San Diego

San Diego County is pretty much a dayhiker's paradise. A mild climate and numerous short trails make hiking there a real joy. If you want to walk among beautiful Jeffrey Pines, follow a creek bed filled with Canyon Live Oak, or observe the wildlife in one of San Diego County's remaining lagoons, this book is a good place to start. Compiled from the author's two earlier "12 Short Hikes" guides, this volume will take you to some of the most scenic spots in the county. The book has much to recommend it. Only one of the hikes exceeds 5 miles. Most are less and only a few involve considerable elevation gain. Each hike provides detailed insturctions for getting to the trailhead and a list of key points along the trail. Most will take you to very pleasant locations where one feels far removed from the ever present urban sprawl. The only downside to this book, however, is that it is 7 years old now and much has changed, especially in the mountain portion of San Diego County. The fires of 2003 devastated Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and ruined several of the trails in this guide, notably the Paso Nature Trail, Azalea Glen Trail, and much of the Stonewall Peak route. Moreover, the naive policies of the State Park towards recovery ("let nature take its course") insures that these areas will probably not recover within the next 30 years, if ever. The trails are overgrown and the Park is not even attempting to maintain them. O'Brien needs to put out an updated version of the guide perhaps replacing the Cuyamaca trails with those on Mt. Palomar where the State Park and USFS are taking active steps to reduce the fire danger to that area. In the meantime, this is a great guide, but it needs to be used cautiously with the mountain hikes.