6. Barclay Lake: 4.4 miles / 500 feet gain 7. Greenwater Lakes: 4 miles / 200 feet gain 8. Third Beach: 3.6 miles / 280 feet gain 9. Blue Lake (Mt. Baker area): 1.7 miles / 300 feet gain 10. Independence Lake: 1.6 miles / 680 feet gain 11. Mirror Lake (Snoqualmie Pass): 2.2 miles / 870 … Read more
Here is a quick reference to 35 Easy Backpacking destinations in Oregon. For this article, easy is considered a maximum of 5 miles to the destination or halfway point, therefore ten miles round trip and less than 1000 feet of elevation gain. Each of these destinations list the roundtrip miles followed by total elevation gain. These … Read more
6. Pete Lake: 9 miles / 400 7. Ancient Lakes: 8 miles / 600 feet gain 8. Packwood Lake: 9 miles / 600 feet gain 9. Ozette Triangle: 9.4 miles / 100 feet 10. Dewey Lakes: 6 miles / 600 feet gain 11. Camp Handy – Upper Dungeness River: 7 miles / 600 feet gain
Taking a little one backpacking for the first time can seem like a intimidating or daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Use this page as a resource to get you and your little adventurer off and backpacking. I have broken down this article into three sections: “planning”, “during the trip” and “after the trip”. … Read more
My son and I planned a 5 day route in the North Cascades that would include summiting three technical peaks. Therefore, not only were we packing for 5 days in the backcountry with 16 pounds of food, but we were adding helmets, ice axes, crampons and a half rope. After getting everything packed for the … Read more
First aid kits are like pizza (or donuts)! We all like pizza, but we may not agree on the crust, the toppings or how it is cooked but we all agree that we like pizza. We all agree that we need a first aid kit of some sort but we may have differing ideas of what we … Read more
For some, selecting a shorter or easier route for kids might be an easy decision. For me, it was not. My decision making went like this: “This is our annual family backpacking trip and we need to hike the farthest to get to the best destination as possible. I’m sure the kids can handle ____ miles/day and carry ____ pounds … Read more
Logistically speaking….what a challenge. I came up with this great idea to go backpacking Labor Day weekend with the family….the whole family….which included a nine month old. I chose an ambitious destination with a very easy “fall back plan” base camp. However, the biggest challenge was packing everything we needed for four days … Read more