60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Portland guides hikers to many of the classic areas, including the Columbia River Gorge and the Mount Hood Area, as well as specific destinations like Neahkahnie Mountain, jutting straight up from the Pacific Ocean, and Oak Island, a paradise for bird watchers. "A good guidebook...bound to be useful." -- OLA Hotline , December 2001 -- Review It's time to take a hike! No more excuses like "I don't know where to hike around here, "It's inconvenient to get to the woods from the city," or "I don't have time to wander the trails." With 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Portland as your guide, you have a choice of a hike for each week of the year, and then some; dozens of places to hike, and most within an hour's drive or less. With 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Portland, you don't have to travel far to find a variety of outstanding hikes; short hikes, long hikes, hikes for children, urban hikes, rural hikes, wildlife hikes, historic hikes, and many others. Inside you will find: Trail descriptions that allow you to assess each trail before you hike it GPS-based trail maps that provide you with accurate trail information Trail profiles to help you visualize altitude gain and loss Directions that lead you to the trailheads If you are lucky enough to live in the Portland area (or just visiting), 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Portland provides the information necessary for you to choose the perfect day hike, as well as maps, directions, trail lengths, driving times to the trailhead, hiking times, highlights, and a wealth of detail about the trail itself. So lace up those boots, sling that pack, and hit the trail! Paul Gerald is a professional freelance writer and lover of the outdoors. He's hiked extensively in the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Montana, as well as Appalachia, Alaska, Nepal, and Argentina. His work has appeared in newspapers around the country, as well as Northwest Airlines WorldTraveler , Dish Magazine , Weissmann Travel Reports , and Nike's website. A transplant from Tennessee, he moved to Portland in 1996 to be near the mountains, ocean, and big trees. 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 it's 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 float plane 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. Used Book in Good Condition