Among other Luddite tendencies I find myself sinking deeper into is my affinity for a good paperback guidebook.

I’m a member of online trail guide AllTrails, in that I can use my email to log into it, but my wife pays for a membership with more bells and whistles, including maps that show our real-time location and elevation gain and loss even when we’re offline.

Meanwhile, when I’m recreating around Central Oregon, I for the most part still reach for a 14-year-old guidebook, the second edition of “Bend, Overall: 99 Hikes and Explorations in Central Oregon,” by outdoor writer Scott Cook.

In 2004, my predilection for paperbacks led me to the Hood River outdoor writer’s first edition of the must-have guide to Central Oregon, a cheeky and accessible guidebook to dozens of hikes within 90 minutes of Bend. In a fun and refreshing voice very similar to the one in which he speaks and emails (as you’ll see below) Scott shares not just the nuts and bolts, but also, say, a lake’s skinny-dipping potential.

Playful tone or not, the book was a must-own for outdoors enthusiasts in Central Oregon. I became acquainted with Scott when he produced the second edition of the book in 2010.

We spent a long day together exploring Richardson’s Rock Ranch, Trout Creek Trail and Trout Creek Bluffs, all north of Madras. That same day, he personalized the first copy of the second edition off the press to me. It read in part, “I hope we can scout out some fun Bulletin articles together!”

We didn’t. Life took us on separate paths. Scott has also written guidebooks to the Columbia River Gorge and New Zealand, the latter of which he would often head to during North America’s winter.

However, around 2016, I hiked up to Lucky Lake with two of my daughters one summer day and ran into Scott in person again. He was working on a new edition of “Bend, Overall,” but it never materialized. In 2020, I asked him about it. He wrote back that he was awaiting word of the U.S. Forest Service’s now-operating permit process for popular spots such as Green Lakes Trail.

That eventually led him to abandon the third edition: “Bend’s tourism fever turns my stomach,” he told me. You don’t have to share his feelings, but if you’ve lived here long enough, you know exactly what he means. As editor of a Bulletin section called Explore, devoted to outdoor recreation, I grapple with the similar feelings as Scott. In fact, this week, my colleague Janay Wright writes about a new book by Bend guidebook author Joshua Savage. People on social media and in my life aren’t shy about sharing their just-don’t-do-it feelings about Explore.

Do we occasionally divulge a purportedly secret spot, or do we keep pouring on the love for already-popular destinations?

Yes, and yes. My partial defense: Have you people ever heard of Visit Bend, AllTrails or Instagram with its geotags? What we do is a drop in a bucket next to an informational flood. Hopefully, The Bulletin’s outdoors coverage comes through with heart, evidence of our shared adoration of the human experiences afforded by special outside spaces. We are journalists, not marketers.

Though he abandoned a third edition, Scott’s second edition of “Bend, Overall” continued to sell. In September 2020, half a year into the pandemic — maybe because folks were desperate to get outside during the shutdown — “‘BendO’ has managed to sell more this summer than either of the previous two summers,” Scott said.

New copies continued to be available on Amazon and in local bookstores.

That surge didn’t last, though. Last month, he told me via email that he decided to pull the plug on “Bend, Overall” this past spring:

“There are still a few books on Amazon. They don’t sell very fast. Surprisingly, (no) Bend bookstores have contacted me thus this year about books. Either they haven’t sold all theirs or … they just don’t care anymore either.”

“Adios,” he said. “My soul just isn’t in it anymore … but regardless, the withering sales of the book spell its doom regardless how my soul feels about it.”

“At least the book died a slow death … and I didn’t try to revise it and give it life support. I didn’t throw good energy after bad,” Scott said.

His “Curious Gorge” guidebook continues to sell, albeit it “slower and slower towards the inevitable demise. Ha, just like me!” he said. “This will surely be (the) worst sales year in the 22 years of its existence. Alas. If I tried much harder to market it, perhaps I could slow its demise. But then I’d hafta try to care. And that’d be dangerous to my mental health.

“Peoples’ attention spans just aren’t what they used to be. Using a guidebook takes effort. Using AllTrails is more spritely and colorful.”

Scott could scarcely believe it when I told him how on one summer day this year, I drove by tiny Devil’s Lake and saw easily 50 stand-up paddlers.

“Geez if I drove by Devil’s Lake and saw 50 suppers, I might keel over right there,” he replied. “I remember writing my first entry about Sparks Lake back in 2003. I couldn’t find any other paddler to be in a photo even. Rarely was there even one other boat. Just 20 years ago. No wonder I didn’t want to venture up there to revise my book, even eight years ago.”

These days, Scott gets outside for a different reason than research: He is an avid wing foiler, a hybrid of windsurfing and surfing where the wind lifts and whisks the rider on a board with a hydrofoil fin that lifts him or her above the water’s surface.

“I’m obsessed with wing foiling these past three years. Hood River is absolutely nuts with wingers … and it’s growing like a summer wildfire.

“Baja (California) winters are amazing for winging,” he said. “I avoid the southern tourist towns for mid-Baja soul n solitude excellence.”

Enjoy it while it lasts, Scott.