Biking Coraline’s Curious Cat Trail

This guest post was contributed by BikePortland supporter and veteran ride leader Tom Howe. You can contact him via nagitpo@gmail.com.

In early August Coraline’s Curious Cat Trail was installed in and around downtown Portland. This trail, named after the animated movie Coraline, consists of 31 cat sculptures, each beautifully and uniquely painted by artists. These sculptures are about 5 feet tall and are generally located on sidewalks near the street, making them easy to spot. To find them, a cell phone app has been created which provides a zoomable map with markers for each cat.

But the inexpensive app does much more, as it allows you to “collect” the cats and earn rewards by entering a four-digit code from the placard at the base of each cat. These rewards could be discounts on tickets or at shops, or even actual items like stickers and pens to be picked up at the business listed in the reward description. Each cat also has its own image gallery where you can upload pictures you have taken of yourself or your family and friends with the cat. The trail benefits Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, and after it closes on October 13th, the cats will be auctioned off in a fundraiser.

The cat trail has been immensely popular, with most people walking from cat to cat using the cell phone app. I wanted to bike from cat to cat and made some Ride With GPS routes to accomplish that. The main route is a 10-mile loop that visits all 29 of the “low elevation” cats. The route has a point of Interest marker for each cat providing info, and you can zoom in very close to see exactly where the cat is situated. It took me about three hours to complete the 10-mile loop, stopping at each cat to enter the code in the app and take a picture. I rode that loop on a weekend evening and encountered pedestrians at nearly every cat who were also snapping pictures and entering codes. I couldn’t visit one cat named “In Plain Sight” as it is inside Pioneer Place, which closes at 7pm. All other cats are visible from the sidewalk.

There are two remaining “high elevation” cats at the International Rose Test Garden and the Pittock Mansion. Those two cats have their own 5.7-mile loop route due to the steep climb necessary to ride up to them. The Pittock Mansion is about 900 feet above downtown Portland and, in spots, the road can be as steep as a 12% grade. The route goes up to the Rose Garden first, then takes advantage of the elevation already gained to go further up to the Pittock Mansion.

There are also two shorter routes that are not loops for those who don’t want to ride to all 29 of the lower cats on a single ride. The SE-SW route starts at OMSI and is 5.1 miles long visiting 18 cats. The SW-NW route is 3.0 miles long and visits 12 cats. The SE-SW route ends at Salmon Street Springs, while the SW-NW route starts at that location.

The roads in downtown Portland are often one-way, so it is sometimes required to ride around the block to get to the next cat. The cats are not always directly next to the bike path or roadway, so it is necessary to get off the bike and walk over. Please be mindful of pedestrians and avoid riding on sidewalks or crowded paths. This is particularly true at the Rose Garden, which may be crowded with pedestrians.

One unfortunate thing I noticed is some cats are missing the laminated placard at the base of the cat that describes the sculpture and has the 4-digit code for the cell phone app. These placards are securely attached to the sculpture base but can be forcefully torn off, which has happened multiple times on some sculptures. If you encounter a cat with a missing placard, take a picture of the sculpture then DM the Coraline Cat folks at either their Instagram or Facebook pages. They will reply to you with the code for that cat sculpture.

I found riding Coraline’s Curious Cat Trail a highly enjoyable experience and hope you do too. With over 113K likes on their Instagram reel a lot of people feel the same way!