8:30 a.m. departures, 7-9 hours, $190
If there is any adventure that we love more than biking in the Columbia River Gorge, we would be hard pressed to identify it. The cycling here is world-renowned and it’s no accident it’s one of only six places in the world to have a Peloton scenic ride created around it. We get to do that in real life! From majestic vistas to a profusion of spring wildflowers to a stunning geoclimatic range of forests, from sun to wind to shade. We bike past waterfalls and wineries, cherry orchards and wildernesses, sites inhabited for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples before European colonialism uprooted them. We will ride between 35 and 60 miles depending on your interests and the group, with lots of up and down hills, although all at gentle slopes and lower elevations (nothing over 900 feet / 300 meters).
We have been told by many that this was the most amazing thing they have ever done: vistas, forests, waterfalls and stories about the people who were once here, the complexity of the forests, the building of the roads.
The adventure here is a challenge but not an unsurmountable one; from one end of the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Highway to another, or an out and back ride from a stunning viewpoint, along a scenic highway, then onto a protected bike/pedestrian pathway. Either way we will ride some of the country’s most beautiful roads and visit beautiful waterfalls like Multnomah and Horsetail Falls.
After meeting at our shop, we’ll fit you for bikes and head toward Chanticleer Point, doing either a one-way bike ride from that viewpoint and high spot at about 800 feet, down past waterfalls like Multnomah Falls with short visits to get photos and bask in some of that waterfall spray, then out onto the protected bicycle/pedestrian pathway for a dozen or more miles, and from there either continuing toward the amazing vista of Rowena Crest with a little help from a van shuttle or turning around and going back up to the top, one of the most storied but approachable climbs we know. We will stop for lunch or pick up a picnic lunch on the way — cost is on your own.
The activity will include up to six hours of riding with the option for some short hikes along the way and about 40 – 90 minutes of travel each way from Portland (depending on your group we may start and end at the same spot, or do a one-way journey).
We keep our tours to eight riders, for maximum safety and comfort. 7 – 9 hours; 20, 35 and 60 mile bike routes, $190.