Some of his hiking buddies sharing the campfire felt the same. As a result, the first volume of the East Side Guide - a collection of readings, poetry and musings from their trip - came into being.
Flash forward to another campfire, this time in the Hoover Wilderness on the east side of the Sierras, by which Haack sat in 2000. Out of those firelit reveries came his decision to undertake a second volume.
 Warren Haack, his book in hand, appears all ready for another outdoor adventure. |
The inch-thick paperback is a literary menage of hiking experiences and resources, cultural history, a photographic essay and personal revelations. Fittingly, its cover photograph could be an aerial view of a mountain range or a study of rippling water.
"The gestalt of the larger picture comes out," Haack told a publication of San Francisco State University, where he has worked for 23 years in the cinema department. "Our beautiful world is made up of many elements, which woven together, create a reflection of experience much larger than the sum of the parts."
His comment reflects the literary tapestry that is the book.
It begins with in-depth studies and necessities of camp life, including recipes, cooking directions, responsible campfire use, equipment lists and more.
The second chapter "Intrepid Cycling," written by Haack's brothers Mike and Terry, chronicles bicycling adventures in the northwestern United States. It is followed by the work of two hikers who trekked across Nevada through a jumble of elevations, mishaps, interactions with humans and the wild, and other revelations.
This is followed by a series of essays and poetry on outdoor adventures and experiences from the Sierras to Ecuador. The next chapter is devoted to the California Mewuk Indians, with pieces by tribal members and elders, and the final chapter is devoted to essays on hikes in South America.
Not quite travelogue and not quite documentary, the book mixes immediacy, a pro-nature outlook reminiscent of a modern-day John Muir, and Haack's filmmaker's sensibilities. Photos, into which the text melts, pepper the volume. Several passages appear to grow out of native textiles. "The feeling of an area can be enhanced by textiles from that area," said Haack.
The book is available at Moon News and Bay Book Company in Half Moon Bay, and in the SFSU bookstore.
For Haack, being part of the mountains and chronicling those adventures in film and text is almost in his blood.
He started hiking young. "Every summer since 1960, I've been up in the mountains," he said. His hiking has taken him to Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru as well as around America.
While in his teens, he met the friend who has been a hiking buddy since. Though the friend now lives in St. Helena, every year the two strike out for a different part of the wilderness. This year they did a 19-day trek in the Hoover Wilderness north of Yosemite.
Those hikes are "a time for me to regroup myself and reorient my priorities," he said. "When I don't make this trip I'm anxious for the entire year."
Haack majored in film at SFSU - he was the third generation in his family to earn a degree from the university - and, intrigued by sound in film. He ran a recording studio in the 1970s. In 1982 he took his job at SFSU, as technical support in the cinema department. He came to the Coastside in 1987.
Also a filmmaker, Haack has an impressive resume of film documentaries, nearly as far-reaching in scope as his hiking ventures.
One such film, a work in progress that Haack began 30 years ago, tells the story of circa-1850 folk hero Joaquin Murieta. Haack is pursuing finishing it with the same actors with whom he began it, looking back on the 1850s in retrospect.
Moon News, at 315 Main St. in Half Moon Bay, will host a book signing with Haack at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3.
w