Two More Books Added to my Portland-Area Hiking Stack

This last weekend I drove downtown to my favorite retailer in the world, Powell's Books, to sell them some of the books I've recently read and no longer want to have occupy space on my shelves at home. I received roughly $15 in store credit and immediately bolted over to the outdoor section of the massive bookstore to see if I can find a few more books to add to my pile of Portland-area hiking books.

I found two that have not only broadened my hiking and photographing options significantly (and I mean significantly), but are outstanding books overall by a widely respected and thorough Oregon Outdoorsman, William L. Sullivan, who has written roughly 16 books about Oregon.

The first book not only contains 100 hikes in detail, but also includes an additional 108 hikes in the area! It covers all the wildernesses surrounding Portland minus the Oregon Coast, which has so many hikes that it got its own book (below). This book covers the Mt. Hood area, the Mt. St. Helens area, the Portland Metropolitan area's numerous nature parks, the Columbia River Gorge, and the foothills of the Clackamas River.

100 Hikes in Oregon and Southwest Washington, third edition, by William L. Sullivan (2011)

The second book has the exact same format as the one above, only it covers all the hikes along the spectacular Oregon Coast. It covers the entire coast, so needless to say some of the hikes you'll find within its pages are a 4 hour or more drive from Portland. But there is so much coastline to explore, that I am eager to get as far down the coast as possible in this blog. The book contains 100 hikes in detail, as well as 45 additional hikes listed in the back.

100 Hikes / Travel Guide to Oregon Coast & Coast Range, third edition, by William L. Sullivan (2010)

The first guide to the Portland Area hikes that I picked up from Powell's, the book that sparked the origin of this blog, contained 60 hikes total in great detail.

However, these two books put together contain 353 hikes total, with 200 of these written up in great detail!! I have already read through both of these books, and needless to say I am absolutely pumped up about tackling these hikes. Many of them are closed in the winter due to snowfall, danger, closed roadways up to trailheads, etc. But there are a good chunk of them that I can and will complete before the winter ends and the remainder of them open to the public (some of them open in April, others not until June, typically depending on the altitude of the hike).

In other great news, my new Nikon D3000 arrived and is ready to go. Expect crisper, higher quality photos in future blogs. I have also recently realized that my point-and-shoot that I've been using has the ability to shoot short video clips. Expect some of those in future posts as well.

Good things are happening with Black Watch Sasquatch: better guide books, better camera, and the ability to record video clips! Not to mention the Sasquatch himself is getting into better shape and will be ready to blaze some serious long-distance and high-altitude trails once weather permits.