Customer Reviews

Foghorn Outdoors California Hiking: The Complete Guide to More Than 1,000 Hikes

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Writing a hiking guide for the whole state of California is quite an ambitious task. By and large Ann Marie Brown and Tom Stienstra have succeeded. Over the course of 16 chapters, each covering a broad geographical region of the state, they have provided lists of the best hikes in almost any area that one could visit in California. They also provide nice maps of each region they survey showing the approximate location of each trailhead. For those who like exploring in the golden state, this is an excellent book. I have personally hiked over 200 trails in this book and enjoyed almost every one. I look forward to using this book in the future as well.

Having said that, a few caveats are in order. First, the book does not list "over 1000" hikes. Earlier editions did, but many trails have been dropped from this edition. Gone is the Amos Alonzo Stagg tree, a nice walk to the 7th largest sequoia. Trips to Peppermint Creek and Nobe Young Falls are also absent. Some of these hikes have been replaced by others, but on the whole there are fewer trails listed than in previous editions. Second, the book has a strong bias towards Northern California. Not surprisingly, both authors happen to live there now. Of the 964 hikes in this guide, only 317 are south of the Monterey area. I could add numerous trails from the San Bernardino Mountains alone to this book. Finally, you should not expect trail maps in a book of this scope. The authors do, however, tell you where to obtain maps for each trail listed.

These caveats aside, you should purchase this book. It is a great introduction to hiking in California. Once you begin exploring trails in any region you will undoubtably find others to entice you. Happy trails.

Even in the age of the Internet, these is no other resource as comprehensive and user-friendly as the Foghorn Outdoors California Hiking guide. In fact, this resource transcends the paper-and-ink category by incorporating indexes and cross-references that beat hyper-links any day. The book is prefaced with a California state map broken out into grids. Chapters of the book correspond to grid locations, and each chapter opens with an expanded map of the grid at hand. If, for example, you were looking at the Lancaster/Palmdale area in Chapter/Grid, and you noted that your area of interest was just north of this particular map, you follow the North arrow out of the map, which points the reader to page 596. If you want general areas for perusal, you can turn to the sections that comprise Northern California, Central California, or Southern California areas. If you know your geographic region of interest, it is a snap to locate it on the main state map and find the corresponding chapter. For those following the Pacific Crest Trail, a special index and symbol tracks the hikes which make up the overall trail, and guidance is provided about the general direction (south to north) that the trail is hiked.

If you have a specific interest and no geographic requirements, there are guides to the best hikes for waterfalls, swimming holes, wild flowers, [...]-kicking workouts, beach walks, redwoods, short backpack trips, and for hiking with children. The index calls out even more categories, such as trails for bear-watching, for interesting geology, or for short hikes.

Within each chapter, trails are listed by either official or informal title, followed by the trail-mileage and round trip time to complete. I've found the authors err on the generous side for the hike time, but all estimates are reasonable when compared to other guides and resources. Trail time ranges from a matter of hours to several days. Two icons appear in the header information for each trail--a sneaker indicating difficulty and a river indicating the overall rating. The sneaker scale ranges from "a stroll" ranking of 1 to "a real [...]-kicker" ranking of 5, and it's a terrific way to skim the book for hikes of interest based on ability level. The second icon ranks each trail "overall," on a scale from 1 to 10, involving factors such as scenic beauty and lack of crowds. This second scale is less useful and more ambiguous. The lowest rating I found throughout the whole book was 6. Most were 8, 9, or 10. I felt that rating flat desert loops at 8, when the famed Mount Baden Powell is a 10, doesn't portray the disparity between these two trails. My only explanation is that these authors like hiking so much that they just couldn't give any experience a less-than-positive rating!

My biggest praise for the book is that the authors have personally experienced each one of these 1,000+ trails, so they can provide invaluable insight about parking, avoiding making wrong turns, the optimal time of year to visit, and alternate routes to the same vista point. All trails have info about which user groups are permitted (hikers, bikers, dogs, horses, mountain bikes, wheelchairs) and cost information. Each entry also references the USGS topographic map which covers the area, as well as additional maps from other sources.

You might be tempted to by a thinner volume that focuses on a specific region of The Golden State. I'd urge you to invest wisely in this guide. Different authors divy up the state in different ways, and "central" is a nebulous term. I'm a Southern CA resident, but many of the Central and Northern sites are well within reason for a day's drive for a weekend camping/hiking trip. This is one book no hiker should be without. We've loaned out copy to dozens of friends as reference material.

My main problem with this hiking book is how it is crafted and its purpose. I grew up in a town along the coast and have spent my whole life hiking in southern California. The southern hikes listed in Foghorn Outdoors California Hiking are full of holes and what's really puzzling - - - missing maps. Forget about taking it along on the hike, it's as heavy as a bottle of water, and who wants to tear out pages.

I ordered this book, used it, and I had to return it. Imagine you work for big guidebook company (Foghorn Outdoors) and your boss gives you, say 3 months, to write an 800 page book with a stupid gimmick like it has "1000 Hikes of California"

You would write a book like this.

You would only have time to hike a tiny fraction of the hikes you're writing about. The majority of the write-ups on each hike won't contain any specific insights (beyond those lifted from other guide books), and most or all entries are flawed by: 1) no geographic features listed to guide you how to find and stay on specific trails; 2) GPS coordinates missing. 3) Usually NO listing of total or cumulative vertical feet of elevation gained/lost. 4) Mtns with multiple great approaches often have only one approach listed. 5) The maps are really no better than most state highway maps. There are basically no zoomed in maps of specific areas, showing trail paths. 6) this book is filled with BORING uninspired writing. It was written in "factory mode."

As a final example, could it really be possible this 800-page book omits a description of the one of CA's most classic test-of-will-and-strength hikes (10,500 ft of elevation gain!), the Cactus-to-Clouds hike of Mt. San Jacinto????

I suggest a look a Jerry Schad's books. He does a good job in getting you to the trailhead with the least amount of hassle. His descriptions are very accurate of trailheads, trail geographic features to help you find the trailhead and stay on the trail. These Schad guides are obviously written by a guy who has climbed the hikes he writes about!

As for me, I live in San Diego, and I love to hike in CA with my wife.

This book opens up all of California to you as a hiker. It is great to take on trips (whether you are staying in a tent or a hotel) and great to page through planning the next adventure. It is not the only hiking book you will ever need, but it is a wonderful resource. I have owned many editions of this book and of California Camping by the same author and publisher. It is helpful to have a good Auto Club map to get to the trailheads and campsites.

I've taken my family and hiked a few trails around the Lake Tahoe area, and the directions and ratings provided in the book were very accurate. The best part for me was that I would not have known of these beautiful trails without this book.

While the book does not cover every trail in every area, it is a good resource for traveling around the state to many different areas. There are more detailed books for a certain area, but if you need a book that covers the state, this is a great resource. We traveled all over N Cal. with kids in the summer with some unexpected changes in route. We seemed to always find a nice hike in this book and a good campground in its companion book (Campgrounds of California?).

This is a great book and if you're a pure hiker it's a perfert 5 stars but i'd love to know where campgrounds are as well. If it had types of campgrounds locally to the trail it would be amazing.

Not to mention though that the commentary is well written and sometimes pretty funny.

I really like how the hikes are each rated for difficulty and overall quality. I realize these are subjective, and I have found myself from time to time disagreeing with the ratings on hike quality a little, but in general I couldn't ask for better on that count. I would love to see a No. Calif.-only version, just to increase the number of hike listings in that region.

I love this book! Details on hiking trails are mostly accurate except for the increase fees in Parking. Very helpful!