Outdoor School

Camping on the summit of a mountain is a great way to cap off a day of backpacking, but getting there can be a bit tricky, and you may have to time it just right.

Wake up in the woods.  Breathe deep the cool, damp, mountain air.  Listen to the stillness of the wilderness.  Threre's no commute to the trailhead - you're already there.  There are many reasons to love camping.

Dry-side Spring wildflowers are peaking in the east Gorge.  Next Adventure Outdoor School was there last weekend to see the plateaus and hillsides covered in color.  Balsam root and lupine flowers dominated the scene with fields of sunny-yellow and purple-blue.

The mountains meet the sea for much of Oregon's Pacific coast. Giant headlands jut out to sea, creating isolated beaches for the intrepid hiker to discover.  Time it right with low tide, and you can walk around Hug Point, where an old road cut into the rock provides plenty of pools for tidal life.   Barnacles encrust almost any durable surface below the high tide mark, while big brightly colored creatures like this orange sea star and giant green anemone (below) can be found in the lower pools.

Last weekend (Monday and Tuesday) Don and I decided to take advantage of Portland's unusually warm spring weather and head out on a quick overnight bike ride. The trip was impressively convenient and easy, and yet we both had time to take in the beauty of the gorge and empty our minds after a long week of work. This is a trip we'd recommend to anyone who has some basic gear and feels comfortable biking for about 25 miles a day.

Spring has sprung, and wildflowers are blooming.  I popped out for a quick "urban" hike with friend Jonathan and and his pooch, Jake, on April Fools Day.  We drove to a northern trailhead of Forest Park, and hiked a loop along the Maple Trail and Lief Erickson Drive.  We enjoyed a beautiful day, strolling through the fresh green spring growth and seeing the first flowers of the season.  The trail can be popular, but we only saw six other humans and two dogs. It only lasted a few hours, but it felt like a world away.  You'd never guess that such wildness could be found so close to the city.
Below are photos of some of the flowers we encountered.  

Contact Next Adventure Outdoor School if you'd like to learn more about wildflower identification.