Advice on spring backpacking near Portland, OR

Still a lot of snow at elevation, like on Mt Hood. Hard to find where trail is. Microspikes and/or snowshoes might be in order.

Columbia Gorge would be wide open. Still some snow at highest places. Probably don't need microspikes or snowshoes. Maybe up Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake, back via Benson Plateau. Or Tanner Butte. Lots of trip reports at portlandhikers.org, and the field guide has a lot of details.

Jerry is dead on with the Eagle Creek hike. It can be done as a full loop, meaning park your car at the UPPER parking lot by the bathrooms, not down at the trailhead where break-ins are common. Better to walk the quarter mile to the trailhead and be safe.

Take the Eagle Creek trail 13 miles up to Wahtum Lake, then the PCT across the Benson Plateau to Cascade Locks, then the Gorge Trail (#400) back to Eagle Creek's upper parking lot. Total 35 miles. I have done it as an overnight, but it's better as a 3 day, 2 night trip. I can provide an Excel file of the route description and elevation profile if you will PM me with your email address.

The other Eagle Creek alternative is the Eagle-Tanner Butte loop, but it is no where nearly as scenic as the Eagle-Benson loop, and requires an unbridged ford of Eagle Creek, which could be "challenging" to say the least in April, given the run-off from the Mt Hood glaciers and snow fields that feed the creek.

Thank you for the suggestions! Eagle Creek sounds promising. I will look into that some more.
Bob – PM incoming about the route description and a few other questions.
Ethan