Portland Bicycle Rides 3

Forest Park is one of my favorite Portland recreational bicycle rides. Of course, Portland has so much urban riding available, there are many more rides which deserve attention.

One great thing about Forest Park is that you are primarily off road on a bike path where bikes still need to share the road but mostly with other bicyclists, hikers, runners, strollers, and dogs.

Forest Park

NW Thurman Street entrance: At the dead end of Thurman the Forest Park entrance has a gate; there is limited parking. There's also a water fountain at the trail head off Thurman Street.

Not all trails in Forest Park are open to bikes. Be sure consult the Forest Park site for which roads are open to bikes, and print a current map to take with you on your ride; they note that if you can't see a trail from the bike map, it is not open to bikes. For $8 you can get a pocket size map set of the over 70 miles of Forest Park trails. You can also print out a series of maps which you can access from this Forest Park Conservancy page.

If you follow the main entrance from Thurman into Forest Park, you are on Lief Erikson Drive (it is usually open to bikes). The Lief Erikson Drive provides an easy 12 to 14 mile ride which is very easy to do in a summer evening. The first 6-7 miles are never too steeply inclined but you do climb to a spectacular view of Portland.

There's plenty of picnic tables or places to lock up a bike and hit a foot trail.

There's many more entrances to Forest Park and many more fire lanes usually open to bicycles so that you can get in many, many more miles of mountain biking.

Mountain biking roads are mostly gravel/dirt type road and in good condition.