Читать книгу One Night Wilderness: Portland. Quick and Convenient Backcountry Getaways within Three Hours of the City онлайн

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First and foremost, welcome! There is something enormously liberating about spending a night in the wilderness. Many of the Pacific Northwest’s most spectacular attractions are beyond the reach of a comfortable dayhike, leaving them for the overnight hiker to enjoy.

Before joining the club of lucky souls out there sleeping under the stars, however, it is important that you go in with both eyes open (while you hike, that is, not while you sleep). Many people who regularly take dayhikes assume that backpacking is just dayhiking plus spending the night. Wrong! The two activities have some very important differences. For example, people often blithely assume that since they regularly go on dayhikes of 10 miles or more, they can cover the same distance when carrying overnight gear. This is a fundamental error because backpacking is an activity in which gravity displays its most sinister qualities. Believe me, your hips, shoulders, feet, knees, and probably a few body parts you had not even thought about in years will feel every extra ounce. And at least in comparison to dayhiking, backpacking requires carrying quite a few extra ounces.