Recommend a 20 mile, 2 day Portland hike for 2, w/dogs?

[The Critter]

Hello Oregon! Wichita and Critter here. We are coming to visit you from Washington. Man, those were some hard screening questions. I had to look up to see if Tiger Woods and Elvis were from Portland. They don't teach you that on Portlandia.

We'd like to spend 2 or 3 days hiking in the area. We hear Portland is very dog friendly, so we will have our dogs with us(on leashes). Wichita would like to do a beach hike, but if that's not possible then she would do a mountain hike. We are highly trained in the art of critter style backpacking, but with the drive we would like the distance to not exceed 20 miles for the 2 day beach hike, or less than 20 miles if there is much elevation gain.

We would like to:
Day 1) Arrive at the trail head in the late morning then hike to a camp about 10 miles away.
Day 2) Hike and explore our way back to the car.

I volunteer at a visitor center so I would like to find a hike to suggest to other Washingtonians, besides Crater Lake.

[retired jerry]

Not a lot of 10 mile in beach hikes

The Olympics in Northwest Washington, but that's not Oregon

Snow in the mountains right now.

Herman Creek in the Gorge. Or go up to Benson Plateau or wherever - snow should be melting off. Click on "field guide", "columbia gorge",...

[The Critter]

Click on "field guide", "columbia gorge",...

Thank you, I checked it out. Those hikes are a little short. We don't mind camping in snow but prefer not to spend too many miles in it. We are basically looking for a dog friendly, 20-30 mile day hike to stretch out over 2 days.

I did find a 40 mile Portland Loop Trail, but that is a little longer than we wanted to do with the time constraints. We could turn it into a two day 20 mile trip but that seems more like an urban hike. I will do some more research in the "field guide". Thanks

Edit: I found this hike. http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org ... Beach_Hike But, it doesn't look like there is any place to camp so it would have to be a day hike. A little longer than we want to do with the dogs and allotted time.

We might just have to do a day hike for each day.

[Grannyhiker]

The "40 Mile Loop" is an urban walking/jogging/biking trail, not for backpacking--it's like the Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle. It will end up being more than 40 miles but is nowhere near complete.

There are longer stretches of beach south of Florence, where US 101 is inland away from the coast, but many sections are closed March through September (with dogs definitely a no-no) during the nesting season of the endangered snowy plover.

Possibilities to research would be the Deschutes River Trail near The Dalles, the Wilson River Trail in the Coast Range, the McKenzie River Trail above Eugene, or the Rogue River Trail in southern Oregon.

I think your low altitude possibilities for a 20-mile overnighter are a lot better up there in Washington! Certainly for a beach overnighter, you can't do better than the Olympic Peninsula coast. The beaches down here are too civilized!

[The Critter]

Possibilities to research would be the Deschutes River Trail near The Dalles, the Wilson River Trail in the Coast Range, the McKenzie River Trail above Eugene, or the Rogue River Trail in southern Oregon.

Thank you for the info and the heads up about the civilized beaches. Plan A is 2-3 days on the McKenzie River Trail. Plan B, for bad weather, is a separate beach hike each day and sleep in the Yukon.

[raven]

The Salmon River trail meets most of your specifications but it's in a canyon. You can find campsites at about the right distance in from the east end. West end access should also be possible