Hike the State a Success

A week ago, WTA held its first Hike the State. It was so successful, we'll be doing it again.

For those who couldn't make it, we had more than 150 hikers in the big meeting room at REI. There were stations set up representing seven hiking regions throughout Washington. At each station, we had a regional expert speak for seven minutes about three or more excellent - and sometimes little-known - hikes. After the time elapsed, *DING!* off everyone went to the next station.

We had three writers among us. Joan Burton, author of Best Hikes with Children: Western Washington (Mountaineers Books), filled hikers in on her favorite hikes in North Cascades National Park and the area around Mount Baker. Photographer and author Alan Bauer, who has contributed to several of Mountaineers Books Day Hiking series and more, picked three great hikes to take near Lake Wenatchee. And Eli Boschetto, who contributes to both Washington Trails magazine and Backpacker.com, filled folks in on hiking the Sunrise side of Mount Rainier.

We also had two of our favorite Trip Reporters on hand. Jim Kurseman, aka Hiker Jim, proved that he was a wealth of information about the Teanaway - coincidentally one of the few regions mostly snow-free right now. And Steve Payne, aka Solo Steve, talked about hiking the eastern side of the Olympics.

And in WTA's all-around great expert category, Kim Brown got more than a few folks interested in heading to the Colville National Forest, and WTA's own Ryan Ojerio spoke about Mount St. Helens and a bit about our trail work there.

It was certainly an informative evening. And if you missed it, we'll do it again next year - with new hikes, new regions and great experts.