Hiking for a Living

It may sound like a dream job, but it’s a lot of hard work.  Writing guidebooks takes the physical stamina to rack up big miles, the imagination to anticipate what hikers need to know, lots of attention to detail, and a tireless passion for the outdoors.  As Terry Woods recounts in today's Seattle Times, guidebook author Craig Romano is perfectly suited to the job. 

Craig is the author of three books in the Day Hiking series by Mountaineers Books.  (Dan Nelson has authored the other three Day Hiking books for Washington.  Alan Bauer has contributed text and photographs for several of these books as well). 

As of this morning, content from all six of books in the Day Hiking series are now available through WTA’s Online Hiking Guide.  Some 600 new entries contain trail stats and descriptions straight for hikes throughout the Olympics and Cascades. (Check out this entry for Goat Lake.)

WTA owes Craig, Dan and Alan a huge debt of gratitude for sharing the fruits of their labor with WTA for this web site.  I had the opportunity hike Goat Lake with Craig earlier this summer, so I know how hard he works for these books. 

Complete copies of these Day Hiking guidebooks can be purchased from the Online Hiking guide, via a link to REI that benefits WTA, and Mountaineers Books donates a further 1% from these guidebooks to WTA and trail maintenance efforts.