Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon and Washington [Paperback]

Jeffrey P. Schaffer (Author), Andy Selters (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pacific Crest Trail | Publication Date: November 4, 2004

Stretching over 2600 miles from the Mexican to the Canadian border, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) passes through some of the most breathtaking scenery in the U.S. Each year hundreds of hikers attempt to complete the entire trail while thousands of others take it in smaller sections. Designed for thru hikers, section hikers, and day hikers it describes the official route, occasional alternate routes, side trips, and resupply points. The new edition contains a 9-page update, including the rerouted portion of the trail in Washington between Indian Pass and Miners Creek. Winner of the Classic Award in the 2008 National Outdoor Book Awards.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Whether you're planning to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail through Oregon and Washington, or just a section or two, this is an essential guide to the sometimes complicated logistics and navigation of a long-distance expedition. The beginning chapters provide planning basics: post-office addresses for mailing food and supplies, suggestions on when to hike which sections and what to bring, and an introduction to the geology, flora, and fauna of the region. But the heart of the guide comprises 12 chapters of trail specifics between Highway 96 in northern California and Highway 3 in British Columbia. Each section begins and ends at a highway--often at or near a town, resort, or park. Chapters contain topographic maps, prehike information (attractions to be on the lookout for, declination settings, elevation and mileage points, permit regulations, and availability of supplies), along with detailed information on navigating your way along the trail. So if you're packing up your rucksack for a modest PCT excursion or the full-bore trek, this is one item you can't afford to leave out. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Book News

Accurate descriptions and maps of the famous trail. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Wilderness Press; Seventh Edition edition (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899973752
• ISBN-13: 978-0899973753
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars user-friendly, highly practical while hiking, July 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon and Washington (Paperback)

I used this guide to hike the Oregon section of the PCT in 1993 and found it very user-friendly, highly practical while on the trail and full of interesting background information. Among the most important aspect of the guide for me was the quality and reliability of the topographic maps, thoughtfully place by the Publishers so I could take the pages out and use them in a waterproof cover for each stage as I walked it. The hints on water supplies and campsites were essential and I was able to plan my route, timings, food drops and campsites for the entire trail; this was especially important for me as my budget and time free were limited. As far as I remember, the only thing that was incorrect was that there was no longer a bus from Bridge of the Gods into Portland. Not bad. I would recommend this guide to anybody planning to hike the PCT.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not great, but the best there is, September 30, 2003

By 

Edmond Meinfelder (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon-Washington (Paperback)

I through-hiked the PCT in 2002 and like the vast of majority of other hikers, used this guide to navigate my way through Oregon and Washington. Though this book is the source for the data points found in the PCT Data Book, you'd never suspect such a succinct, useful guide like the Data Book could from such a disorganized mess as the PCT: Oregon-Washington guide book.

The principal problem with this book is organization. The book, like it's companion guides for California, are organized into reasonable sections starting and stopping at well-used re-supply points (or end points for section hikers). The problem is each section contains a mixture of editorial and trail-following instructions in the main body of text. So, when you are lost and the need the guide the most, you must re-trace the trail guide instructions while editing out long editorial comments (frequently commenting on where the trail should have gone, but did not) and this frustrates. Why weren't the trail following instructions separated?

This edition did try to make strides forward in readibility by using icons to denote when the text is talking about water access or re-supply. Though this allows you to skim ahead for where water is (useful!), placing such information in sidebars of the trail following instructions would have been best. Again, the current placement of the re-supply and water information fragments the trail follow tips.

On the plus side, when the authors are not complaining about where the trail should have gone, there is a wealth of information on a variety of topics (e.g. geology, botany, biology, politics and the trail among other topics) all of which help you to enjoy the trail more. Sadly, though, each topic is also interspersed with the main body text. Again making the trail following instructions hard to read as the text changes gears from "how to follow the trail" to "PCT story-time."

Unfortunately, the maps are not 100% accurate. A few of the maps suffer printing errors. On these maps, the trails - which are overlaid on old, out-of-date USGS maps - are placed incorrectly. Switchbacks not going with the grades of the landscape easily identify these maps or perhaps you?ll come a trail junction before a river, when the maps show the junction after the river. Also, the trail is disastrously colored blue, making it hard to distinguish from the all the streams and rivers (also in blue).

That said, these trail guides are the best there is for the PCT, but they are far from perfect.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 2006 update available, September 14, 2008

By 

C. Kaul (MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon and Washington (Paperback)

I have not hiked the PCT yet, but plan too. My only complaint with this entire series is that the maps do not have GPS markers on the maps; I believe the PCT Atlas series does this.

Anyways the point of the post is to indicate that Wilderness Press has 2 PDF files available which provide updates/erratas to this book as of 2006. The "Search for 'PCT'" method does not work, but if you contact them they will email the PDFs to you.