This year I participated in STP for the 4th time. I rode it with co-workers, which was a fun experience. We also camped as a group in Centralia. My STP tradition is staying a couple of days in Portland and taking the Amtrak Cascades back. This year was no different. As I hadn’t been riding there in 3 years, I was excited to see improvements like Better Naito Forever and N Greeley Ave. Also hard to go wrong with Portland’s breweries and food.
Day 1: Portland neighborhoods
One of the things I like about Portland is how easy it is to create a long route around Portland’s neighborhoods. Unlike Seattle, Portland’s neighborhood greenways actually connect with each other in an intuitive way, as well as other high quality bike lanes and trails in order to create a great bike network. Similar to Seattle’s Stay Healthy Streets, Portland has developed Slow Streets. One key difference to Portland’s implementation is that they actually have traffic calming devices such as concrete planters, and have a useful map of them here. Even if you don’t use the map, it is impossible to create a route around Portland without encountering them as they are ubiquitous around the city. I of course seek them out, so here are a few of my favorites:
Other highlights for me included a nice floating bus stop treatment, riding a long the river, and crossing Portland’s many bridges including my favorite, Tilikum Crossing. I also got to ride the now permanent Better Naito Forever, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it goes further south that I expected. Before, bikes were forced into the park if they wanted to continue south on the way to Tilikum Crossing, but now there is a dedicated bike path that allows people biking for transportation to bypass the park. This is a big improvement as bikers who want to take it slow and enjoy the park are still able to, but bikers who want to go a little faster now don’t have to navigate around pedestrians enjoying the park. After the ride, I enjoyed a beer at Backwoods Brewing Company. They have a great variety of beer, and good food as well!
Day 2: Trip to Oregon City
As I have been taking bike trips to Portland going back to 2016, it’s hard for me to find a route I haven’t done before. Luckily, I had saved this post from BikePortland about the Trolley Trail. The Trolley Trail starts just south of Portland city limits. Using it and further south connecting with the Clackamas River Trail, you can get down to Oregon City mostly car free. I enjoyed the trip down, as it is a high quality trail that is a good distance. It was also scenic with lots of water views approaching Oregon City. Once there, I stopped at Oregon City Brewing, which also has a great selection of beer. It has a nice outdoor seating area, with the shade I was looking for. There were also food trucks present. The way back to Portland was more of an adventure. I crossed the Oregon City Arch Bridge, and went back to Portland on the west side of the Willamette. While according to the Strava heatmap, it looks like Oregon Route 43 is a well traveled bike route, I didn’t feel like dealing with cars. Instead I chose a path closer to the river, using a system of park trails. Some paved, some gravel/dirt. I did have to walk my bike a couple of times due to short steep sections and loose gravel, but overall it wasn’t bad, and I was up for the adventure. After Lake Oswego, I used a paved bike trail in Tryon Creek. It’s not a very wide trail, and also has some hills, but overall not a bad connection. Once I reached Portland city limits, I took a very fun downhill bike route through River View Cemetery. That took me to the Sellwood Bridge and back to familiar territory. After this ride, I got some food and headed to the train station to catch my ride back to Seattle. Portland is always a fun trip, and I am excited to go back in September!
Seattle Bike Routes 