Day Hike! Central Cascades: The Best Trails You Can Hike in a Day [Paperback]

Mike McQuaide (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2005 | Series: Day Hike!

Sasquatch's Day Hike! guides are written for people who want to spend their days in the mountains and their nights back at home. The series uncovers the best trails for the newbie hiker or veteran day-tripper. Day Hike! Central Cascades leads readers through 70 of the best day hike trails selected specifically for day hiking in the Central Cascades, including Snoqualmie Pass, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and Stevens Pass. Each trail includes an overall rating, mileage and estimated hiking time, elevation gain, trail conditions, difficulty level, best season, map references, driving directions, exploring options, permits required, special notes on hiking with children and dogs, and references for finding more information. Sharp, contemporary black-and-white photos, a quick-reference chart of season and difficulty level, and hike statistics at a glance are also included. Organized by major highways and roads for easy trail finding, the book describes classic day routes—from the easy to the extreme—giving hikers the choices they want, whether visiting the Central Cascades for a day or vacationing with the children for a week.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Editorial Review from Amazon.com: "Most hiking guides are written by backpackers who occasionally day hike. But most people are day hikers who occasionally backpack! So Sasquatch Books has created a series from the ground up just for them. Written for --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books (April 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570614121
• ISBN-13: 978-1570614125
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,178,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent guide for the day hiker, September 29, 2008

By 

Adrian Solis (Bellevue, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Day Hike! Central Cascades, 2nd Edition: The Best Trails You Can Hike In a Day (Paperback)

I started hiking early this summer, and this book has been my constant guide. Green Trails offers map bundles that include a copy of this book, so I guess I'm not the only one who thinks it's pretty good.

Pros:

- The large geographical range of the book. It covers hikes as far north as Mount Pilchick, and south through the Steven's Pass area to the I-90 corridor and Snoqualmie Pass. It also has several trails in the Issaquah Alps and North Bend area, which is a treat for someone who lives in Bellevue like I do.

- The summary section provides good information about the hike. It covers pretty much everything you need to know: distance, elevation gain/max, difficulty, accessibility. The presentation is very clear, unlike some other guidebooks that bury this info either in a small box, or worse, a long rambling description. It even gives helpful notes like whether it's suitable for kids or dogs.

- The descriptions are well-written, just the right length, and the author's style is engaging. McQuaide's writing inspired me enough to attempt even some of the more difficult trails--I give him credit for my victory over Mailbox Peak!

- The book provides topo maps of the immediate area. As the other reviewer said, for a day hike there's not much need for a full topo map. [Although just to be prepared you might consider getting one; they are inexpensive.] Full topo maps can be large and bulky, but the smaller maps provided are perfect for minor orienting tasks.

Cons:

- The selection of hikes is not comprehensive, but rather give more of a general feel for the area's possibilities. If you want a fuller catalog, you might want to get a copy of Day Hiking: Snoqualmie Region (Done in a Day).

- The quoted hiking times can be way off sometimes, though for the most part they aren't bad. I realize that the time you take to hike a trail depends on your own ability and how much time you spend at your destination. But sometimes I finish in less time, sometimes I take longer--it's not consistent. Online guides (wta.org, attrition.ws, Getaways in the Seattle PI) are more helpful when judging how long a hike will take. (Trust me, I've gotten into major trouble when a supposedly 6-hour hike took more than 7 hours.)

All in all, this is a great guide. If you're thinking of hiking the wonderfuland that is the Central Cascades, I highly recommend that you get this book. Have fun!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource, February 20, 2009

By 

T. J. Morgenroth "Hiker wannabe" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Day Hike! Central Cascades, 2nd Edition: The Best Trails You Can Hike In a Day (Paperback)

This book has all the information I need to help my husband and I get out and enjoy the outdoors; hikes that are close by and not too strenuous. We can work our way up to the more difficult hikes when we are ready. We plan to get the Olympic hikes edition as well.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor maps and photos, March 8, 2008

By 

coe - See all my reviews

This review is from: Day Hike! Central Cascades: The Best Trails You Can Hike in a Day (Paperback)

This book is well written, but the maps are not the best. Also, some of the photos are blurry and could be much better. Its not a bad book and provides another point of view, but Beyond Mount Si: The Best Hikes Within 85 Miles of Seattle is a better book overall.

Normally the Day Hike! books are very good, but this one seems to need a revision with better photos and maps.