Like Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style," "100 Classic Hikes in Washington" sat on the desks of many Seattleites of a certain age.
Following in the boot steps of Louise B. Marshall's seminal "100 Hikes in Western Washington" guide from 1966, the popular 1998 "Classic Hikes" collection by the late Ira Spring and Harvey Manning became a generation's introduction to the wilderness before Google became a verb.
Now, the publishers of Seattle-based Mountaineers Books have assigned one of their senior writers, Craig Romano, to give this classic a reboot. In his recently published "100 Classic Hikes Washington" (Mountaineers Books, $21.95), Romano replaced half of the previous "Classic" hikes with trails in parts of the state ignored in the 1998 guide, including Eastern and Central Washington, the Columbia Gorge and the islands.
Although "100 Classic Hikes" was assumed to be statewide, the early editions focused on the Cascades from Mount Rainier to the Canadian border, with a handful of Olympics and South Cascades hikes, Romano said.
The Mount Vernon, Wash., resident wanted a book that covered the entire state in all of its glory _ from the ocean beaches and rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the arid, desertlike features of the southeastern corner _ to say nothing of the mountains, alpine lakes and evergreens in between.
"I wanted this to be 100 Classic Hikes in Washington."
Below, in his own words, Romano describes 10 of his favorite hikes from the updated guide, listed in no particular order of preference.
