(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
The weekend is almost upon us and the weather looks downright delightful (although it could be a bit on the hot side, so prepare accordingly).
Check out our ride and event selections below…
Saturday, July 20th
***BP PICK!!!*** Gorge Pedal Experience – All day in the Gorge
How do you make riding in the Gorge even better than usual? Put together a wide selection of entertainment, food, drinks, educational and cultural experiences. If you love Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge, don’t miss this. More info here.
High Cascades 100 – All day in Bend
A true Oregon classic, this off-road century attracts competitors from 20 states. Of course you can do it. It’s just four, 25-mile rides in a row. More info here.
Ride to Sarah’s Kickoff Party – 1:00 pm at Laurelhurst Park (SE)
Join a campaign staffer for Sarah Iannarone’s 2016 mayoral campaign for a bike ride to her 2020 campaign. More info here.
Bikes for Humanity Food + Fundraiser – 5:30 pm at Taborspace (SE)
B4HPDX is a fantastic local nonprofit that brings old backs back to life and teaches people how to ride and work on them. Come out for this celebration and enjoy great food and entertainment while you toast their work and give them money to keep doing it. More info here.
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Sunday, July 21st
Carlton Bakery Run – 8:30 am at REI in Hillsboro
Discover the Yamhill County wine region with a stop at the famous Carlton Bakery on this 79-mile ride led by the Portland Bicycling Club. More info here.
Women’s Community Ride – 9:00 am at Sellwood Cycle Repair (SE)
The friendly folks at Sellwood invite you to their monthly shop ride. Expect about 20 miles of pedaling with the option of joining friends old and new for post-ride lunch and/or coffee. More info here.
Sauvie Shootout – 9:00 at Ovation Coffee & Tea
Looking for a fast and fun weekly training ride? Look no further than one of Portland’s most well-established group rides. The routes heads north to Sauvie Island then loops back via the West Hills. Get ready to suffer!More info here.
Sunday Parkways Outer Northeast – 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
It’s Parkways time! That means you can discover northeast neighborhoods at their finest. Come out and enjoy tons of activities (including a walk with refugees and immigrants), great food, and the beauty of urban humanity. More info here.
Stay plugged into all the bike and transportation-related events around the region via our comprehensive event calendar.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Also, Friday night is the Rocky Butte Picnic Dance Party ride: https://www.shift2bikes.org/calendar/
No French Toast?
The last outer Northeast parkways ride was pure hell for anyone living within the route. So many people drive to these events. One “cute” family thought it was okay to partially block our driveway with their Subaru. People working the event were rude to anyone living in the area that needed street access. I expect this year to be no different.
You make Hell sound not so bad. I guess we’ve been reading different books on the topic.
I drove to the outer Northeast parkway event last year (allllll the way from Beaverton), as usual it was super fun. It’s so great to visit other neighborhoods and take part in an event in which everyone is having a great time.
I imagine it would be easy for a volunteer to become flustered when trying to keep a safe route for the participants, although I have no doubt that they are doing their best.
I like the events themselves. Sad that cars play such a large part though.
I’m not going to go into the list of why it makes sense for a lot of people to drive to the event, but we drove to the event again on Sunday and it was great. In fact, the first time my kids rode their own bikes instead of riding our usual KidzTandem + Weehoo set up. Maybe cars are your enemy, but they do open up the world to a lot of people.
All Portland Sunday Parkway events are unique but Outer NE is unique for the reason that it also hosts the Portland Parks & Recreation WALK with Refugees and Immigrants. This event draws a large crowd that walks part of the ride’s course. I have been a regular attendee of Portland Sunday Parkway events for 7 years and it has been my experience participating that problems for vehicle crossings at the Outer NE event arise mostly due to the presence of the WALK event. Portland Sunday Parkway staff who monitor intersections do a great job but the unique nature of this event would require that they have extra help along the section of course used for the WALK event as that is where vehicle crossings become problematic. I also suspect that many WALK event participants arrive prior to the Portland Sunday Parkway event getting underway and park within the course loop which later creates extra vehicle crossing traffic as they leave the WALK event while the Parkway ride is still going on. Both of these contribute to volunteers being overwhelmed at letting vehicles through and large queues of vehicles building up at several intersections. I don’t know who provides the crossing guard staff for the controlled intersections but will recommend to the Parkway organizers that they request extra crossing guard staff at a few uncontrolled intersections affected by the WALK event to improve the event for participants and locals alike.
I live just off the route, and it was great! Yes, there were more cars parked on our streets, but the only real issues I saw were a couple of people who lived on the route refusing to wait until it was safe for them to drive onto the route to get to their homes. The volunteers were all great, and it was really wonderful to see so many folks on bikes and on foot in an area that is usually heavily dominated by cars.