I've just purchased this book and I'm more than *delighted*! The photographs are ultimately enthralling, and the narration is so honest. I work for a non-profit striving to protect more public lands in Washington permenantly as Wilderness, and books like these that reach a large public audience and tell it like it is help us along our path to success... I love to hike and I love to see the areas that I hike in stay put! It's nice to be able to see which areas are protected and which are not before even exploring on one's own. BUY IT!

Sure, Harvey's opinionated, but it's excellent stuff. Nice, quick background on these amazing places, why they are still wild and protected, and just enough detail to get you in and out without giving away all the surprises. The best guide out there.

The interesting thing about the 100 Hikes series is how well it integrates with Fred Beckey's books. Ira and Harvey get you to the base of the peak; Fred gets you up it. The series go hand-in-hand. Some of the most valuable information in the whole series comes in the form of the forewards and introductions. While opinionated, the views expressed are those of someone who has spent a lifetime exploring, protecting and enjoying the areas treated by the books. The route descriptions are accurate (more or less), and the small maps are clear and understandable. If you don't have this book, go get it. You would do well, in fact, to get the whole series. NOTE: hikes 10, 14, 33, 70, and 79 are awesome.

This book seemed as if it took no talent to write and it was worthless to read. The only thing good about this book was the cover. Of course, you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

It was like cheech and chong visiting the north west. I waited moths for my library to order this book for me and it ended up being some chicano-beatnik sounding crap. Nobody in Chelan talks like they did. I just give the "Writter Man" credit for picking such a nice area for the story to take place in.

Lion wrote a debut novel set in the magical Northwest with all the necessary elements of mainstream fiction, and more. Ladies will love the romance, men will enjoy the action. The cast of Chelan reminded me of the TV show Northern Exposure. The plot, about a Hong Kong corporation relocating its assets to America, is really not so fictional at all. Lion reminds me a little of Tom Robbins. And Lion wrote this book in a federal prison? Bravo! This author will be one to watch as his style matures. Can't wait to read his next work, a memoir of his rise and fall in the marijuana trade, five years with a policemen's daughter as a fugitive, capture on Unsolved Mysteries, and his evolution into the promising writer who penned Chelan. Tired of those heavily marketed mainstream novels? Give this one a try.