Sometime back in 2016 we committed to making a serious attempt to complete a couple of hiking goals that we had discussed. One was visiting all of the federally designated wilderness areas in Oregon, which we accomplished in 2021 (post), and the other was hiking at least a portion of all 100 featured hikes in at least one edition of William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes” guidebook series. Sullivan splits the State up into five areas, Oregon Coast & Coast Range, NW Oregon & SW Washington, Central Oregon Cascades, Southern Oregon & Northern California, and Eastern Oregon. Five areas times 100 featured hikes in each comes to a grand total of 500 featured hikes.
In 2020 we completed the Central Oregon Cascades Area (post) and followed that up in 2021 by finishing both the Oregon Coast (post) and NW Oregon (post) featured hikes leaving just Eastern and Southern Oregon & Northern California.
In our 2020 update we stated that we ended that year having checked off 401 out of the 500 featured hikes based on the following editions of Sullivan’s books:
“100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades” 4th Edition 2012
“100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast & Coast Range” 4th Edition 2016
“100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington” 4th Edition 2018
“100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” 3rd Edition 2015
“100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” 4th Edition 2017
In order to finish the Oregon Coast book we switched from the 2016 4th edition to his earlier 2009 3rd edition due to the continued closure of the Salmonberry Railroad which lowered the number from 401 to 397. So while we sit at 99/100 for that 4th edition reverting to the 3rd edition made it possible to check that area off. We also had failed to count our Collings Mountain Loop (post) in Southern Oregon as having completed a portion of Sullivan’s Applegate Lake hike so we were actually at 398 of 500. (We plan on hiking more of the trails at Applegate Lake in 2022.)
In addition to the 9 hikes to finish out the Oregon Coast Book, and 6 hikes for NW Oregon, we managed to check off 13 featured hikes from the Eastern Oregon book ending the year at 73. Unfortunately we made no headway on the Southern Oregon & Northern California book. The impacts of various wildfires thwarted all our plans to visit that area in 2021 and in all honesty making us question if we will ever actually be able to finish that one. We do have several trips planned this year and over the next couple in hopes of making our goal but if the wildfire seasons of the past couple of years continue it is going to be difficult. We did move from the 2017 4th edition to the 2021 4.2 edition due to Sullivan swapping out a couple of fire damaged hikes for more accessible ones.
If conditions cooperate we will remain on track to complete the Southern book in 2024 and the Eastern book in 2025. Nearly all of the hikes remaining in the Eastern book are located either in the Wallowa Mountains or Hells Canyon in the NE corner of the State. Mount Ireland is the lone hike outside of those two areas and it is on this years list.
Finally in 2021 we also completed the 5th edition of the Central Oregon Cascades book. When we completed that area in 2020 the final hike, Erma Bell Lakes, technically finished both the 3rd and 4th editions but it was the 4th we were focusing on due to some crossover between that 3rd edition and the 3rd edition of the Eastern Oregon book.
As we head into the 2022 hiking season we are at 426 out of 500 featured hikes or 85.2% of our goal.
100/100 – “100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades” 4th Edition 2012 (also 3rd & 5th editions)
100/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast & Coast Range” 3rd Edition 2009
100/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington” 4th Edition 2018
73/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” 3rd Edition 2015
53/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” 4th Edition 2021
With Sullivan continuing to release new editions and updated versions I’m sure we will have plenty of ideas going forward. We are also working our way through hikes in several of Matt Reeder’s guidebooks (The Ruddy Hill Press).
Whether or not we actually reach our goal of all 500 is secondary to the all of the amazing places our chasing the 500 has led us to. Happy Trails!
wanderingyuncks 