Afoot and Afield: San Francisco Bay Area: A Comprehensive Hiking Guide Paperback – September 29, 2004

Wilderness Press has a series of books on the SF Bay Area hiking trails (two of which are written by Weintraub): East Bay Trails, South Bay Trails, North Bay Trails, and Peninsula Trails. Those books are excellent and obviously have the kind of complete and detailed coverage that a single book of the same size cannot offer for the same vast area. But if you wish to buy only a single book on hiking in the SF Bay Area, this one is the best I've seen. It discusses hiking opportunities from Santa Rosa in the north to just outside Santa Cruz in the south. It discusses more hikes than any other book (except the Foghorn one, which however offers no maps). It has excellent maps, along with detailed directions, the attractions of each hike, the best season for the hike, and so on. Unlike those in some other books, the maps included cover more than just the hikes discussed, so in essence it leads you to many more trails than those listed in the book. It also mentions (though does not have the space to discuss in detail) some of the flora and fauna you might notice on the hike, and offers some photos. If you don't get separate books on each area, this is almost certainly the one to get.

Picked this up for an extended Northern California hiking and riding trip. I purchased about four others as well and I used all of them as each has a little something different. Not a single one was useless and none warranted less than 4 stars. I would reccomend doing the same rather than just picking one for your trip.

I own the San Diego version of this (which is GREAT) and this was a let down. It is shorter, contains less detail, didn't have a bunch of recommended hikes by category. It is still OK but not great.

The only reason I'm even giving this a 2 star is because the book does list a lot of hikes, although most of the hikes are pretty boring.The trail descriptions are short, unclear, confusing and incorrect. For example, we just did a hike yesterday where the book said to walk 0.1 miles when in reality it was 0.3 miles. The map for the same trail was also incorrect. I've gotten lost following the trail description more than once. In comparison, the 60 hikes within 60 miles of SF is a much better book.I now only use this book for reference, then google the trail map online or pick up a trail map instead of following the guide.

This book has a great degree of breadth, but the depth is lacking. It's a great source of ideas, but I've learned not to rely on it for specific guidance on my hikes. It might have been more useful listing fewer hikes, but devoting more space to each.First, the geographic coverage. It's divided finely into ten regions, which makes it difficult to navigate (in the case of one park, a hike originating on Skyline Blvd and another one departing from the coast are listed under different regions). It also peters out above Santa Cruz, omitting a handful of excellent parks in that area (such as Big Basin), although it extends far into the North Bay and Delta.Next, the trip descriptions. Trails in regional parks can be a maze, and these descriptions are often too bare to determine where you are and which fork to take. The maps are pretty bare too, which is typical of hiking books, but most frustratingly they don't show the direction of loop routes. I've also felt misled about the habitat on some of the trips.

I have found this the most comprehensive printed area guide, with 113 hikes. It has supplied ideas for many new hikes, but it lacks trail elevation profiles, and has some serious flaws.For example, I recently used it to discover and hike at Rockville Hills Regional Park. The map and description were too vague and misleading. When I later checked the online Bay Area Hiker, which describes about 560 trails, I found several warnings and advice about hikes there, that were entirely lacking in Weintraub's book. Next time I will rely on online bahiker, maintained by Jane Huber, who wrote "60 Hikes WIthin 60 Miles: San Francisco".

This has been one of my two favorite hiking books for the bay area. I do a 6-10 mike hikes with elevation gain in the greater bay area. This book along with "60 Hikes within 60 Mikes of SF" have kept me supplied with good hikes for 6 months now. The descriptions are short and to the point, the directions have never steered me wrong yet, and I've still got more hikes to try. Great book. If you want to do a lot of medium length hikes around the bay area I highly recommend this book.

I've had this book for three weeks and appreciate that it covers the whole Bay Area (we live in the east bay). We love to hike with our two children and to keep them enthusiastic it's important that we know where we're going and can talk the experience up and keep the kids excited. By having so many great hikes drawn from the Bay Area's best, Afoot & Afield keeps us from spending our time figuring out the itinerary (and losing the kid's to other pursuits). The kids actually enjoy getting involved comparing hikes and helping us choose.Weintraub's specialized guides are great also (east bay, north bay etc.), but the beauty of this book is that it pulls you toward other areas of the bay that you might overlook. In truth, nowhere in the bay area is too far for day hiking if you know where to go. This book has expanded our horizons and we have our sights on several hikes we would not have otherwise considered.