Harvey Manning (July 16, 1925 in Ballard, Seattle, Washington - November 12, 2006 in Bellevue, Washington) was a noted author of hiking guides and climbing textbooks, and a tireless hiking advocate. Manning lived on

Cougar Mountain Cougar Mountain is a peak in the Issaquah Alps in King County, Washington. It is part of the highlands in the Eastside suburbs of Seattle, and at it is the lowest and westernmost of the Alps. About two-thirds of Cougar Mountain has experienced ...

, within the city limits of Bellevue, Washington, calling his home the "200-meter hut". His book ''Walking the Beach to Bellingham'' is an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

and

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

fleshing out his journal of a hike along the shore of Puget Sound over a two-year span. From 1954 to 1956, Harvey Manning managed Seattle radio station KISW. Harvey Manning died November 12, 2006, in Bellevue.

Books

Manning is most famous for being the editorial committee chair for the first edition of '' Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills'', a textbook for climbing and scrambling. The first edition was so successful that it created Mountaineers Books, the publishing outlet of The Mountaineers. Manning is also noted for writing the "100 Hikes" series of hiking guidebooks, along with

Ira Spring Ira Spring (1918–2003) was an American photographer, author, mountaineer and hiking advocate. He was the photographer and co-author, with Harvey Manning and his brother Bob Spring, of the ''"100 Hikes"'' series of books published by The Moun ...

: * ''50 Hikes in Mount Rainier National Park'' (1969) * ''101 Hikes in the North Cascades'' (1970) * ''102 Hikes in the Alpine Lakes, South Cascades, and Olympics'' (1971) * ''100 Hikes in the South Cascades and Olympics'' (1985) ISBN * ''100 Hikes in the Glacier Peak Region'' (1988) * ''55 Hikes in Central Washington'' (1990) * ''100 Classic Hikes in Washington'' (1998) (Winner National Outdoor Book Award, Design and Artistic Merit, 1998) * ''55 Hikes around Snoqualmie Pass'' (2001) These guidebooks are the standard books for hiking throughout western Washington. Manning also wrote many other books on outdoor activities, including: * ''Backpacking: One Step at a Time'' (1972) * ''Footsore, Vols 1-4'' (1977) (a series of guidebooks to hiking near Issaquah, Washington). * ''Walking the Beach to Bellingham'' (1986)

Advocacy

Manning advocated trail protection and maintenance for much of his life, based on his extensive experience in the Washington outdoors (having backpacked since the 1930s). He was the bane of mountain bikers in the Seattle area. Manning believed foot traffic (both the boots and the horseshoe variety) cannot coexist with the greater speeds of bicycle enthusiasts and disdained local politicians beholden to wheeled-recreation advocates for "spouting pure Lycra". Largely as a result of his efforts,

is off-limits to bikes and even Tiger Mountain has very limited single-track mileage where bikes are permitted. Manning was a member of the

North Cascades Conservation Council North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' i ...

(NCCC) since its founding in 1957, serving as an editor of the NCCC journal "The Wild Cascades." Back issues are available on the NCCC website, see link below. A DVD of images of the North Cascades with his writing as the script is released by Crest Pictures as "The Irate Birdwatcher," which was a moniker he used in his early writings. His final book, published by NCCC, is "Wilderness Alps: Conservation and Conflict in the North Cascades," and details the history of the preservation movement there. It is available at the NCCC website. Many of the names for peaks, creeks, wetlands, and trails on

were invented by Harvey Manning. He discovered Coal Creek Falls and beat a trail to it, and discovered the foundation for the steam hoist in Red Town. With the goal of preserving wildlands within urban

King County King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the st ...

, Manning designated (in the pages of ''Footsore 1'') the odd twenty mile-long (32.2 km) spur of Cascade Mountain foothills along

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

near Seattle as the " Issaquah Alps" and founded the

Issaquah Alps Trails Club Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the "Issaquah Alps ...

in 1979. The club serves to improve and publicize hiking around Issaquah, Washington. A bronze statue of Manning stands in an Issaquah park. Today, many of his conservation goals are carried on by the American Alps Legacy Project, an initiative of NCCC and the Mountaineers.

References

External links

Mountains to Sound GreenwayNorth Cascades Conservation CouncilAmerican Alps Legacy Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Harvey 1925 births 2006 deaths American environmentalists American diarists American non-fiction outdoors writers American male non-fiction writers Hikers Writers from Seattle 20th-century American male writers 20th-century diarists