Day Hiking: Central Cascades

If you are a day hiker, I would recommend this book for your library. It is a great resource. Yes, you can look up the hikes on the internet, but the great thing about a book on the shelf is you can put your own notes in the margin. This book provided all of the information you need to prepare for the hike, as well as great directions to the trailhead. Craig Romano did an amazing job putting this book together.

I purchased this book to research some hikes on which to take my young son as we start backpacking together and have been thoroughly impressed. Mr. Romano definitely put a lot of research and attention into this book. There is a chart at the front giving an overview of the hikes with certain features noted in the table. Each hike has a small description of the hike, followed by a longer detailed description of the hike (including the the types of trees you encounter, the names of mountains you'll see on the horizon, etc). There is also a map for each hike and very detailed driving directions. I have seen different hiking books which don't have these kind of maps and it's difficult to picture the hike, these maps show the exact route and also have various symbols indicating camping sights, lookouts, wildflowers, etc. I was particularly glad to see that he shows campsites along the trail (even though this is a day hiking book) because we are interested in doing short backpacking trips and primitive camping along the trail. Also listed for each hike is a description of distance, elevation gain, etc. One feature I really appreciate is a graph for each hike which shows distance in miles on the x axis and elevation on the y axis for that particular hike. This way you can visualize the progression of the hike and how difficult it might be.Overall this book is very well done and detailed. It includes a wide range of hikes from easy, kid friendly hikes to lung-busting journeys for the most experienced. I plan on getting several other books by this author.

What I love about Romano's guides, and I have four of them, is that he has clearly hiked every hike he writes about. That means he's driven to the trailhead, too. That means the driving directions and trail tips are always spot on. Every hike has a little map, and every hike has a little legend as far as dificulty and distance, plus an elevation profile. There is a locator map at the front of the book, and there are a handful of color photos as well.This book makes you want to get out on the trail. These are my go to guidebooks now, I use in combination with some others but this is the one I carry in my pack and have on my nightstand, staring at me, pulling me... The one I thumb through all winter long, earmarking the pages... Getting ready for summer...This is a true hiker's guidebook.

I own several books from this series and consider them to be the best trail books on the market. Every description is clear and easy to understand, the driving directions are invariably correct, and the ways in which the author describes each hike is so evocative as to make you want to immediately run out and hit the trail. Each of these books also begins with a sizable introduction that lays out a lot of hiking guidelines that are as applicable for the expert as they are for the novice. If you live in or will be traveling to Washington and want to do some hiking close to Seattle this book on the Central Cascades is absolutely the one you want.

Good guide, very concise but gives lots of info on many, many trails. Best directions I’ve found for finding unfamiliar trails. Good information on difficulty, altitude changes, quality of trail, specific details that might not be expected, reasons you might find it interesting/or not. Generally positive.

I use this book along with other resources to plan out my trips. Some of the information is outdated and incorrect so be sure to cross reference with other sources.

I have some of the other Day Hiking books by Craig Romano and they are all excellent. I haven't done all of the hikes, of course, but the ones we picked from the book were all very truthfully described and the directions are very good. We always find the hikes we are looking for very easily. He provides a plethora of information on each hike, so you can easily determine if a hike is suitable for your abilities and expectations. Each hike comes with a small map and an elevation sketch, so it's easy to see what you're getting yourself into.

Very nice book. About half the size of a standard piece of paper, so it fits into a pack with ease. I have others from the same author, all are good! Nice to have options for long and short hikes. I like reading about hikes in books as they narrow the search compared to online searching. Maps and distances and time are all there. I can go online afterwards if more info is needed.