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After being teased with spring sunshine, everyone is many of us are eager for more of it. And the weather gods seemed to have answered. There’s plenty of sun on tap for the weekend — so get your plans set and get your tires pumped.
Here’s our menu of rides and events for the weekend…
Friday, April 14th
Midnight Mystery Ride – 12:00 am at mystery location
Get out and embrace the night with friends old and new. This is a Portland tradition and you will very likely have a good time. More info here.
Saturday, April 15th
Silverton Road Race – 8:00 am at Victor Point Elementary School in Silverton (1175 Victor Point Rd)
If you want to test your climbing legs, this is a race for you. The course features rollers and real climbs, including an uphill finish. More info here.
Japanese Hollow Ride – 9:30 am at The Dalles-Wahtonka High School (220 E 10th)
This 60-mile unpaved road adventure will take you, “through the hills, hollows, ridges and valleys of Wasco County, skirting the southeastern edge of Mount Hood National Forest.” Put together by Our Mother the Mountain (OMTM), you can be assured the riding and the vibe will be all that you could hope for. Roads are mostly smooth, maintained gravel and hardpaced dirt. Bring water filter. More info here.
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The Ladd’s 500 – 10:00 am at Ladd Circle (SE Ladd and Harrison)
Ready to ride 500 laps of Ladd Circle? Grab friends and form a relay team, or just come to hang out in the park and BBQ some food. We shared more on this event a few days ago. Full event details here.
Off-Road Cycling Plan Community Event – 10:00 am at East Portland Community Center (740 SE 106th Ave)
The City of Portland needs our help to decide where to put unpaved cycling trails and bike parks! Show up to learn more about the planning effort and give city staff your feedback and ideas. This is a family event and there will be free food, a raffle, and a skills course set up with bikes to borrow. More info here.
Mudslinger MTB Race – 10:30 am in Blodgett (20 minutes west of Corvallis)
The oldest XC race in Oregon! This is the 30th annual running of the Mudslinger, a course known for plenty of fun singletrack. More info here.
Forest Park Entrance Project Open House – 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at St. Johns Community Center (8427 N Central)
The City of Portland is finally building a major trailhead and entrance to Forest Park. The location is at the bottom of Firelane 1 right off Highway 30. This open house event is your chance to see the latest designs and share your feedback about the project. More info here.
Sunday, April 16th
Sauvie Shootout – 9:00 am at Ovation Coffee (941 NW Overton)
This is the hottest new group ride in town. We’ve heard rave reviews after its first few editions and the turnout has been very strong. It’s a training ride out to Sauvie Island then up into West Hills and back to northwest. If you want to get faster and ride with a group this is the event for you. More info here.
Kidical Mass Easter Egg Ride and Hunt – 1:00 pm at Overlook Park (N Interstate and Fremont)
It’s the first Kidical Mass of the year and it will include an easter egg hunt. Need we say more? More info here.
Zoobomb – 8:30 pm at “The Pyle” (SW 13th and Burnside)
A little birdy tells us that Zoobomb is undergoing a bit of a renaissance these days. How about heading up the hill with these fine folks to see what all the excitement is about? More info here.
What are you doing on your bike this weekend? Share your plans and adventures in the comments.
For more fun events, including great stuff next week and beyond, visit our full events calendar.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Mudslinger #30? Wow.
I remember the first one as if it were yesterday. It was also my first mountain bike race. Some participants rode Klunkers—which impressed me greatly—and I rode a bike with the combination tires it came with – the same bike I use to this day for getting around town.
You raced Mudslinger #1? That’s a fun tidbit about you 9watts. Had no idea you went so far back w MTBing.
I was completely, ridiculously into it. But just for a year and a half; then I moved away, and other pursuits interfered. I raced on Mt. Ashland,out in Bend, did the Century out in the Coast Range, starting and ending in Siletz, and toward the end of my time racing I switched to single speed, which was perfect because I wasn’t into the super competitive part and the then rapidly rising pro-dimension which in my view at the time took things away from the fun of riding as hard as you could through gorgeous country, and the three or four single speed folks whom I wasn’t going to beat anyway, and competing with oneself.
