Hiking Mount Hood National Forest

by Marcia Sinclair

Book Overview

More than just a hiking guide, this full-color book is filled with facts, stories, and tidbits to give a deeper understanding of this majestic place; this understanding will deepen the hiker's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1571882715
• ISBN13: 9781571882714
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Frank Amato Publications
• Length: 143 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Not a stand-alone guide

This is a very interesting book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go into more depth about the natural and cultural history of the region for each hike. It is quite lacking as a stand-alone hiking guide as it doesn't even give the length of the trails, the key points to watch for at junctions, the elevation gain, etc., which is essential knowledge if you are going to rely on a book for your hike. For example, her entry for the Clackmas River Trail hike goes on for 2 pages about the history and sad fate of the Clackamas tribe. This is information I really did want to know, and could never have gotten without doing some research on it. Here it is put beautifully into the context of the trail. She also has excellent photographs of the features seen on each hike so the hikes are better illustrated that any other books covering the region. There are some editing problems, such as the use of the term "ancesters" when she really meant "descendants." I'm not sure why she didn't include some more basic information about each hike. It would have only taken another paragraph or so to give the distance, elevation gain, etc. I recommend this book to those who share my interest in the history of the areas.

A Guide that Dares to be Different!

The previous review of this book hits on an important disclaimer: this is not a traditional hiking guide, with the usual trail maps and route descriptions. A quick flip through the pages makes that point obvious. But there are many such books to be found, and I would point to Doug Lorain's excellent "Afoot & Afield Portland/Vancouver" and William Sullivan's "100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington" as the definitive trail guides to the Mount Hood area. Or, you can simply go to the free online guide at PortlandHikers.org for trail descriptions. Marcia Sinclair's book dares to be different. It's a terrific addition to your hiking library if you count Mount Hood and the vast Clackamas River country among your favored stomping grounds. The production quality of the book is lush, with dozens of color photos, and several fascinating historic images. Each of the featured destinations is described with great attention to what you will see, hear and feel along these trails, instead of a conventional trail log. In this way, the book is a good complement to more traditional guides, which rarely give this depth of interpretive understanding of the forest environs. The author draws from her unique experience as a former Forest Service worker to provide historical and natural history details that are otherwise undocumented for the Mount Hood area. I would have given this book five stars for it's uniqueness and overall quality, except that Frank Amato Publications allowed for some uneven editing, including several inverted photographs. But don't let these minor oversights prevent you from picking up a copy -- it's an excellent, well-written work that you'll enjoy reading!