I grew up in Bremerton and have spent the majority of my life in the beauty and wonderment as well as the challenges of the Olympic Wilderness in all seasons and conditions. I moved to Sequim and volunteered for 15 years at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center helping people from all over the world find wonderful hikes and marvelous viewing sites, no matter the weather conditions.

Loop Hikes in the Olympic Mountains is the first and only book dedicated exclusively to loop hikes in the Olympics. In sharing 65 years of experience, my intention has been to help hikers experience: the mountains, meadows, and marshes, the wind, light, and the glorious smell of alpine air, flowers, trees, ferns, birds and clouds. The grandeur of the environs you’ll traverse will offset the mental and physical demands of hiking.

Of the 27 loop hikes in the book, 21 of them have been published only in this book. One of them may never have been hiked. Along with great attention to accuracy, every loop hike is judged as to its level of difficulty. The degree of difficulty is derived from a number of conditions. Some of the elements that are judged are elevation gains or lost, length, fording and way-finding. Portions of the book focus on a hiker’s strength, stamina, judgment and the personal care required for hard days on the trails. The segments of each loop hike are delivered as a narrative, as though I was hiking right along with you, identifying each segment of each trail and the challenges and joys you’ll experience.

Forest walk

There are a lot of experiences in life, each with its own learning curve. Mine, in some instances, has been perilously steep. Hopefully, information and insights I’ve compiled in this book will have a positive effect on how you approach venturing into the Olympic Mountains. Your exposure to the wilderness will test your endurance, resourcefulness, commitment to others and, in numerous ways, your belief in yourself. What you learn from your experience will reflect in how you approach future challenges throughout your life.

I walked into the forest and it gently began to change my outlook on many levels. The transition that began so slowly on that first hike emerged as an emotional and attitudinal force taking root in my youth and building to a constant throughout the rest of my life. From that day in 1958 to the present, I owe who I am and what I’ve become to the beauty, expanse, challenges and hardships of the Olympic Mountains. I’m certain you’ll reflect on your own emotional attraction to an exquisite wilderness that never can be forgotten.

“Loop Hikes in the Olympic Mountains” is my opportunity to share with you my commitment to helping others gain a better understanding, greater enjoyment and appreciation of the Olympic Mountains. In this book I fully describe the diverse and wondrous environments through which you’ll travel. Regardless of which loop hike has caught your interest, there’s more to the experience than the trail itself. Hiking in the Olympic Mountains will expose you to differing altitudes. Those altitudes treat you to entirely different landscapes accented by skylines, rushing water, placid lakes, ferns and mosses, towering mountains, waterfalls and animals following the patterns of their lives.

Open a new chapter in your life, Loop Hikes in the Olympic Mountains, the only book of its kind, awaits you at Villagebooks.com or if you can, attend any of our upcoming book signings. You can keep current regarding when and where book signings will take place by going to the most recent issue of LoopHikes.com