Weekend Event Guide

PUMP's Forest Park Mountain Bike Tour

Head out to Forest Park for
Columbia Sportwear’s Trail Fest event.
(Photo © J. Maus)

What? It’s Fall? You wouldn’t know it by looking at the number of bike events on the schedule. Below is our Weekend Event Guide. Get out there and have fun.

Saturday, September 26

10:00am – 12:00pm: Heed Your Steed – Cyclocross Bike Maintenance Clinic
‘Cross season is up on us and Tori Bortman of Gracie’s Wrench wants to help you get your bike ready. Remember, like one of my old coaches used to say, “A clean bike is a fast bike”. Held at the Vanilla Bicycles Workshop (717 SE 35th St).

7:30am – 1:00pm: Columbia Trail Fest
Head over to Forest Park to take part in a number of events (including mountain bike rides), all to help raise money and awareness so we can keep this gem of an open space beautiful and thriving.

11:30am: Ride to NE Portland Tool Library 1-year Anniversary Party

The NE Portland Tool Library is a fantastic community resource that enables folks to check out yard and house tools for free. Join friends old and new for a ride from the (original) North Portland Tool Library to the Northeast Portland Tool Library.

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All day: Hood River Harvest Ride
Ride through the gorgeous farms and vistas in the Hood River Valley and benefit a local non-profit group that helps keep it that way.

12:00 – 1:00pm: All Season Cycling Class
Join PBOT’s Timo Forsberg for an interactive session full of tips and tricks to staying dry and warm on your bike through the winter months.

Sunday, September 27

All day: Bike for Shelter
Take a tour of Portland (various loops available) while helping raise awareness and money to help fight underage sex trafficking and teenage prostitution.

1:00 – 4:00pm: Tour de Parks
Explore the backroads and lush parks in Hillsboro at this second annual ride.

All day: Battle at Barlow Cyclocross Race
Held at Sam Barlow High School in Gresham, this cyclocross race is an annual classic that is sure to leave you hooked on the sport that is taking over the Portland region. Presented by Veloce Bicycles.


For more bike events in and around Portland this weekend, see the Shift calendar. Also, feel free to plug your event, or mention ones we missed, in the comments below.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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Matt Picio
14 years ago

Note that if you have a Cycle Wild schedule which says there is a trip this weekend to Stub Stewart – that trip HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

Repeat, there is NO TRIP to Stub Stewart this weekend. Sorry for the inconvenience, but we have no ride leader available for this trip. Thanks!

Adam Edgerton
14 years ago

Don’t forget the All-women’s Meet the Teams ride happening this Saturday at 9:30. A ride with numerous local women’s racing groups that’s perfect if you’re looking to join a team or find out more about women’s bike racing.

a href=”http://www.obra.org/teams/meet_the_team.html”>Full Details on the OBRA Meet the Teams rides page

wsbob
wsbob
14 years ago

The picture above: a dirt trail two bikes are able to ride abreast with room to spare. This, rather than single width trail, is a great example of trail in Forest Park that people wishing to ride bikes in the park can reasonably be allowed to share with other park visitors.

It’s great that Columbia Sportswear is stepping forward to help broaden public awareness of this wonderful natural resource and the effort that’s required to properly care for it. Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been seeing commercials with Ma Boyle and a couple other guys on tv promoting this event.

SkidMark
SkidMark
14 years ago

Too bad the trails you are allowed to bike on in Forest Park are closer to 20′ wide.

Matt F
Matt F
14 years ago

“…can reasonably be allowed to share with other park visitors.” You, sideshow Bob, are unreasonable.

f5
f5
14 years ago

wsbob — As has already been pointed out to you by many on previous threads here, your opinion of what is ‘reasonable’ in this context isn’t shared by a whole lot of folks, indcluding people in city government and the parks department. The city and portland parks is already moving forward with plans to open singletrack in Forest Park in the near future as reported recently on bikeportland, regardless of your inflexible opinions of what is deemed ‘reasonable’.

wsbob
wsbob
14 years ago

“…your opinion of what is ‘reasonable’ in this context isn’t shared by a whole lot of folks, indcluding people in city government and the parks department.” F5

By your estimate, not a whole lot of folks, including people in city government and the parks department think it’s unreasonable for people on foot, walking a single width path to have to make way for people choosing to ride a bike on such a path.

