[PUMP’s Roger Louton]
With a major assist from The Friends of Forest Park, mountain bikers are set to begin the process of planning and building a brand new piece of trail in Forest Park.
According to PUMP board member Roger Louton, the new trail will be an addition to the existing Firelane 5 fire access road. The new trail is between Wildwood Trail and Leif Erikson Road and will be approximately four feet wide.
Work on the trail is set to begin in August.
The money for the trail comes from a grant applied for by The Friends of Forest Park. PUMP will be involved in planning the trail and the building will be completed by volunteers, trail-building experts and an Americorps crew.
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Yippie! Nice work Roger.
Any idea of the length?
(4ft wide is not quite ‘single track’, but I guess you take what you get).
Yeah, why 4 feet?
4 foot wide? the desperation of portland mountain bikers is incredible. its great to get a new “trail”, but this is not what folks with mtn bikes want. is this a step towards creating single track trails for bikes?
Sounds promissing, but I share the same sentiments as those above: a 4 feet wide trail is not too exciting. Thanks Friends of Forest Park and Pump, though- it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Hopefully this will spark the addition of the first mile of actual mountain bike trails in Forest Park soon.
I ride almost daily in Forrest Park and welcome the addition of any new trails. I am also not opposed to keeping things status quo in the park. Aaron is incorrect to make assumptions about “the desperation of Portland Mountain Bikers.”
I am primarily a Mt. Biker.
Being a member of PUMP for the past 10yrs, and having Roger “on the board” for the past 2yrs, he is the most passionate advocate for S/Trak in our city. Kudos! in all the work that you accomplish, Rog. Your dedication truly pays off,,,,,thanks.
Corrected above, is my e-m address.
FOREST PARK
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PLAN
Adopted by City Council February 8, 1995
Effective March 10, 1995
Ordinance No. 168509
This document,which I can send to you via a .pdf file, contains the trail construction standards for a mountain bicycle accessible firelane. For bikes, an 8 FOOT wide Firelane is the required status, so going down to 4 feet is good, and after a few years, when the surrounding greenery grows back, it may resemble singletrack.
Show up for the trail work parties in August, dig in the dirt with us, then YOU can take ownership of the first mileage opened to bicycles since 1988 in Forest Park, our park!
http://www.pumpclub.org
This is a great step. I am new to Portland, have become a part of the bicycle community and I love it all, with one exception: the access to local singletrack. How about you make it 1 foot wide and four times as long? Yee haw!
Seriously, great work.
So, this trail, while nice, and probably fast, through Forest Park will be 4 feet wide because of outdated thoughts towards Mt. Biking, or to increase the number of slower, non- mt bikers.
I mean I think it is great that a new trail is going in. But, we have so little single track in town, and here is an opportunity to make more.
We only need a 6 inch wide trail, with a couple feet on either side BRANCH wise.
How sad to have lost single track capabilities, all for three and a half feet
I couldn’t agree with Dabby more, bring on the single track!
I applaud PUMP for all their efforts promoting new mountain bike trails around Oregon. That said, I hope this 4 foot wide trail will not cause people to mistakingly think of Forest Park as “mountain bike friendly”. As Roger directly pointed out, there are specific requirements written into construction standards for Forest Park that expressly discriminate against mountain biking. All bicycle trails must be 8 ft wide? Wildwood is a pretty nice trail… I’m baffled that hikers get endless miles of nice thin trail while mountain bikers are stuck on wide firelanes? Very strange, there must be someone behind the scenes that is extremly anti-mountain biking.
Greetings. I am the ED of Friends of Forest Park. The Firelane 5 project got its start 2 years ago when Portland Parks and Recreation staff asked us to apply for a grant to pay for the project. We received a grant that paid for part, not all, of the work. FFP has contributed months of our staff time to this project. This includes an incredible amount of work to gain all the require permits. Our program director and trail crew, as well as our AmeriCorp Crew, did the bulk of trail construction. (The trail specifications are dictated by the city. They are certainly not random, nor were they designed by FFP.) So, if you like the new trail and are excited about having more FP options, you have FFP and Portland Parks and Recreation to thank in a big way. We look forward to working with the mountain bike community on more projects in the future.