Hiking Vancouver Island: A Guide to Vancouver Island's Greatest Hiking Adventures [Paperback]

Shannon Cowan (Author), Lissa Cowan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2003 | Series: Regional Hiking Series

Outdoor enthusiasts Shannon and Lissa Cowan share their intimate knowledge of the best-loved hikes on Vancouver Island. Featuring more than 50 trails on Canada's west coast, this one-stop guide to hiking Vancouver Island takes hikers from the rugged wind-swept coast of Cape Scott Provincial Park to the urban wonder trails of Victoria's Galloping Goose to the ancient and silent forests of the island's interior. For the experienced backpacker or the novice day-tripper, Hiking Vancouver Island provides insider information to make the hiking trip informed and memorable, including GPS-quality maps, clear directions from major access points, up-to-date road information, photographs, highlights, summaries, regional tips, historical tidbits, and resource information.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Lace up your boots and sample more than fifty trails on Canada's beautiful west coast. From the rugged windswept shores of Cape Scott Provincial Park to the urban trails of Victoria's Galloping Goose and the ancient and silent forests of the island's interior, Hiking Vancouver Island has memorable routes to please hikers of every stripe. Outdoor explorers, writers, and sisters Shannon and Lissa Cowan describe more than fifty trails that vary in length, from easy one-hour outings ideal for children and beginning hikers to more challenging backpacking treks in the backcountry.
Inside you'll find: up-to-date trail information; clear directions from major access points; difficulty ratings for each hike; detailed trail maps; tips on navigation, equipment, first aid, and hiking with children.
Whether you are a day-tripper or long-distance hiker, old hand or novice, you'll find trails suited to every ability and interest throughout Vancouver Island.

About the Author

Shannon Cowan is a novelist and freelance writer who has published her first novel, Leaving Winter (Oolichan Books, 2000), and written for Canadian and U.S. periodicals.
Lissa Cowan is a writer, translator, and senior communications coordinator who has written for Canadian newspapers and periodicals, published translations from French, and written about Pacific forests.
Both have explored the far reaches of Vancouver Island on foot, bicycle, kayak, and canoe and share a sisterly interest in protecting the pristine areas of their island home.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: FalconGuides; 1st edition (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762723505
• ISBN-13: 978-0762723508
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #938,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Vancouver Island Hiking Trails, February 9, 2007

By 

Patrick Walshe "Patrick Walshe, Biologist, Na... (Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, http://www.coastalrevelations.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hiking Vancouver Island: A Guide to Vancouver Island's Greatest Hiking Adventures (Paperback)

I highly recommend this hiking trail guide book and I've been hiking and leading guided nature hiking tours of Vancouver Island for the last 12 years. The trails are a selection of the best ones for each area and not just some boring logging road. The descriptions are detailed, clear and accurate and the maps are great.

It's true that most hiking guides are outdated shortly after publication, (due to the time it takes to research and put out a book), but the maps and descriptions are still a valuable starting point. Roads, trail heads, landmarks, signs, and even street names can change. Avalanches, rock slides, river erosion, wind storms, clear cutting, forest fires and trail maintenance committments also can change over time. At the time of this review, this book and Hiking Trails (Volume One, Victoria and area) by the Vancouver Island Hiking Trails Society, are still the most recent books for Vancouver Island trails. The book also recommends checking with local trail authories for any changes and picking up recent detailed area maps from local tourist centers or forestry companies and provides map names where available. Park trails tend to be more stable and trail reports can be found on park websites (also provided).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars VERY out of date information--stay away, August 19, 2007

By 

Oona (arlington virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hiking Vancouver Island: A Guide to Vancouver Island's Greatest Hiking Adventures (Paperback)

In August 2007, I bought this book for my honeymoon in Vancouver Island. We hiked two of the hikes listed. One was completely impossible to locate based on the details given: completely incorrect street names (three incorrect street names). We ended up asking at a gas station and were given new street names to locate trailhead and different directions. The other hike was badly misrepresented, with trail names marked differently than the book indicated. A guidebook should guide the hiker; I personally think the author and publisher should be embarrassed to sell this title.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good resource, October 3, 2006

By 

amber (Austin TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hiking Vancouver Island: A Guide to Vancouver Island's Greatest Hiking Adventures (Paperback)

I found this guide book really helpful and i definitely recommend it for anyone wanting to do multiple hikes on the island. Enjoy your trip!