If that’s true, then you have nothing to worry about, and surely you won’t mind if a few folks (well…maybe I’m the only one! Then you really have nothing to worry about!) occasionally bring up a reminder of the realities for path users that this type of shared use will bring about. In Portland, if people on foot and people riding bikes eventually finding themselves on single width path together feel the situation to be reasonable, it obviously won’t be thought of as a problem.

People on bikes are likely to be faster than people on foot, so it’s likely to be people on foot, rather than people on bikes that will be making way far more often. Of course, if they’re fine with that, no problem.

f5
f5
14 years ago

wsbob:

It’s worth reminding the rest of the folks reading your comments that you live outside portland and admittidly are not a cyclist.

“We were extremely surprised to hear what Emily had to say next: That Parks is committed to expanding the trail networks in both Powell Butte and Forest Park in the near future!”

link to article: http://nw-trail.org/node/1405

ggw
ggw
14 years ago

We’re doing the Peach of a Century ride on Sunday in the Salem area. Pretty flat ride thru mostly farmland. Should be pretty.

old&slow
old&slow
14 years ago

wsbob is not a cyclist? Why does he comment on every issue here. I have thought your comments pretty thoughtful, but if you don’t ride a bike, why would you comment on this website?

wsbob
wsbob
14 years ago

ggw #9: good of you to have announced the Peach of a Century ride out in Salem. Sounds Nice! It probably goes through French Prairie. Just read a little item on the O’s op-ed page tonight. Naturally, developers have had their sights on this area for years. Some people in Oregon would like to have a casino built there. That’s not an idea I would support.

Back to the proposal for mountain bikes on single width path in Forest Park issue:

“It’s worth reminding the rest of the folks reading your comments that you live outside portland and admittidly are not a cyclist.” f5

“…admittidly…”f5

Who is admitting (I presume that’s approximately the word you meant with your spelling) any such thing? I couldn’t be sure what your definition of a ‘cyclist’ is, so I won’t make claim to that distinction.

Ride a bike? Sure do; road bike. Used to do long distances, not so much these days, but can still hack the hill into Ptown.

Do I ride a mountain bike? No, but I certainly think those that ride them can make a worthy contribution to cycling opportunities in the Portland area. An insistence that single width path in Forest Park be made accessible to people that want to ride mountain bikes isn’t something I would consider a worthy contribution. Others seem to, and their opinion appears to be welcome, so in the interest of balance and fairness, it seems as though opposing viewpoints should also be welcome.

Yep…live in the oft-scorned Beaverton…a far better place than some people in Portland give it credit for being. Beaverton by the way, is a mere 6-7 miles from the Portland area, or more accurately, the Metro area, and is probably the biggest city in the metro area outside of the city Portland.

What neighboring cities do with resources they have a responsibility for developing the use of has a bearing on each other. I think everyone in the Metro area, not just Portland residents, have an interest in what Portland does with the Metro areas largest park.

I essentially agree with SkidMak #4: A 20′ wide road shouldn’t be necessary to comfortably accommodate differing modes of transportation together on paths in Forest Park. 10′ to 12′ should be just fine.

At least some it paved with asphalt would be good because that would better allow access by wheelchair confined park visitors; with off-road tires, such as the Segway offers on one of the models it has available, asphalt may not be necessary. Such a vehicle may be able to run a path like the one in the picture above with out too much difficulty.

Looking into the future, electric assist, as it increasingly becomes something more bikes today are equipped with, may have a significant bearing on who it is that Forest Park users may be sharing paths with.

SkidMark
SkidMark
14 years ago

wsbob: I’m pretty sure the policy on multi-use single track is that bicyclists yield to hikers. I hav e no problem with slowing down for hikers, and I usually come to a complete stop if it’s a group, especially if there are children.

Also, I have been passed by joggers while riding singletrack on my fixed gear MTB.

wsbob
wsbob
14 years ago

I wish I knew how to shut off the bleeping italics.

Skidmark, I’ve no doubt that there are people like yourself that will considerately yield to park visitors that are slower than themselves, or that many people on bikes may choose to ride in the park at a speed that will have them be passed by joggers. That’s all well and good.

I maintain that all of this will go much easier if the width of the path is similar to that in the picture above. Earlier, I estimated 10′-12′. Actually it looks more like 8′. That seems like enough width for one person on a bike or on foot to fall back behind the other as they continue on, letting a person from the other direction pass without someone having to step off path or turn sideways.

