60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Portland: Including the Coast, Mounts Hood and St. Helens, and the Columbia River Gorge [Paperback]

Paul Gerald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 20, 2007 | Series: 60 Hikes within 60 Miles

The authoritative guide to Portland's best day hikes just got better — updated maps, new hikes, new photos, and brand-new trailhead coordinates — provided as UTM and latitude/longitude formats — make this guide even more useful than before. The Portland area is a hiker’s dream, with a wide variety of accessible, well-maintained trails and no shortage of places to find maps, gear, and walking companions.

This book profiles 60 select trails which give you a little of everything there is to enjoy around Portland: mountain views, forest solitude, picturesque streams, strenuous workouts, casual strolls, fascinating history, fields of flowers, awesome waterfalls, and ocean beaches.

Whether you're a seasoned hiker or lacing up your first pair of hiking boots, this guide has the trail for you!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Gerald is a professional freelance writer and lover of the outdoors whose work has appeared in newspapers around the country, as well as Northwest Airlines WorldTraveler, Dish Magazine, Weissmann Travel Reports, and Nike’s web site.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

As you drive out Interstate 84, you can actually see Angels Rest, a flat-topped rock outcropping sticking out over the road at the end of a ridge. What looks like a building on top is actually a clump of trees. And if it looks like its way up there, just remember that if you take your time on the way up you’ll have plenty of breath left to be taken away by the view up top.

The trail starts with a moderate climb through the woods and has an early reward: a rare view down at a waterfall, in this case 100-foot Coopey Falls. Soon thereafter, the trail crosses Coopey Creek on a wooden bridge and then starts climbing just a little more steeply.

After about a mile, you’ll start switching back through an area that burned in 1991; note the blackened trunks of some of the bigger trees. It was mostly just the underbrush and smaller trees that burned, opening up the forest floor to the sun and letting wildflowers come in to take your mind off the climb. When the trail traverses a rockslide for 100 yards, you’re almost done.

Just past the slide, the trail goes back into the woods briefly, and you turn left out onto the final ridge. This last stretch of the trail is why you might think twice about bringing small children: It gets a little narrow, with cliffs to the east falling away a few hundred feet, and in one spot you’ll have to scramble up about ten feet of rocks. When a trail goes off to the right on the ridge top, stay straight.

The reward for this small effort is a view to rival any other in the Gorge. To the east, you can see Beacon Rock and the high walls on either side of the river. To the west you can see the Vista House and the hills falling away toward Portland and the Willamette Valley. The Columbia River, right below you, seems so close that you could get a running start and jump into it. You might see some windsurfers out there; on one trip, I watched a floatplane practicing touch-and-go landings on this stretch of the river. All in all, it’s hard to imagine a better place to have lunch.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press; 3rd edition (July 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897329759
• ISBN-13: 978-0897329750
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #35 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Oregon
  • #49 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Washington

More About the Author

Paul Gerald grew up in Memphis and went to school at SMU in the middle of the football scandal there. His writing career began in the sports department of the much-missed Dallas Times Herald. He later worked for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Flyer before setting out as a freelancer. Since then, he has written some 300 travel articles for the Flyer, and along the way his work has also appeared in Northwest Airlines' WorldTraveler, as well as Portland's Willamette Week and The Oregonian.

He's also worked in and around landscaping, restaurants, public relations, social work, an amusement park, Alaskan fishing boats, the YMCA, corporate marketing, and as a package handler for FedEx. Such is the life of a writer who really, really wants to avoid having a regular job.

Paul's hiking life started at age 12, when he went to a summer camp in the Absoraka Mountains of Wyoming. He became a trail and road hound at that point, and his hometown of Memphis never looked the same. He's hiked in the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Montana, as well as in Appalachia, Alaska, Nepal, and Argentina. In 1996 he moved to Portland to be close to the ocean, the mountains, the big trees, and the coffee shops.

His first book was 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Portland; the first edition came out in 2001 and the Fourth in 2010. His second was Day and Overnight Hikes: Oregon's Pacific Crest Trail, also published by Menasha Ridge Press in 2007. And in 2009 he revised Best Tent Camping: Oregon for Menasha Ridge.

He's even become his own publisher, putting out Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland's Favorite Meal in 2008, under the name Bacon and Eggs Press. The "Second Serving" of that book came out in 2010.

He has greatly enjoyed meeting people using his books out on the trails; he's also grateful that none of them appeared to be lost or angry. He does hope, however, that any feedback will be directed to him at www.paulgerald.com. And he hopes people will continue to enjoy and benefit from the fruits of his labor -- that is, if hiking, eating and writing can truly be called labor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best, August 14, 2007

By 

Craig R. Schuhmann - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Portland: Including the Coast, Mounts Hood and St. Helens, and the Columbia River Gorge (Paperback)

Paul is a knowledgeable hiker, passionate outdoorsman and entertaining writer. His attention to detail, whether giving driving directions or adding tidbits of historical interest to a certain location, make this a useful book both on and off the trail. In this, the third edition, Paul has fine tuned the content of the previous two editions, adding new hikes hitherto un-popularized in other hiking books, making this the most complete and best edition yet. This is not a book based on hearsay and bookish research; Paul has actually hiked, many times, all the locations profiled. Paul's treatment of the material is so thorough that I was able to use some of his research in the writing of my own book about fishing Oregon. Paul's new book on the day hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail is a great companion book. Thanks for the great work, Paul.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is INCREDIBLE, INDISPENSABLE, and so worth the $ it's insane., December 14, 2009

By 

Lyle Sanders - See all my reviews

This review is from: 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Portland: Including the Coast, Mounts Hood and St. Helens, and the Columbia River Gorge (Paperback)

I kind of can't believe there's only one Amazon review for this book here.
I found this book at Powell's bookstore in Portland (which is the greatest bookstore ever---). It was a staff recommendation and one of their top-selling books. I used this book almost exclusively to plan 3 weeks of trips, 2 weekends and a bunch of day trips around Portland. It has incredible hikes. Well categorized, easy to follow, good maps, accurate, give good ideas, and I had an incredible time in Oregon as a result of this book. Cancelled my trip to Hawaii to stay in Oregon in DECEMBER because of this book. Oregon is a beautiful place and this book was an incredible way into exploring it with Portland as a base.
I love this book! So grateful for it. Great photos too.
I have to say, also, using the internet to plan trips becomes really tedious. This book was a total relief. I did some cross referencing on line but having this book in hand was awesome.
I just found out, here, at Amazon- that there are other books- 60 hikes in 60 miles.... I can't vouch for them- but it's a great idea for a series and this particular book is great.
Oh! Also I went to a really cool outdoor store in Portland and they had this list of things you must have for a hike- and this book was #1 on the list- and they didn't even sell it there.
I'm saying- insiders in Portland love it too. And as an outsider, it was fantastic.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended!, August 1, 2010

By 

Angelyn (Walpole, MA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Portland: Including the Coast, Mounts Hood and St. Helens, and the Columbia River Gorge (Paperback)

I was nervous about trying to find good, informative books on hiking. My experience has been that I'd have to purchase several books in order to get all the information I want. I have found that this book is not only thorough, but it is organized in a way that is easy to read, easy to flip through, and well organized. The only thing I could complain about is that I wish there were more maps--in Oregon there are so many very rural places and some of these places aren't all that close to much--but to see what it was closest *to* might help. BIG plus is the elevation maps. I love those.