Louise Suhr
Memorial Day has come and gone, and summer can't be too far behind, right? That means it's high time to get serious about planning your summer (and fall) backpack trips, and we can help. We have four Mountaineers backpacking award badges to offer ideas, inspiration, or perhaps a gentle nudge. Grab a friend or two or three and check them out, or join a Mountaineers backpack trip and leave the planning to us.
The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Backpacks
The Seattle Branch Gold Backpack award badge (and its younger cousins the Bronze Backpack and the Silver Backpack award badges) highlights iconic backpack destinations across the State of Washington.
Our amazing state has been divided into nine backpacking regions from the Olympic Peninsula Beaches to Eastern Washington destinations with the Cascade and Olympic ranges in between. For each region, 4-8 representative routes that are iconic of the region and for which documentation and other resources are readily available. Most routes are popular classics that appear in one or more well known guidebooks, or are club favorites and likely future classics.
The list includes a mix of short to long and moderate to difficult routes, though a few more distant regions have only multi-night routes. To complete the full requirement of two backpacking trips within all nine regions could easily offer many years of happy adventuring.
Alpine Lakes. Photo by Louise Suhr.
Wild West Backpack
For further flung adventures, we developed the Seattle Branch Wild West Backpack award badge that you can earn when you complete one backpack in each of the eight western contiguous states (not including Washington).
General suggestions and notable destinations are indicated, but the options are vast. From the Sawtooth Mountains to the Grand Canyon, from the Wind River Range to the Lost Coast, the West holds such an amazing array of environments. Taking one’s backpack on the road (or the airplane) is a great way to experience this diversity of environments as well as meet like-minded adventurers from far and wide.
Mt. Rainier. Photo by Louise Suhr.
For all of these badges, check out the details on the award badge pages about “How to Obtain” and then use the information in the “Contact” section to contact the committee chair with the requested information.
Whether you aim for local or faraway destinations, here’s to happy trails from the Seattle Backpack Committee!
