Spring Break
Outdoor suggestions for your summer wish list
xcellent tides, white water adventure, peaks, lakes, rivers, lava tubes just a short drive from home
Brian Beadle
Issue date: 5/15/09 Section: Diversions
You Oregonians appreciate better than I - a transplant from the East Coast - the wonders of the Northwest summer. The barrage of impending warm sunshine opens up worlds typically denied to us by snow, gloom, uncooperating temperatures and academic responsibilities.
Soon, opportunity will be ripe to trade the gross chlorine of swimming pools for the freedom of swimming holes, to start wandering the mountains instead of staring idly at them, to make those "I wish" statements that accumulate during long bouts of winter actually happen.
The following suggestions highlight adventure options within a few hours of Corvallis. Keep in mind some of these pursuits require experience, and all require sense as well a conscious effort to not make the six o'clock news.
You Gotta Get Up to Get Down
Ever stared out at the great pyramid that is Mount Hood and told yourself you want to summit that mountain? Well good luck with that. Oregon's highest is also a pain to get up. Gear and the mountaineering knowledge to use it is required to top Hood. Lucky for you and your volcano-scaling ambitions, two Cascade heavyweights can be summitted sans technical skills.
South Sister, standing taller than 10,000 feet, ranks as third-grandest mountain in the state. Sturdy legs and a disregard for sore next-day muscles is all it takes to follow the summit trail all the way up to the top of the southern-most triplet. Wannabe heroes take on the trail in a single killer day, but considering the high alpine majesty of the area, you're better off making at least a weekend backpack of it.
Mount St. Helens is the other manageable Cascade big boy to knock out. The trek to the top is eight miles long and climbs 4,000 in elevation gain. From the summit of one of the world's most infamous geological conglomerations of rock and liquid hot magma, just imagine the eagle-eyed view.
Unfortunately, Mount St. Helens involves about as much financial investment to get up as it does energetic investment. The deep-purple and wonderfully edible infestation of late summer blueberries and the odds of the volcano not blowing up while you're there offers some consolation to the $25 hit.
Soon, opportunity will be ripe to trade the gross chlorine of swimming pools for the freedom of swimming holes, to start wandering the mountains instead of staring idly at them, to make those "I wish" statements that accumulate during long bouts of winter actually happen.
The following suggestions highlight adventure options within a few hours of Corvallis. Keep in mind some of these pursuits require experience, and all require sense as well a conscious effort to not make the six o'clock news.
You Gotta Get Up to Get Down
Ever stared out at the great pyramid that is Mount Hood and told yourself you want to summit that mountain? Well good luck with that. Oregon's highest is also a pain to get up. Gear and the mountaineering knowledge to use it is required to top Hood. Lucky for you and your volcano-scaling ambitions, two Cascade heavyweights can be summitted sans technical skills.
South Sister, standing taller than 10,000 feet, ranks as third-grandest mountain in the state. Sturdy legs and a disregard for sore next-day muscles is all it takes to follow the summit trail all the way up to the top of the southern-most triplet. Wannabe heroes take on the trail in a single killer day, but considering the high alpine majesty of the area, you're better off making at least a weekend backpack of it.
Mount St. Helens is the other manageable Cascade big boy to knock out. The trek to the top is eight miles long and climbs 4,000 in elevation gain. From the summit of one of the world's most infamous geological conglomerations of rock and liquid hot magma, just imagine the eagle-eyed view.
Unfortunately, Mount St. Helens involves about as much financial investment to get up as it does energetic investment. The deep-purple and wonderfully edible infestation of late summer blueberries and the odds of the volcano not blowing up while you're there offers some consolation to the $25 hit.
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