(Photo: Kat Marriner)
Renowned two-wheeled explorer, travel writer, bike advocate, speaker and radio commentator Willie Weir recently took an unorthodox adventure. The man who has pedaled the most exotic locales across the globe loaded up his bike, joined his trusty companion Kat Marriner, and spent a week (short by Willie’s standards) exploring the bikeways in and around Portland. They camped in vacant lots, crashed on stranger’s futons, and soaked up all that is bike in Portland.
The result is a 2,000 word feature article in the current issue of Adventure Cyclist Magazine where Willie shares his adventures — from camping on Sauvie Island to a Zoobomb — with a national audience.
As I read the piece, I was struck at how much bike fun Willie and Kat were able to have with a limited budget and an unlimited sense of adventure and curiosity. It said just as much about them as it did about the culture around bicycles that exists here. Willie’s travelogue was also a refreshing bit of perspective from someone outside our bike bubble. For all those reasons, I enjoyed reading about his adventures and thought you would too.
Their week-long excursion took them up to Washington Park for a Zoobomb, which Willie and Kat seem to have thoroughly enjoyed (even if their “regular” bikes made them feel out of place):
“Laughter and short yips of delight and an occasional “on your left” mix with the magical whirring of bike wheels as the group bombs (or glides) back down to the city.”
The next day they sampled one of Portland’s most bike-friendly streets, NE Tillamook, then made their way out to Sauvie Island for an overnight stay at Island Cove Park:
“Mt. Hoods looms to the east. Stars twinkle. Owls hoot. We are 10 miles from downtown Portland.”
After Sauvie Island, they took light rail out to “the burbs”:
“We arrive to wide roads and strip malls — Anywhere, U.S.A. Where are the bike boulevards and bike route signs? We quickly pedal back into the city…”
The next day, on their way to an obligatory stop at Powell’s Books, they stopped to gawk at bike traffic on the Hawthorne Bridge:
“We position ourselves mid-span and watch in delight. A steady stream of cyclists pass by for two hours. This is not Bike to Work Day. This is not staged. This is simply Portland going to work. Over 7,000 cyclists use the bridge each day. Our faces hurt from smiling.”
Their adventures also took them through Mt. Tabor, through the Reed College campus (“which looks more like a wildlife preserve”), on the Springwater Trail, and through a friend’s forested property off Skyline Road near Forest Park. Willie and Kat spent their final few days soaking up Portland’s urban life: Saturday Market, a maple bacon bar at Voodoo donuts, and the Hopworks Biketobeer Fest event, which Willie described as “Music, bikes and beer. Hundreds of bicycles filled the racks. Just a normal Saturday in Portland.”
By the end of his journey, Willie is clearly an unabashed fan of Portland. And this article is a far cry from how our city was last treated in Adventure Cyclist. But beyond Willie’s personal affinity for Portland, his article is an example of the potential of another aspect of our local bike economy: Tourism.
I mean, after reading his closing paragraph…
“Whether you like urban cycling or not, every cyclist in America owes it to themselves to visit Portland. You’ll be delighted to see what can happen when a city focuses on moving people instead of moving cars. I can only hope and dream that Portland is a window into the future of our cities.”
…who wouldn’t want to hop on their bike and come here?
Willie has already talked up Portland as part of his regular gig on KUOW in Seattle and his testimony will continue when he shares more stories from his Portland adventure at the Seattle REI flagship store on February 9 at 7pm.