Pacific Northwest - camping in or around portland?

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Bekologist
04-02-07, 11:36 PM
Hi, all. hoping for a little assistance from the portland crowd. I'm looking for a place to camp as near to portland as possible. is there a campground near the greater portland area that is reasonably bike friendly? barring that, how about a youth hostel?
I'm hoping someone has a good suggestion, I'm considering swinging the bike south and down that way next week and would like to camp near enough to PDX to do some city riding and visiting Powell's, etc.
gonesh9
04-02-07, 11:53 PM
There's a great hostel on SE Hawthorne, very bike friendly place and neighborhood. As for camping, there's Oxbow park about 20 miles east of town towards Multnomah falls, and several spots along the Clackamas river. Definitely rideable from town, but probably nothing within less then a 30 minute ride from town. You can also take your bike West on the light rail (MAX) all the way to Hillsboro, and ride further west from there into the Coast Range.
Champoeg State Park (Pronounce it like "shampoo-e) is just out of the Portland Metro area and has a very nice campground on the Willamette River. It is also VERY bike friendly, has bike paths along the river, and good connectors into the metro area via Newberg or Canby.
http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_113.php
Hostel at SE 31st and Hawthorne is right in town. For camping, I think Oxbow Lake is closer than Champoeg Park. Oxbow Lake is on the Sandy River near the Columbia, at the west end of the gorge. A fair number of bike camping trips are made there locally each summer, so I expect it's pretty bike friendly.
Oxbow Lake (http://www.metro-region.org/article.cfm?ArticleID=975)
If you're into free, there are plenty of parks and open spaces within the city limits where you could probably camp seriptitiously.
edit - there might also be additional choices on Sauvies Island, but I'm not sure about this.