Cascades & Coast

Welcome to Alpengirl!

Arriving at Portland International Airport, your Alpenguides will greet you and introduce you to the rest of your camp group. Name games and icebreakers abound before we all hop into the van and drive to our first campsite. Once we learn how to set up our tents, we’ll continue to get to know each other, then enjoy the first of many delicious and fresh camp meals.

Let’s go rafting!

Waking up energized from a good night’s sleep, you’ll bring your sleeping pad out to our morning circle for the first of our daily yoga sessions. We’ll allow our bodies to settle into the new rhythm of being outside as our Alpenguides teach us the basics of outdoor living and tent camping.

After lunch today, it’s whitewater rafting on the class II-IV rapids of the White Salmon River through narrow, volcanic basalt canyons and forested valleys. The White Salmon epitomizes the lush and wild character of the Pacific Northwest in one exciting raft trip, with opportunities to see incredible wildlife, and maybe even go cliff jumping!

Tonight we’ll settle back in at the campground, and are able to freshen up with a real shower. The first camper cook group will take their turn at whipping up a delicious hot dinner from the Alpengirl Camp Cookbook – perhaps we'll try Pan-glazed Balsamic Chicken served over a bed of couscous, with a side of steamed vegetables. Yum!

Kayaking time!

It’s an early day today: we’ll do yoga, have breakfast, pack up camp and meet our guides for sit-on-top kayaking on the Wild & Scenic section of the Lower Klickitat River. This section includes mostly class II whitewater with a fun class III rapid known as Ishy Pishy. The fun and convenient benefits of sit-on-top kayaking are the ease of maneuvering downstream, combined with its stability and forgiving nature – should you tip over, just climb back on, no problem!

After a long day on the water, you’ll get to kick back in the van—napping, talking, and listening to music—as we leave the Columbia River Gorge area and head into the Cascade Mountains, arriving at our campsite in the woods for the night.

Waterfall hike!

Spend a casual day hiking trails and visiting waterfalls, pools, and old-growth forests where we may even jump in for a cool and refreshing swim! This evening, we'll start preparing our gear and looking at maps for our backpacking trip starting tomorrow. Tonight may be a great night for a campfire and s’mores!

It’s time for backpacking!

The area near the western edge of the Mount St Helens 1980 blast zone is our destination for backpacking in the Southern Cascade Mountains. It has a little of everything: old growth forests, huckleberry meadows, desolate canyons, wildflower-covered hillsides, large dry washes to cross, and awesome moonscape gorges. We’ll spend the next 4 days backpacking and exploring this unique and awe-inspiring area.

Our first day we’ll gain about 900 feet of elevation over 3 miles or so to set up tents at a typically lush, well-watered primitive campsite nestled in the woods beneath two large buttes. The second day, we'll leave camp and head out for a day-hike, ascending about a mile above our camp, to connect with the Loowit trail above treeline on the side of the volcano.

We'll spend the day exploring the ancient lava flows and natural features, and taking in the incredible views – possibly even a snowy Mt. Adams in the distance! We'll return to our campsite that evening for another night beneath the domes.

On our third day, we’ll typically pack up and backpack a rolling 3 miles to our next campsite in the woods at a small lake. On our final day, it’s a 4-mile descent across an ash-filled stream, past a blue mountain lake, through a basket-grass filled meadow, and we’ll catch a final view of the awesome Mount St. Helens in the distance, before arriving back at our van.

Our combined day-hiking and backpacking adventure will have us covering a total distance of about 15-17 miles. Depending on the early summer trail conditions, group interest, and abilities, we may opt for some extended day-hikes on one or two of the days. The early summer wildflower display of lupine and paintbrush is a special treat you will not forget – it’s a truly magnificent landscape that everyone should get the chance to experience.

Ahhh...relaxation

It’s time for a hot shower and some clean laundry! Today, it’s mostly about freshening up, leaving the mountains, and arriving on the Washington Coast for the final leg of our adventure. We’ll have showers, do laundry, re-supply groceries, visit a lighthouse, and explore a portion of the local Discovery Trail, learning about the Lewis & Clark Expedition along the way. Tonight we'll enjoy a completely different campsite setting along the coast, where we’ll browse the Alpengirl camp store items for sale and perhaps even have time for our Alpenolympic Talent Show on the beach!

Surf's up!

As we travel back south, Alpengirls will head to the beach for 2 days of surf lessons and ocean frolicking on the Oregon Coast. In our first lesson, we'll learn the very basics and give our surfboards a try. We’ll meet our surf instructors, who will teach us equipment knowledge, ocean safety, and awareness of surf etiquette, setting us up to catch our first wave. In the second lesson, we'll be starting to get the hang of it and become surfer girls! Lesson #2 expands on the basics, and we'll learn more about how to choose the best equipment depending on skill and conditions, how to make it through the white water, and cover even more about surf etiquette and wave selection. The optimal amount of time for surf sessions here is about 2-3 hours; after that, even the most energetic Alpengirls are ready for a break. These surf lessons are geared toward "never-ever surfed before" girls, and will be a great starter experience for every camper.

Our final hurrah along the Oregon coast is in a small seaside town, where we enjoy downtown and a stop at the ice cream stand. Then, we'll conclude our day with a special dinner to kick off our End of Session Awards ceremony, in which Alpenguides present each camper with a unique award celebrating their contribution to our group! Skill beads and necklaces will be awarded as beautiful keepsakes to recognize the hard work each camper has done to commit to learning new outdoor living skills, all while sharing laughter, hugs, tears, and talk of when we’ll see each other next. We’ll settle in to camp tonight for our final night camping together near the coast.

It’s time to go home!

Exchanging hugs with your friends, you’ll depart from Portland International Airport, knowing that you’ve had a ton of fun and accomplished great things as an Alpengirl and are a part of our fantastic community for life. See you next summer!