THIS GUY IS fierce about the beach.
“I’ve been going there since I was a tiny little kid,” author Greg Johnston says of Washington’s Pacific Ocean edge.
Growing up in Seattle’s eastside suburbs, he’d go with his folks every year to Kalaloch for a week.
In the five decades since, Johnston has been busy discovering how different this state’s coast is from those of Oregon and California.
“It’s a rare thing,” he said, “to have these long, long stretches of wilderness on the ocean.”
Veteran outdoor writer
Johnston grew up to be a journalist, working at The Daily World in Aberdeen for four years and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for 24.
He wrote about the outdoors, environmental struggles and the intersection between humans and the rest of nature.
“To this day I love the coast of Washington more than any other place on this planet,” Johnston, 62, writes in his debut guidebook, Washington’s Pacific Coast: A Guide to Hiking, Camping, Fishing & Other Adventures.
That long title isn’t what he came up with, but it is one that his publisher, Mountaineers Books, told him would be best for search-engine optimization, as in it’ll pop up anytime someone Googles those words.
In this jam-packed paperback, Johnston — who now lives in Kirkland — is intent on motivating you to get out there.
Here are more than 40 hikes for all energy levels, from Willapa Bay to Neah Bay, trips to nine state parks and Olympic National Park, visits to 30 campgrounds and tips on fishing, clamming, beachcombing and tidepooling spots.
As you read, you’ll feel compelled to make a list of outings to places like, oh, Shi Shi Beach, Shipwreck Point, the Hall of Mosses, Kalaloch and the Queets River, Slip Point and Rialto Beach.
Best in fall
Do not, Johnston advises, let fall’s arrival dampen your plans.
“I kind of reserve the beaches of Olympic National Park for the off-season: October through March,” he said.
“One of my favorite times to hike the coast is in the winter,” when it feels even wilder.
But be sure to have a plan B. Washington’s oceanic side is one of the stormiest parts of the world, Johnston noted. The wind, he writes, doesn’t howl; it screams.
So if he gets out to the coast and finds it “really nasty,” he rents a motel room and goes for a day hike.
“You’ve got to roll with it,” Johnston figures.
“The beachcombing is always best after a storm,” he said, adding that those glass fishing floats appear after a big blow.
Steelhead fishing
He couldn’t resist adding another perk: The cold months are the best for steelhead fishing; you can catch surf perch, too, in the dead of winter.
If you happen to be out there on a sunny day, Johnston urges you to make the most of it.
In his description of a hike from Beach 4 to Ruby Beach, he rhapsodizes about the bald eagles, river otters, harbor seals, gulls and terns — all cruising the sand and waves.
“When smelt are around, the show can get pretty interesting,” he writes.
When you reach the beach just north of Starfish Point, you ought to “spread out the blanket anywhere and break out the surf rod. I’ve caught a mess of perch here and have been alone enough to do what comes naturally.
“When the weather has been warm, I have thrown off my clothes and run around under the sun like a crazy coyote during a full moon.”
Too much information? Maybe. But Johnston didn’t mean for Washington’s Pacific Coast to be the standard contemporary guidebook.
More depth, detail
It’s more old-fashioned, said the writer, who grew up reading Harvey Manning and Ira Spring’s 100 Classic Hikes series from Mountaineers Books. Their depth, detail and opinion nurtured him as a hiker.
Internet guides, meanwhile, “have all the bells and whistles and very little depth,” he believes.
Johnston envisioned something else: a book loaded with cultural and natural history, an exploration of the places and their native people, their geology — and the pure joy of being out there on the edge of the continent.
He put together a pitch — lots of text and photos in a PDF — and sent it to Mountaineers. That was late 2013.
A few months later, they had a deal; Mountaineers got to work on Washington’s Pacific Coast, and the volume came out at last this summer.
Johnston did some book signings inland — Woodinville, Leavenworth, at the Seattle REI store — and says he wants to do some more out here near the Olympic coast.
As 2015 winds down, he’ll be working on such promotion — as well as on his second guidebook.
It will, not surprisingly, explore Washington’s inland seas: Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
“We have some phenomenal state parks,” Johnston said, adding with his signature enthusiasm, “We have great kayaking, fishing, beach hiking, clam digging and oyster shucking.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
