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El Cap, Triguy, and I found a great, local spot to get some off-road mileage and introduce new mountainbikers to the joys of off-road riding. It’s the Leif Erikson Dr. at Forest Park. It’s not technical at all, but it’s beautiful, and you can ride up to about 24 miles if you do the whole route and back.

Triguy was only able to join us for about 20 minutes of riding before he had to turn back, but El Cap and I rode for an hour and logged 12 miles. Our top speed was 21.3 mph (we both got the exact same read on our computers).

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We started at Germantown Rd., just about one mile north of Skyline. This is the starting point for us west-siders. If you’re coming from Portland, the Thurman Rd. entrance to Forest Park is where you want to begin. For more detailed information on how to get there, visit the Forest Park website.  

From Germantown Rd, you head up a gradual grade. You start at about 650 ft of elevation and you never go higher than about 750 feet. The path pretty much climbs up and down (mostly up) for about 6 miles until you reach the highest point at Firelane 4. We turned around to return, but had we stayed on the trail it would have slowly descended (with ups and downs) for several more miles until dropping 450 feet in about 2 miles (the more major descent starts at Firelane 1).samwfp01.JPG

As I see it, there are four main highlights of the ride:

  • The scenery (this is all the excuse anyone needs)
  • The exercise
  • The tiny, but steep climb just before Salzman Rd
  • Cruising downhill at about 21 mph

 

Is that all that’s there?

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That’s not all there is. For the hardy folks, there are many firelanes you can take, but you either have to start at the bottom or your fun of bombing down a fire lane will be tempered with the reminder that you’ll have to climb back up every feet you descend.

Firelane 10

One option that we didn’t take was Firelane 10. Had we crossed Germantown Rd, we could have picked up Firelane 10. I don’t know what the condition of the firelane is like, but I do know it does have about a 200-foot drop and then a climb up to Skyline (at about 1,000 ft.). Riding to Skyline and back would give you only a little under four miles, but it would add a vertical climb of over 600 ft. I estimate that the first mile or so of the climb is about a 7% grade, and the overall grade is about 4.5%.

What’s nice about Firelane 10 is that if you start at Germantown Rd., you start with a downhill, then take a major climb and then a major downhill, but you do end with a climb. Hey! it’s not perfect, but it’s better than most of the other firelanes that are only 1 direction: up (or down).

The Lowdown

  • Difficulty: Beginner (the trail is a firelane that’s mostly packed with some gravel and some bumps from rocks barely surfacing)
  • Mileage: Your choice: anywhere from 1 to 24 miles or more (if you add an optional firelane)
  • Traffic: From light to heavy depending on time of day, week, and year (we took the trail on a Saturday afternoon (at 3:30, and we ran into a few dozen people at the most (half were cyclists, and the other half were hikers). During the summer, I would recommend going on a week day.