What eventually develops there all depends upon what people in Portland want. If they choose to embrace bike access on many of Forest Park’s single width paths, maybe this is what should happen. I would tend to think that whatever is decided for Forest Park in this respect will be of interest to people outside of Portland in addition to the people of Portland themselves.

I keep listening for sign of efforts made by off-road riders from Beaverton and neighboring towns to find places in our area that could be made accessible to that type of riding. So far…nothing. This, as Metro aggressively works to carve up open land around Helvetia for future urban growth. How I wish someone long ago would have had the foresight and the means to set aside a 5000 acre natural preserve on the southwest side of Skyline Ridge as they were able to for the area of the northeast side that became Forest Park. That would require a massive effort to accomplish today…even though open land on the southwest slopes of the Tualatin Mountains continues to exist, wooded and undeveloped.

Elly Blue (Columnist)
14 years ago

Italics are off — and I’d like to request that you open a forum topic for this discussion and leave this space available for people to discuss this weekend’s events. Thanks!

Kate
Kate
14 years ago

I can’t believe how much squabbling goes on in here! How fun! So much, in fact, that i’m going to throw my off-topic two cents in too!

Beaverton is a perfectly fine place to live while commenting on Portland Bike culture. I’ve lived in Beaverton for the better part of 26 years, taking time to live in Southeast for a year and also in Chicago and in Rome as well. you might have guessed: I’m 26.

So, I dont know if all the people who talk shit about Beaverton are ‘native’ portlanders or what, but if you’re a transplant you really should shut your trap. Welcome to Portland. Beaverton is right next door. yes SUV driving jerks live there, but so do awesome people (who only live there because rich assholes keep moving into portland and driving up the cost.) so there.

🙂 yeah beaverton bikers! I love seeing ya’ll on my ride to work!

Matt Picio
14 years ago

BTW, folks – the cancelled Cycle Wild camping trip to Stub Stewart State Park is back, sort of. Adam George is leading those who still wish to go camping from Hillsboro (the Hatfield Government Center MAX station at the end of the Blue Line) at 9am tomorrow morning.

So, if you want to get your camp on, head on out to Hillsboro in the morning and get there before 9am!

Have a great weekend everyone!

SkidMark
SkidMark
14 years ago

wsbob, you just don’t get it. I want to immersed in nature with my head and shoulders inches away from trees. That is the singletrack experience that most mountain bikers crave. You just can’t get that on a wide trail.

Oh Word?
Oh Word?
14 years ago

Thank you Elly! …so what are you doing this weekend?

Zaphod
14 years ago

This thread hijack belongs in a forum thread but it’s hard to let wsbob rant without a response.

The subtext of what he is saying is that mountain bikers cannot be trusted to properly yield and show trail respect.

Thus, his argument to exclude us from singletrack is quite similar to motorists who want cyclists off the road.

I don’t buy either argument.

The good news is that it appears that more bike-legal singletrack is coming to FP.

wsbob
wsbob
14 years ago

Zaphod…if you chose to be decent and respectful to everyone, you could do as Elly Blue asked, and either start a new thread or search and bump a thread in the forums on the off-road biking in Forest Park issue. At any rate, the tone and content of your comment #19 really isn’t worthy of much response at all from myself.

f5
f5
14 years ago

wsbob, the tone of #19 isn’t negative, it’s balanced and descriptive.

You’re trolling, and it’s gotten really, really old. People have cited numerous sources of information related to user-conflict and trail-sharing for you over the past few months here on BP blog in response to your countless misguided and ill-informed statements and questions, and you continue to turn a blind eye to it all, while continuing to flood these comments with statements like ‘I have yet to see a compelling argument’ etc., etc.

But I see now that you’ve shifted your anti-bike bias from ‘there’s no compelling argument or evidence to allow them in the park on single track’ mantra to one of ‘okay, well if bikes on single track is going to materialize, well then you shouldn’t mind if I just keep jabbing at you with my bizarre push for more offroad double-track’.

Bob: What is your plan for coping with encountering bikes on single track in forest park?

Remember: “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”

wsbob
wsbob
14 years ago

f5: see comment #14. Thanks!

f5
f5
14 years ago

Bob: That’s directed at you just as much as anyone else.