Читать книгу One Night Wilderness: Portland. Top Backcountry Getaways Within Three Hours of the City онлайн

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And if a quick, one-night trip is good, a longer trip is even better. I say this from experience: nothing realigns your perspective quite like scrambling up the rocky side of a valley scooped out by glaciers and cresting the rim to see glittering Mount Adams, right there, almost close enough to touch. Add to that a picnic lunch beside an iridescent turquoise lake, a campsite that feels like some kind of hover pad floating in a cloud city, and a gentle stroll the next day through some of the most enchanting alpine valleys in the Pacific Northwest. Stress? What stress? You can find all this, by the way, on the ssss1.

You could do many of these trips as day hikes, especially if you get to the trailhead early in the day. But there’s something about spending the night—maybe because carrying everything you need makes you feel tough and self-reliant—that adds immeasurably to the experience. The Portland area is rich with writers who love the outdoors, so there are dozens of excellent guides to day hikes in the area. There are also several good volumes on extended backpacking trips, the kind you plan and prepare for months to pull off. I’ve been lucky enough to work on one of those guides too. But this book strikes the perfect balance between the two: a hand-picked range of accessible hikes, often kid-friendly and requiring minimal time commitment, that also gives you backpacker-friendly details like where to find the best campsites and water sources, what permits and regulations apply, and the best way to get to the trailhead.