Here’s a ride on Sunday down to the tulip festival at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm:
https://www.facebook.com/events/201485497022964/
Four months from now the Tulip Farm is offering overnight camping for the August 21 solar eclipse. The farm is well within the Path of Totality where the Sun’s corona will be visible.
It should be clear in August, but just keep that in mind. The hardcore watchers are all going east of the cascades just in case.
Its great to have events on the weekend City of Portland, but please keep in mind that many mountain bikers will be driving far away from Portland so that they can mountain bike. As much fun as advocacy is, its more fun to ride trails unmolested by grumpy Portland area hikers.
Can I hitch a ride…
What part of town do you live in? I’m heading down for the Mudslinger on Sat. morning? Coming from North Tabor area.
Oh well…at least you’re not grumpy, indulging yourself in writing about people somehow molesting trail…whatever kind of act that bizarre reference is supposed to convey.
“After being teased with spring sunshine, everyone is eager for more of it.”
Ahem. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, not everyone! 🙂
fair point Rachel. I’m usually pretty careful about that type of thing (writing as if everyone agrees on anything). noted.
Well who’d a thought?
To prove your point here is just one link I found for one really happy sun hater…
There are in fact many more.
https://suicideproject.org/2012/05/i-hate-sunshine/
Uh… or you can NOT be suicidal or cranky and can simply find grey skies and rain lovely, and soothing! 🙂 Also, energizing!
Liking the weather we’ve been having seems to be an unfathomable idea to most people here now. But I really have liked it. I love it. It fills me with good feelings, goodwill and I feel better in my skin. I prefer it to warm, dry weather and definitely prefer it to hot weather! Not a summer-lover! I can handle the sun on cool to cold days, but usually from the shade. And I find grey skies suit the NW landscape (and my eyes!) better.
It’s really not so weird to love the grey, the rain, the cold, and in the same way most people love the sun. A happy way, a delighted way. An “I feel way better in this weather” way. 🙂
p.s…haha! Thanks, Jonathan. You’re ever thoughtful. 🙂
Light grey is ok. Even light rain, or mist. Definitely lets colors, texture and detail pop, and can be very relaxing on the eyes. The cold, and dark, ponderous skies and incessant rain, which we’ve had more of our share of this last winter, is what gets some of us Oregonians desperate for sun.
I’d just like a little balance…that’s all I’m asking and looking forward to. Maybe three or four days of dry, with a little sun somewhere in there, and the other days it can rain to beat the band.
Too much sun can definitely be overbearing. Fades out my cycling gear too…that kind of bugs me. With terrain, air current and topography in mind, cool places offering more than shade, are closer to some people than they realize.
Soothing, indeed, and very much alive and healthy, I might add. Thirty years ago I worked for a beautiful soul, who loved the grey. She once said that when she’d get up in the morning and look out the window, if the day didn’t call for carrying an umbrella, she’d sigh with disappointment. The stormy Portland weather, you see, had drawn her here from southern sunny climes. Every day is a unique and precious gift.
Stph
🙂 I have that same reaction when I see glaring sun out the window. I really think it has a lot to do with being blue-eyed and fair-skinned and redheaded. I (the redhead) was made in cloudy climes to maximize every ounce of sunlight, so when it’s full-on summer glaring, it literally hurts.
It was really eye-opening and appalling to me how readily many people here now unconcernedly embraced the drought weather of the past 4 years. Few had a problem with that hot monotonous weather. Nearly all loved it, and it was humid, sweaty, polluted and awful. Plus hot weather really seems to bring out the worst in people.
I don’t get summer love. The last four years of overly hot dry weather drove me insane and depressed me to no end. I’m actually hopeful for once that this coming summer will be more reminiscent of the summers here I grew up with and am used to… apparently the kind everyone else loathes.
Rain is wonderful. 🙂