Peter Stekel - Best Hikes Seattle: Simple Strolls, Day Hikes, and Longer Adventures

Photo by Jennie Goldberg

Peter Stekel is a professional writer and avid hiker. He is the author of Best Wild-flower Hikes Western Washington, Beneath Haunted Waters: The Tragic Tale of Two B-24s Lost in the Sierra Nevada Mountains During World War II, and Final Flight: The Mystery of a WWII Plane Crash and the Frozen Airmen in the High Sierra. Peter has a BA in botany from the University of California, Davis, did graduate work in ecology at Humboldt State University, and contributed to the Idaho Wildflowers app. Visit him at www.peterstekel.com.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

Henry David Thoreau

I walked every one of these trails. No doubt about it. Dawn Meekhof and/or Michele Hinatsu walked nearly every one of them with me. So did Peter Hesslein during many of the hikes made for the third-edition revisions. My thanks to these friends for helping make the miles pass with good company, good humor, and good conversation. Jennie Goldberg, Laurel Hansen, Victor Kress, Elizabeth Boo Turner, Neil Gitkind, and Karen George also accompanied me on some of the trails for this book.

The best part about hiking is hiking with a companion. Thanks also to all of my hiking partners over the years, especially Rich Stowell, Gregg Fauth, Tommy James, Alice Goldberg, Bill Tweed, Scott Atkinson, Katie OHara, Susan Buis, Jim and Bronwyn Buntine plus replicates Dougal and Kate, Ken Corathers, Steven Jacobs, Margaret Hill Stowell, Bob Specht, Ronnee Helzner, Garrett Munger, Les Chow, Peggy Moore, Sylvia Haultain, Nate Stephenson, Janet and Ken Cermak, Elizabeth Hurley, Lois Charles, Susan McGrath, Stan Bluhm, Sheri Margolis, Rich Christian, Dan Rucci, Dixon Davis, Sylvia and Peter Jones, Jim Meadowcroft, Elana Lombard, Sandy Borg, and everybody at Camp Wolverton BSA and Post 90Pacific Palisades, along with scientists and naturalists at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. You have made thousands of trail miles fun, exciting, and educational.

Every writer stands on the backs of giants. Therefore, I want to acknowledge those writers of previous guidebooks. They came first and did most of the hard work: Ron Adkinson, Joan Burton, Bob Dreisbach, Harvey Manning, Mike McQuaide, Marge and Ted Mueller, Craig Romano, Jeff Smoot, Bob and Ira Spring, Bryce Stevens, Karen Sykes, Andrew Weber, Robert L. Wood, and John Zilly. Forgive me if I have forgotten anyone.

Without the people who pushed to create the parks colloquially known as the Issaquah Alps or the US Congress to create the Wild Sky and Alpine Lakes Wilderness Areas, many of the trails in this book would not be very attractive for hiking. Thank you, all of you, for your time, effort, and vision. Also, thanks to American Whitewater for their work in helping to extend protection to the Wild Sky Wilderness and for keeping our rivers free and flowing. Thank you to my editor at FalconGuides, John Burbidge, for shepherding yet another version of Best Hikes Seattle to fruition. I appreciate the fine work done by Tim Kissel and Melissa Baker on the maps you see in this third edition of Best Hikes Seattle. Melissa Hayes did an excellent job of copyediting. Im especially grateful for the flexibility of Emily Chiarelli, associate production editor with The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.

Thank you to Tom OKeefe and Scott Silver for your past contributions to earlier editions of this book. I also want to thank Kevin Callahan for everything he has taught me about music because its the same thing as art, which is the same thing as writing. And you would be amazed to know how much hiking is like art.

A hiker rests along the Robe Canyon Trail (#14).

This book, like all my others, would never have happened without the love and support of Jennie Goldberg.

This list includes clubs, hiking forums, access/advocacy groups (including online groups and organizations), and land management agencies charged with administering the public lands covered in this book.

Alltrails.com

AllTrails helps people explore the outdoors with a large collection of detailed, hand-curated trail maps, as well as trail reviews and photos crowdsourced from a community of ten million registered hikers, mountain bikers, and trail runners. There is a free version as well as a pro version, which charges a fee for use.

Alpine Lakes Protection Society

www.alpinelakes.org

Give thanks to these people for their wilderness advocacy and their excellent 1:100,000 topo map that covers the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and surrounding area. ALPS led the successful campaign to designate the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, now comprising almost 400,000 acres. In more recent years, the ALPS areas of concern have broadened to protect the entire central Cascades.

American Whitewater

PO Box 1540

Cullowhee, NC 28723

(866) BOAT-4-AW (866-262-8429)

membership@americanwhitewater.org;

www.AmericanWhitewater.org

American Whitewater restores rivers dewatered by hydropower dams, works to eliminate water degradation, improves public land management, and protects public access to rivers for responsible recreational use by boaters, hikers, anglers, and other individuals and groups.

Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

100 Brown Farm Rd.

Olympia, WA 98516

Phone: (360) 753-9467

Fax: (360) 534-9302

City of Everett, Public Works

3200 Cedar St.

Everett WA 98201

(425) 257-8800

Darrington Ranger District Office

1405 Emens St.

Darrington, WA 98241

(360) 436-1155

Darrington Ranger District

Verlot Public Service Center

33515 Mountain Loop Hwy.

Granite Falls, WA 98252

(360) 691-7791

Daybreak Star Cultural Center, United Indians of All Tribes Foundation

Discovery Park

5011 Bernie Whitebear Way

Seattle, WA 98199

PO Box 99100

Seattle, WA 98199

(206) 285-442

www.unitedindians.org/daybreak.html

Discovery Park

Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation

3801 Discovery Park Blvd.

Seattle, WA 98199

(206) 684-4075

Hike Metro

https://sites.google.com/site/seattlemetrobushiking

What? You dont have a car? Then take the bus! Here are some links to walks, hikes, and outdoor adventures in the Seattle area that you can reach by public transit. The best part of all no car needed! Dont forget your ORCA Card (a contactless smart card system for public transit in the Puget Sound region of Washington)!

Hiking Northwest

www.kuresman.com

A compilation of thirty-plus years of trip reports from hikes throughout our region by John Kuresman. This guy gets around!

Iron Goat Trail

http://irongoattrail.org/ Need to know the history of this historic trail? Then, youve come to the right place.

Iron Horse State Park

150 Lake Eastern State Park Rd.

North Bend, WA 98045

(360) 902-8844

https://www.stateparks.com/iron_horse_wa.html

Issaquah Alps Trails Club

PO Box 668

Issaquah, WA 98027

(844) 392-4282

www.issaquahalps.org

The club serves as a voice for protection of our open spaces, trails, and quality of life. Their mission is to act as custodian of the trails and the lush, open, tree-covered mountaintops known as the Issaquah Alps.