West - Portland/Seattle area Hiking

Can anyone give any recommendations for mountains or hikes that are particularly worthwhile between Seattle and Portland? I'm in decent shape so the more challenging the better, although I do not engage in technical climbs so something like summiting Mt. Hood or Rainier would be outside my range.

Probably looking at a time in Late June - Early August.

Check some of the hiking sites like http://www.summitpost.org and http://www.cohp.org, as they can give you some good beta. Mt. Daniel is a nice, loooong hike about an hour or so out of Seattle that doesn't require much in the way of technical skill. Mt. Adams and St. Helens also offer some fairly challenging, but non-technical climbs that can be done in a long day. Olympus is also fun if you don't mind a 2-3 day trek over easy snow.

Be forewarned, however, that above 3000 or 4000', there will be a tonne of snow until mid-June. Rainier and Hood aren't that bad, btw, particularly Hood.

You can also try Washington Trail association: http://www.wta.org/

The options are too numerous to list. A personal favorite area of mine between Portland and Seattle is around Mt. St. Helens. There are some amazing hikes down there!

Ranier is that bad - it's a serious technical climb. I've never done Hood, so I cannot give you any experience there.

brendog is right - it was a big snow year, so if you come in late June, stuff over 4000 feet is going to be very iffy with snow. The good stuff at St. Helens, in particular will still be under snow in late June.

Right now we are still hitting snow around 2700 feet. August will be best. Do some web searching for ranger contacts and call before you head out for anything.

Thanks. I didn't realize the snow would be that bad in late June. I'll push my trip back to August then. I detest hiking on snow after almost seeing someone die on a snow covered mountain so I'll definitely have to wait. Do you think the snow will be gone by mid-late July?

Snow may or may not be gone. Where exactly are you planning on hiking.

The Manning guides are excellent. I would highly recommend them.

Most likely concentrated around the Seattle area. I'd probably want a drive no more than an hour or so outside the city. Does that still give me plenty of options? I know virtually nothing about the area.

Most likely concentrated around the Seattle area. I'd probably want a drive no more than an hour or so outside the city. Does that still give me plenty of options? I know virtually nothing about the area.

There are plenty of really nice options within an hour. Spend some time with the links posted above. To stay within an hour or so of Seattle, I would focus on routes along the I-90 corridor (you'll mostly see them labled as the "Alpine Lakes Wilderness").

Here is another good link for you:

http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/hiking/

If you have specific questions on routes, post them.

Not too far East of PDX in the Columbia Gorge, there are several very scenic hikes along creeks (e.g. Eagle) and past waterfalls (e.g. Multnomah Falls). These can be as long or short as you like.