teresamichele

Hi all! I'm going to Portland for a week in late July for a knitting convention (yes, I know), and I am going to rent a bike for a week (cheaper than shipping mine). I'll have a hybrid - not a road bike - so I can get where it's a little messy.

My only problem is I'm pretty new to this and I'm not up for a 60 mile ride, no matter how pretty it is. I'm actually okay with distances probably up to 20 (round-trip) but major hills are a major problem. Even a lot of low hills will cut that 20 back pretty quickly! I'm working hard (I'm actually training for the Chicago Triathlon) but I don't want to get 15 miles my ride home and be dead on my feet.

I know there's a LOT of trails and places to ride in Portland - but can someone suggest some that will let me get some experience but not kill my legs? Thank you so much!

sportridertex

For some local knowledge try;

www.bikeportland.org

PomPilot

Well, when I go to Portland, I use the maps available from the Portland Bureau of Transportation, to plan my trips around town. You might also want to consider taking a ride north, and check out historic Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. The park staff did not bat an eye when I showed up by bicycle, on a drizzly afternoon in February.

Actually, with a hybrid, and all of the tourist attractions in town, you'll have fun sightseeing.

Andy_K 

The best 20 mile ride to be had in Portland is out and back on Lief Erickson drive in Forest Park. The trouble is that it's a pretty steep climb just to get to the entrance and then the first three miles are uphill (not as steep but constantly uphill). After that, it's up and down. If you can catch a lift to the entrance gate, it's definitely worth doing.

The Esplanade loop (around the Willamette River as it cuts through the city) and the Springwater Corridor is probably the best easy ride. The first few miles after you leave the Esplanada are flat and very well paved. Then you hit the huge sore spot in the otherwise joyous world of Portland cycling, which is the fact that you need to detour about a mile and a half through some very poorly paved roads with very little directional guidance to get to the next section of the trail. The pavement isn't as smooth after that anyway, so you could just turn around there. Starting at the Hawthorne Bridge, riding across to Waterfront Park, biking along the west side waterfront to the Steel Bridge, crossing the Steel Bridge, following the Esplanade up to OMSI then going out to Sellwood and back along the Springwater Corridor would give you about a 10 mile ride.

You may also find this page to be of interest:

https://trimet.org/pdfs/publications/bikeadventures.pdf

The thing that a lot of visitors don't realize about Portland is that the off-road paths aren't really the thing that makes Portland the bike Mecca that it is. It's the streets. Portland is a great place to just hop on a bike, ride around and see the city. Figure out what you want to see in Portland and then bike there (unless what you want to see is the Hawthorne area...in that case bike near there and walk over).

These web sites may or may not help:

https://rideoregonride.com/
https://www.bycycle.org/regions/portlandor

Jeff Wills

If you're coming to this: https://www.socksummit.com/ then you'll be right on the Eastside Esplanade/Willamette River loop. The loop's northeast corner is a couple hundred feet from the Oregon Convention Center.