Over the years, friends have suggested to Oregon author and outdoorsman Bill Sullivan that he film his hikes throughout the state so people can watch the footage while on a treadmill. He laughs and shakes his head. “Get out and do the hike,” he says. “Get into the open air and see the greenery. Hiking is spiritual renewal—it clears out the cobwebs in your brain.”
For more than a decade, Sullivan has published hiking guidebooks for Northwest, Central, and Southern Oregon, as well as Eastern Oregon and the coast. He offers directions to hundreds of trails by region, as well as details about elevation, the area’s history, and the best time of year to see wildflowers and pick huckleberries. “Walking is the single best exercise known to man,” he notes. “If you’re walking less than a couple of miles each day, that’s dangerous.”
Sullivan, a trim, bearded man with a serene demeanor, appreciates the egalitarian nature of hiking. “All you need is lightweight leather boots and pants,” he says, “and a topographical map. I get a backpack from the Scratch and Dent sale at REI.” While hikers can spend a small fortune on nylon pants and polypropylene long underwear, Sullivan simply hikes in his blue jeans. “They say cotton kills,” he chuckles, “but I don’t know of anyone who’s died on a day hike because of their jeans.” Still, he advises hikers in the Northwest to prepare for inclement weather. “Lightweight gear is all the rage,” he notes, “but it’s designed for California. You need real raingear—a parka that’s not only water-resistant, but waterproof. Revel in all of Oregon’s weather,” he says, “just be prepared for it.”
Rain and cold temperatures seldom deter Sullivan from heading out for adventure with his camera in tow. He provides the illustrations for his books—his newest, Atlas of the Wilderness (Navillus, 2009), contains lush photographs of wildflowers, alpine lakes, and historical buildings. “I get my best photos on the days most hikers would turn back,” he says. “If you hike when the weather’s iffy, you’ll get scenery you otherwise wouldn’t see. You’ll see the clouds moving, and sunbeams breaking through the clouds.”
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To those skeptics who worry that hiking won’t provide enough aerobic exercise, he suggests adding hills, but also notes that elevation gain can be tricky to gauge from a guidebook. On paper, a trail may climb 3,000 feet, but this doesn’t account for the natural ups and downs as hikers ascend a summit. Sullivan suggests that readers pay attention to his trip ratings, ranging from “Easy” to “Difficult.” “If you take the elevator instead of climbing up five flights of stairs, which is roughly an elevation gain of 50 feet,” he explains, “then you aren’t going to want to hike a trail with a 5,000-foot elevation gain.”
Sullivan feels so strongly about the importance of walking as exercise that he does daily errands on foot from his home near the University of Oregon. “Your best bet is to build in a mandatory activity each day like walking to the store or the post office,” he says. “Then on weekends, you can go hiking.”
Bill Sullivan’s Top Five Hikes in Lane County
Tamolitch Pool—The McKenzie River flows underground for three miles and comes out as a beautiful pool in an old-growth forest.
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Sweet Creek Falls—In April, just a few miles inland from Florence, wildflowers bloom and the falls are at their peak.
Horsepasture Mountain—Off Highway 126, this hike is wonderful in July for wildflowers, with no mosquitoes or crowds.
Brice Creek and Trestle Creek—Just past Cottage Grove, there’s a big forest and a rarely visited waterfall that you can hike behind, and gorgeous autumn colors.
Mount Pisgah. Go to the Wildflower or Mushroom Festival, and then hike the summit. “It’s like a promenade,” says Sullivan. “You’ll see hundreds of people. It’s where you go to see and be seen.”
–M.H.
Bill Sullivan’s website
oregonhiking.com
New Wilderness, New Hikes
In 1985, William Sullivan walked more than 1,000 miles across Oregon to research a guidebook on Oregon’s wild areas. To celebrate the March 2009 passing of the Wilderness Bill, which protects an additional 200,000 acres of forests and mountains in the state and millions more nationwide, he’s updated and expanded the book.
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Atlas of Oregon Wilderness (Navillus, 2009) includes 70 pages of detailed maps, plus 40 pages of color photos and 200 black-and-white photos. The Badlands 20 miles east of Bend stands out as one of the most fascinating new areas designated as wilderness. “The place is a labyrinth of sandy openings amidst lava outcrops,” Sullivan notes. “If you know where to look, you can find Flatiron Rock, a fortress-shaped outcrop with natural windows, and the Dry River channel, where petroglyphs remain in a cave beside a vanished Ice Age river.”
Atlas offers adventures for hikers, snowshoers, climbers, and whitewater boaters, but Sullivan says the book will be especially appealing to backpackers. “You can pick the right level of difficulty and the best season,” he says. “Then the maps make it easy to plan your route and customize the trip, so you really could find your own private lake.”
— Melissa Hart
He laughs and shakes his head. “Get out and do the hike,” he says. “Get into the open air and see the greenery. Hiking is spiritual renewal—it clears out the cobwebs in your brain.”
