. Concise yet thorough, it includes all the necessities--elevation, mileage, maps, landmarks, vegetation, and possible wildlife sightings--in an easy-to-read format. A must for the would-be visitor and armchair adventurer both.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Useless for me September 10, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a day hiker going to the Olympics for the first time I found the book rather useless and much inferior to a day hiking book a friend brought (Day Hiking, Olympic Penisula). It is of little help in choosing which trail to do, it has poor to non-existent maps and does not give elevation change data. It is exhaustive on the mountain trails (including abandoned trails), but it does not include beach hikes, only mountain trails.
 The best June 11, 2007
This is the best and most informative trail guide to the Olympic Mountains. Bob Wood has hiked most of these trails himself and he has written book on the history of Olympic National Park. This book contains information you will not find anywhere else. Sadly Bob Wood has passed away and this book is getting a bit dated.
 Not a "normal" guide book September 21, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you like Falcon type guide books, you probably won't care for this book. Trail descriptions don't offer elevation gain, they don't tell you what the trail has to offer (great views, low traffic, bears, et cetera), descriptions are not well organized, and the book does not offer descriptions of how you might link say several trails together to provide a loop - in other guide books you might hike the Seven Lakes Basin Loop, while in this book you have to find each individual trail description and connect them for yourself. Really, this offers little more than what you can find from just using your topo - of course a topo offers more info than you find here. For me, it defeats the purpose of guide book - which I use to guide me toward the trail I want to take QUICKLY - what's the elevation gain, what does this trail offer, what time of year is best, trail tips, et cetera. This book somehow manages to avoid all of this and still be very dense with information and convey the information in a very disorganized fashion. In addition, when hiking the Seven Lakes Loop, my topo AND the park map both listed trail names differently than how this book listed them - possibly an error in the book and possibly just outdated information.
Get this book only after you have spent some time in the Olympics, gotten a good feel for things, and want a resource to complement your own personal exploration of this glorious region. This is not a book you get as an intro to the Olympics and MUST be used with a topo.
Many hikes, but missing key information February 14, 2005
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
First, please note that I have purchased this book but have not yet truly used it (i.e., I haven't yet actually gone to the Olympics). My purpose in purchasing it was to try to get a sense for the hiking options in the area compared to other national park destinations.
I bought two Olympic hiking guides in addition to this one: "Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula" by S. Blair and "Hiking Olympic National Park" By E. Molvar.
Compared to those two books, this one certainly includes a larger number of hikes. To my mind, however, it misses two critical pieces of information. First, no guidance is provided as to the likely degree of difficulty, either in terms of elevation gain/loss or in terms of the author's opinion (e.g., moderate, strenuous, etc.). This makes it much harder to choose hikes that are likely to be within our comfort zone-- especially on days when the knees are feeling sore!
Second, I find the author's descriptions of the hikes to be very clinical and not that helpful in terms of helping me prioritize where to go. I want to know which hikes have outstanding mountain views, or delicious woodsy spots versus long slogs through forested areas with little to appreciate. There is no ranking or rating scheme for this, and it's a bit much to ask a reader to slog through detailed (and often somewhat clinical) descriptions of the 177 hikes mentioned to try to get a sense of that.
I think this book could be useful as a reference-- if one already has a pretty good idea of where to go. But it's not the best in terms of prioritizing how to spend your time. To that end, the "Day Hike!" book by Blair is better, although it includes only about 70 hikes.
Do yourself a favor... September 2, 2004
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
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.
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