For many singletrack lovers in Portland, the lack of local riding opportunities is a constant bummer. (That’s why we saw so much community support for more singletrack in Forest Park.) For really good trails, you’ve got to hop in a car and drive a minimum of about 45 minutes — or you can use the newly launched Portland Singletrack Shuttle.
With the tagline, “You want sweet, sweet singletrack. We make it happen,” the folks behind the Singletrack Shuttle have made it their business to connect riders with trails.
(Photo © J. Maus)
This new service is brought to you by a familiar name in local biking circles; Good Sport Promotion. Good Sport puts on many of Portland’s best organized bike events (like the Worst Day of the Year Ride, the Portland Century and others) and Good Sport employee (and well-known event promoter and Portland bike scene pioneer) Ayleen Crotty is handling promotion for the shuttle.
This isn’t exactly new territory for Crotty or for Good Sport Promotions. For the past several years Crotty has been working the Mt. Bike Oregon even in Oakridge and it has become one of the most popular mountain bike events in the country.
To use the shuttle, all you do is buy a ticket online (tickets are $40 plus a $2.99 service fee), hop in the van, and hit the trail. Currently, seven trails are served including; Dog River/Surveyor’s Ridge, Falls Creek, Sandy Ridge, and others. Shuttles leave every Saturday from NW Portland. (Learn more about how it works on their website.)
Once on the trails, two guides will accompany every ride and no one gets left behind. The lead guide is Brian Hinsley, whom Crotty says “has 10 years experience and killer MacGyver skills.”
Check out SingletrackShuttle.com for more info.
“Friends” of Forest Park should help subsidize the tickets since they refuse to allow this particular type of recreation in the park.
That makes all kinds of sense. NOT.
I know. There is no environmental, logical, or equitable justification for the “Friends” vehement refusal to share the park with people riding bikes, but there is is anyway. Crazy, huh?
This is so cool – and $40 for a guided day trip is a great deal
Judging by the name, I would have thought this was essentially a shuttle service for the car-less mtb’ers. Sounds like they won’t get any of that business due to the steep price and inclusion of guide.
It’s more a ‘guided singletrack adventure’ type of service… and not really a ‘shuttle’ service, yeah?
wonder if they would knock the price down at all if you just wanted to hitch a ride out (and not back)? at 40, that’s cheaper than amtrak and you could go straight to the fun parts. for bikepacking, this sounds like a good option.
Somebody could make a buck by starting a lift service that picks up riders from the bottom of Forest Park fire trails along highway 30 then delivers them up to Skyline Drive. $5 each rider each trip, 1 hour to complete the loop, 14-passenger van pulling a flatbed bike trailer–that’s $70/hour max revenue before expenses. So what am I still doing sitting here at my desk job?
This is great! But I would love to have the shuttle without the guide. Lots of experienced riders who don’t have a car or just don’t want to drive.
Awesome! After moving and living here for the past decade, I truly wish this service had been available earlier. Before moving, I lived in a community where I could access singletrack without having to own a car(Boulder,CO). This could be a great shot in the arm for Portland mountain bike tourism. Shuttle service to the trailhead, nice long guided ride(I didn’t know where to ride in OR)followed by a nap in the van while headed back to the city to spend my hard earned dollars. I see this as a great option not only for carless locals, but vacationers headed to our city! Car rental for a day is expensive! I’ll let someone else do the driving and focus on having fun!
Thanks for getting this up, Jonathan! We’re very excited to be able to fill what we see as a big gap in the Portland bike landscape.
And folks, don’t worry, the guides won’t hold your hand or make you sing camp songs. They’re just about the raddest mt. bikers out there and they’re along for the ride to ensure everyone gets back home and no one gets left behind. I think you’ll like getting to know our all-star crew, or maybe you’ll find you already know them from seeing they around town, on the trail or in bike shops.
We’re trying to keep this affordable, to cover gas for the van and our guides. If enough people start signing up, we’ll add in more features (season pass!) and head out much more often.
If the trails (near Portland) you love to ride aren’t on the list, let me know and we’ll look into adding them.
Woohoo!
Thanks for covering this. A full day of off-road riding for $40 sounds great to me.
Sorry, but $40 buck shuttle is pretty steep.
4 friends in a car at $5 a piece will take you a long way….
Ayleen is great though……
And for the right target audience this would be great…
It will be great not to have to draw straws for who gets stuck driving the Dog River shuttle after the knebal-8mile ride!
We usually can fill our own van with riders for summer weekends, but I would love to give this a try and will recommend it!
Did this ever happen, been looking at the website and nothing appears to have happened.
Lot’s of noise no results, too bad,
It looks like this company didn’t make it, and I am wondering what the mtb community could learn from their experience because there is definitely a demand for shuttle service. It would be great to see a follow-up article with an interview of Ayleen.