Portland to McMinnville

[Leromia]

Hi there. I have a couple of questions. First, does anyone know what the closest Max stop is to the start of the Reach the Beach bike route (a friend and I will be doing this ride, or something similar to it, to hit the coast next weekend)? I've searched high and low to figure this out and I know that the ride starts at Scholls Ferry Elementary School but neither trimet.org nor anything out there is able to successfully tell me what that closest Max stop actually is. I swear I read somewhere that it is possible to get out there by Max. We're considering taking the Max out there to start.

My 2nd question - we're doing this coast ride in 2 days. Day 1 we will bike to McMinnville and stay over with friends, Day 2 we will head out to Pacific City. We pretty much have the McMinnville to Pacific City route mapped out but we may want to bike from PDX proper (skipping the whole taking the Max out to Beaverton idea) out to McMinnville if we can find a good route so if anyone has done that ride and has any suggestions, they would be most welcome.

Thanks very much!

[Scrumhalf]

Hmmmm... I've never heard of Scholls Ferry Elementary School. Did you perhaps mean Scholls Heights Elementary?

[Leromia]

oops, yes - Scholls Heights.

[Simple Nature]

Not sure if you've looked on Bikely:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...to-McMinnville

west side route off Hwy47

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...innville160320

IIRC... you could do Max to Hillsboro at the end of the line and bus it to Forest Grove.
Hwy 47 proper is sort of a non-bike friendly route past Gaston. Alternates around Hwy 47 can get a bit hilly.

[Leromia]

Thanks - I tried using Bikely yesterday (just became aware of that site) but something was wonky with the mapping - seems okay today though and that is really helpful - thanks so much for the tip.

[bikieboy]

Lero, a really pleasant ride (scenic, low traffic, & no hideous climbs) is from the end of the MAX in Hillsboro to Yamhill, detailed here:

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared...e.cfm?id=93918

From Yamhill, i think the best bet is Hwy 47 south to Carleton & McMinnville - it's got traffic but I believe there's a 3' or so shoulder for most of the way (the State bike map confirms this).