Reporter – Michelle Week
Ride Date – Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Ride Description
Ride Report
Only 5 brave souls ventured to the pulp and paper land of Camas Tuesday.
The ride went off without a hitch and exposed some new riders to the old evergreen hwy. In Camas we stopped by Camas bikes (the only bike store in Camas), took a quick tour of the historic downtown area and stopped for coffee at piccolo paradisio before venturing back towards Portland. We also met up with one of the few bike commuters in Camas and learned a little bit about what it’s like to ride every day in a town of 17,000 where 80% of its residents drive single occupancy cars out of town to work.
We made great time and were headed back over I-205 forty minutes before “mocktails on the bridges” got set up. Only a slight disappointment given how gorgeously the weather held out for us.
Thanks for a great ride, thanks to BikePortland and the Mercury for publishing it, and hopefully the 5 person critical mass of Camas will expose more drivers to alternative transportation.
Thanks for reading.
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Living in Vancouver, I ride out to Camas enough to say, there’s really rarely a reason to go out there. I hope all of your butts are in once piece after riding on Old Evergreen Highway. I just keep to the smooth, wide shoulder of SR 14.
Why the snarky tone about Camas? Camas is a lovely town, with many cycling opportunities – spend a few hours near Lacamas Lake and you can enjoy a nice ride around the lake, or some off-road riding on the trails.
There are many cyclists in Camas, but it is pretty far for most commuters. I commute most days from Camas to North Portland by bike (some days using a park&ride, and the others riding the entire 20 miles each way) and it adds a lot of extra time, but it is worth it to me.
Come visit Camas, but leave the Portland attitude behind next time…