Customer Reviews

Foghorn Outdoors 101 Great Hikes of the San Francisco Bay Area

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

 

 

For advanced hikers this book misses the mark. I would have liked more detailed hiking descriptions and more off the beaten track destinations. Longer distance hikes are also needed in this book.

I'm not enamored by this hiking series. I think it could go into more trail detail. Some of the trail descriptions were real fuzzy and oftentimes wrong. An overall good map is sadly missing. Not a bad book but choose another if you're looking for accuracy.

I like the new cover but the contents are pretty much the same as previous editions. My advice is buy it used. The book could use more strenuous serious hikes.

I owned the first edition of this book (the one with the Golden Gate Bridge on the cover) and I just loved it. It completely changed the way I feel about living in the Bay Area. There are so many wonderful trails around here and this book takes you to the best of them. I just recently bought the second edition (the one with the red cover) to give to a friend, but I wound up keeping it for myself because I saw that the author added trail options for every single hike in the book, so now there are really 202 hikes in the book and not 101! I can't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who lives in the SF Bay Area.

Overall, this is a good hiking guide; I have been on two of the hikes since receiving the book a couple weeks ago and I find that the author's descriptions are spot on.

However, in my opinion, not enough attention is paid to people who plan to hike with their dogs. Only roughly 20% of the 101 recommended hikes allow dogs (not the author's fault, I realize), but there is insufficient detail regarding the trails that do allow dogs.

First, there is no comprehensive index of dog-friendly trails in the book; so, if you want to find a hike to do with Fido, you are left to skim all the hikes in your chosen area until you find one that allows dogs. Such a list could easily be included among the helpful "Best of.." lists which have been provided for, e.g., wildflower displays, redwood forests, waterfalls.

Second, even the hikes that are identified as allowing dogs by the dog icon appearing at the top of the hike's description are not necessarily entirely dog-friendly. In more than one instance, the author indicates broadly (with the icon by the hike name) that it is a dog-friendly hike, but then explains in her written description of the hike that only some portions of the recommended route allow dogs. Most frustrating, she does not specify which portions allow dogs / which do not.

I'll continue to enjoy this guide but I do consider it incomplete in that it requires me to do extra "homework" to determine exactly which parts of some suggested hikes will allow dogs.

The Bay Area has so much to offer and this author doesn't miss a beat when it comes to hiking. Fabulous hikes with varies degrees of difficulty in gorgeous locations. I love this book not only for its detail but also for the informational sidelines along the way. I feel like the author is hiking alongside me. It's the bomb!