Exploring Washington Park

from blog July 5, 2005

We took our friend Bill on a ride through Portland to show off the place. We hoped to try to go out and back a ways on Leif Erickson Trail. But the babysitter time would expire too soon for that. Instead we rented a bike for Bill at Mt Tabor Sports, rode over to 60th and Burnside, caught the Max and took it to the zoo. From there we rode the elevator up and had a little lunch at the zoo restaurant. Pretty strenuous ride so far, but we were up to it.

After a few fine cheeseburgers, we rode down to the Rose Garden, then headed to the main park entrance near Vista/23rd. But before the entrance there is a trail that winds down to the Goose Hollow transit station. It was a great car-free way to get down into town.

I didn’t find a good way to get down to the water front in a bike lane, so we mostly rode sidewalks down.

Roundtrip: 12.7 miles

Time: 1 hour 24 min

Average speed: 9 mph

Max speed: 27 mph