Originally Posted by
PomPilot
During the last weekend of Pedalpalooza, in June, I’m going to be in Portland for my annual alumni weekend.
I’m thinking of riding from the University Park area (more accurately, the U. Portland campus) out to Sauvie Island on Saturday, for a picnic lunch, and then ride back.
Warning, there will be consumption of mass quantities of Widmer beer on Friday night. Followed by a probable lack of sleep. To be repeated on Saturday night.
Do any of our Rose City area correspondents, have any thoughts or routing advice? Google Maps routes me over the St. Johns Bridge, and along St. Helen’s road to the Sauvie Island Bridge. I seem to remember that the road up to the St Johns bridge on the west side is not the gentlest grade. Nor is the bike lane all that wide (once it starts). Granted, those memories are from driving it, not cycling it. Am I crazy for even trying this? Or am I likely to run into other riders who may have even less of a clue than I do?
Well... I did part of that yesterday- up and over the St. Johns Bridge from the east. I've done the climb from St. Helens Rd. to the west end of the St. Johns Bridge and it's kind of narrow and steep, but not unpleasantly so. I didn't use my granny gear on it, so it ain't htat bad. The nice thing about going eastbound is that you start near the top of the bridge and head downhill. Westbound is mostly climbing on the bridge- I had my eye on my rear view the whole way. All the cars moved over, although some didn't go all the way into the other lane. Grrr....