I want to tell you about a great ride I discovered after living in Portland for a handful of years. I love it for many reasons. Living near Beaverton, I don’t have to drive anywhere to start the ride. It has it all: road, gravel, dirt, steep ups and downs, scenic flats, pretty sights, ugly sights. It really epitomizes adventure biking in Portland for me in a ride out my front door.
The start is in Beaverton off of NW 143rd Avenue. Newly installed boardwalk extends over a wildlife area. After the boardwalk the path continues onto a paved non-motorized vehicle path. Then this path turns to a wide open single track. It was muddy on this day in January – a good time to test your knobbys.
The ride on NW Springville Road towards Forest Park is a long climb that starts flat but finishes pretty steep. The cars are sparse on weekend mornings, but they can be fast and worrisome to a slow climbing sitting duck of a bicyclist. There is a decent shoulder most of the time. I use a rear view mirror and I am always making a plan on how to bail off the road if needed when I see cars here. I would say in the whole of the ride, this is one spot to be particularly vigilant of cars, and not to be aggressive but defensive.
You know you are getting close to the top when the houses disappear, and the empty plots disappear, and then the forest thickens on both sides of the road.