Hood River to Portland (Oregon side)
 

I've ridden out the gorge from Portland to Hood River a few times, but only in the eastbound direction. This works pretty well, as the freeway stretches of the route where there's no old Gorge highway have good shoulders. Anyone know if the westbound direction (Hood River to Portland) works as well? Driving it, it looks like there's some pretty narrow shoulder areas where you'd be riding on the freeway - but the gorge bike map seems to show it as good..?

Anyone know how good (or bad) it is?

Cycle Oregon did it 2 years ago. You *might* find the map on their site or on cyclingsite somewhere. As I recall, through Hood River followed Hwy 30 (State St, Oak St, Cascade Ave), and then got onto I-84 westbound. Exited at Viento for lunch, then back on Wyeth or something like that. Amazingly steep climb :-) up, then down and through Cascade Locks, which is longer than you'd think it is. Then west on the bikepath out of Cascade Locks, jumping onto I-84 westbound before you run out of bike path (about 4 miles; you'll cross a bridge and the trail ends. Go back and hop onto the freeway shoulder; there are several places where you can do that. Get off at Warrendale, then follow the Scenic Highway all the way into Troutdale. You can probably work it out from there.

thanks, Lynne - any recollection of whether the freeway portions have a decent shoulder or not? You'd probably remember all to vividly the places where they didn't...

I don't recall the freeway shoulder being bad. It got narrower over some bridges, and ODOT coned off a lane at those spots, but it was plenty of shoulder in any case. They just had the "2000 cyclists on the road" thing to worry about. :-)

I see I mistyped up there - we were on the freeway shoulder from Hood River to Wyeth, and exited at Wyeth.

I don't think there are too many exit ramps that you need to worry about.

Every year, I ride the loop from Vancouver to Cascade Locks on the Washington side, then back on the Oregon side. I've edited a map and cue sheet for this and put in on the web:
http://www.ohpv.org/bog/BoG.htm
with instructions for following the path, including the stairs (!). Have fun!

Jeff

Thanks Jeff... Excellent route!