Becky Ohlsen

Becky Ohlsen is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, and Rye, Colorado. She writes about travel and outdoor adventures, usually in places where it rains a lot: Sweden, Oregon, Washington. She can barely ride a bicycle but has crossed the US by motorcycle more than once. She likes new camping gear, old kung fu movies, and books about sentences. Becky's newly revised and updated edition of BACKPACKING OREGON, the classic guidebook created by Douglas Lorain, will be published in 2025. She has also updated Lorain's ONE NIGHT WILDERNESS - PORTLAND -- a fun, practical guide to short overnight backpacking trips within easy reach of Portland, geared toward those of us who love getting out into nature but can't realistically commit to a week-long backpacking adventure every summer. Both books describe a range of backpacking trips to some of the most beautiful backcountry spots in the Pacific Northwest, with maps, photos and various ratings for each. Her outdoor guidebooks also include WALKING PORTLAND, an oddball guide to exploring Portland's neighborhoods (Wilderness Press), and an updated edition of BEST TENT CAMPING - OREGON. Becky also researched and wrote STOCKHOLM POCKET PRECINCTS (Hardie Grant Travel), a visually inspiring, personal and subjective guidebook to the neighborhoods of her favorite city. Between assignments, Becky continues to peck away at a book about motorcycles and the allure of risk. For a few years she raced a vintage Honda 175 at Portland International Raceway (very slowly). In 2009 the infamous Portland "555" crew granted Becky permission to ride with them as an embedded reporter, on a tiny 30-year-old motorcycle, from Portland to Knoxville, Tenn.; the story appeared in CYCLE WORLD magazine (April 2010). Having survived the trip, she was invited to join the SFRC (Sang-Froid Riding Club) and has been a club member ever since. Becky spends a lot of time roaming around; she co-authored Lonely Planet's coffee-table book THE VANLIFE COMPANION. She has a probably ill-advised master’s degree in journalism from NYU’s Cultural Reporting and Criticism program and has occasionally taught journalism. Her favorite writers include John McPhee, Kelly Link, Laird Hunt, Geoff Dyer, Steve Aylett, Lydia Millet, Torgny Lindgren, Tove Jansson, Willy Vlautin, Patrick DeWitt and plenty of others. A recovering copy editor, Becky will debate points of grammar with anyone, anytime.