merziac

Wyeth Oregon, east of Cascade Locks.

Wyeth to Lindsey creek trail is done, this is a huge deal and undertaking going around Shellrock Mt.

This adds another big step closer to being able to ride to the Dalles without riding on I84 with only the Mitchell Point segment left, another huge undertaking scheduled to start next summer.

This is very cool and I can't wait, love the Gorge, my favorite place to ride hands down.

https://bikeportland.org/2019/07/24/...highway-302823

gugie 

And you get awesome pictures like this:

thinktubes 

Very exciting!!!!

who'll be the first to ride and post pics?

Drillium Dude 

That looks tempting - and it's closer than Glacier Nat'l Park (sorry @Andy_K).

dd

merziac

Come on down!

Let me know if I can help.

Lascauxcaveman 

Why not both?

Drillium Dude 

Quite honestly, I don't trust my car

DD

SJX426 

The more parts you replace, the more trustworthy it becomes! I still drive my 1990 Jeep Cherokee with 224k, my 2000 Grand Cherokee with 225k, and my daughter's driving my 1998 Cherkee with close to 200k. She is in Kirkland BTW.

merziac

Amtrak?

Drillium Dude 

Oh, I wouldn't be worried about staying on I-5 all the way down for the Gorge riding - but not all the way across WA and ID to get to Glacier. There's too much open wasteland to get caught in out there.

I'm looking for more info on that Gorge trail, where a good point to start is, etc. Have you got any links for me? This sounds like a fun couple-day mini-vacay with a bike. I want to try it.

DD

Andy_K 

Here's your guide: https://columbiariverhighway.com/wp-c...e_bike_map.pdf

I usually start at Lewis and Clark State Recreation Site: https://goo.gl/maps/u6xyFbJ9XpBw3z656

There's ample parking there if you arrive in the morning. When I met gugie's bike tour in Cascade Locks, I started instead from the Portland Women's Forum scenic overlook: https://goo.gl/maps/Zg3nFAcNZFsGQ1498

It's also got plenty of parking and starting from there avoids a long, gradual climb that's a bit less scenic than the rest of the ride (though still not bad).

I'd love to join you for at least part of this if you decide to do it on a weekend, though you'd see a lot less traffic on a weekday.

merziac

There's a pretty good link in the first post that links to BikePortland's article on it that has good links to the maps and other info. You have to dig a bit because there is a lot of info and some of it is older so there's that. I will be at Wyeth at 10 AM for the ribbon cutting, there is a ride leaving from Cascade Locks at 9 AM to Wyeth, it will take the road up over Herman Creek road which is a pretty good pull or you can ride I84 to Wyeth. The beauty of all this is you can ride as much or as little of this as you want. park at Lewis and Clark like @AndyK said, Womens Forum, Bridal Veil, Multnomah Falls, Ainsworth, John B. Yeon, Cascade Locks, Hood River, Mosier and many others.

merziac

This is what I want to see and ride.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/oregon...57671011409117

Drillium Dude 

After Andy posted his pics from meeting up with the Magical Mystery Tourists, I've been wanting to get down there and ride along this route. Having a brand-new section to try out just adds icing to that cake.

I'm going to check with my cat-sitter and find out if she's available for a couple days. I'd like to try it on a quiet weekday, but a weekend may be the way to go if I want to meet up with a local or two

I think I'll hit you and Andy up with a PM or two, get the ball rolling. Summer's going fast...

DD

ryansu

PDX is just a train ride away and as you may already you know bikes ride in the baggage car on hooks -no bike box, or balky car, required. And they have micro brews in the deli car . And you can catch light rail from Portland to Gresham which puts you in striking distance to the gorge. In theory anyway. True Portlanders can comment I am only a former resident and my info is probably out of date. The train stuff I am sure of as I have done Sea to PDX with a bike on the train.

gugie 

Yup, and I can verify that the train is the pleasurable way to go, but it'd be a two day affair, not enough time to take the train up and back plus do the ride. Andy's idea of just driving out to Women's Forum outlook and parking there gives you all dessert without having to eat your vegetables, plus extends your range.

bfuser191509248

Holy cow. You had me at Columbia River Gorge (talk about scenery envy!), but the images of the construction of that trail section... let's just say it's much easier to take something like that for granted if you didn't get to see what was involved in building it. Incredible. If my brother in Portland ever gets back into biking, I'll have to alert him to the trails in that area.

Sigh... I haven't been along that beautiful highway since the 1960's...

merziac

Well it sounds like it will be up to you to get him back on the bike, could just be a matter of threatening to do it without him.

Invite yourself out, show up and tell him to do or not then carry on either way.

This was/is a huge undertaking, probably more so than when it was originally built, they didn't mess around, they just did it and it was fine, especially for the time.

Nowadays there is all the impact, resource, economic, feasibility, bigfoot, spotted owl, yada, yada, etc, etc. BS, nonsense, red tape, ad nauseam. Nevermind the $$$$$ spent that so many cried about that would have been peed away somewhere else that would have netted us zero.

This whole thing is nothing short of a miracle in all aspects from funding to building and will be amazing from end to end when done.

Jeff Wills

Well, the Gorge Highway was quite the accomplishment even for its time: https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhi...s/default.aspx

I'll be there on the Green Superior since my 'bent is broken. I'll be hanging out with the recumbent gang- one of them is agitating for a way around the stairs at the Eagle Creek fish hatchery. While this was a clever way of connecting the old roadbed with the new trail, the stairs make it all but impassable for my friends with crappy knees, recumbent trikes, heavy booster motors, or all three.

merziac

While that stairway is a pita to be sure, the remedy will probably be a long time coming which is of course ridiculous given the staggering amount of $$$$$ they are spending on this project. The funding for this would be a drop in the bucket comparatively.

To be fair any mitigation will likely be intense and convoluted at best, still shouldn't be that hard in the big picture.

If you go to the flyer page, then to the website you can be added to a mailing list for advisory committee meetings and announcements, should be a good place to start.

merziac

Well this was imho epic, it was well done, well attended and well thought out. For me there are no views of the Gorge that are not stellar, especially when you have not seen them from a new trail or vantage point before.

18.63 mi. with about 2500 ft. of climbing which is so not my thing and I walked some since my normally crappy form is really crap this year.

Wyeth to Viento state park then back to Wyeth and on to Cascade Locks for lunch with my wife.

This trail just gets cooler and more epic the more of it they finish.

Mitchell Point is next and starts next summer, this will be an even bigger challenge as they have to blast a new tunnel in a sheer rock wall where there is no room to start with, it will no doubt be big "fun".

There will be one last segment after that which is also a big challenge for no room for it from Ruthton point to Hood River and it is not funded yet so we'll see.

All told they said the the whole thing could be done by 2030 so regardless we have a ways to go but once Mitchell point is done there will only be 1.6 mi. that could be done on I84, now that would be "fun".

Pics of the crappy variety later.

SurferRosa

Yeah, the earliest train gets into pdx at 11am. The last train leaves pdx at 7:20pm.

amtrak cascades schedule

merziac

merziac

^^^ Pics as promised

Drillium Dude 

Damn, that is impressive infrastructure for peds and bikes. I can't see anyone spending that kind of money up here for something similar - we're lucky if they re-pave to get of root-bumps every decade or so.

Looks like a nice test run route for the Bianchi.

DD