Lots of options. Mt Tabor has some paved trails that run up it that are nice. You could include that in addition to running to Laurelhurst park or Powell Butte from where you are saying. That said, if I had one day to run in Portland, my first choice would be to head to Forest Park and run Wildwood (a well groomed dirt trail) and/or Lief Erickson trails (more of a fire road). Second choice would be a loop on the river trail - cross over start from the steel bridge and run down to the sell wood bridge, cross over and run back (or vice versa). It's a nice multiuse trail that goes through a number of parks and has good views of the city, river, bridges, etc.

As for a recovery ride. The trail along Marine drive is flat and not to many pedestrians use it so you don't have to worry about weaving around people. Sauvie Island is another good place for a recovery ride as it's pretty flat as well. Though if you just want to wander around there are a ton of bike lanes all around town, so it is a fun way to check out different neighborhoods and what not.

Have fun, I miss living there (except for the outrageous cost of living, the traffic, and the job I was in)

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Matt

You've already gotten my suggestions for running, but if you're interested in swimming, do get in touch.

Forest park looks awesome. Definitely think that's where I'll be running at. If I just google the parks city web site, will I find parking info there?


I wasn't planning on it, but I could probably be persuaded into a Friday morning swim. I've got IM Santa Rosa coming up and missed about a month and a half of swimming due to an injury/accident.

The two main starting points are either at the west end of NW Thurman street or at Macleay Park. It's just street parking at both places and there are signs indicating if it's a spot you can park in. Some of the trailheads off of Germantown road, Skyline road, and St. Helens road have small lots I think, but I've not parked in them

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Matt

Great, thanks. I'll be coming from basically Mt Tabor Park where we're staying, so I'll take a look and see what makes the most sense.

I usually park on Germantown at the Wildwood trailhead. There are two lots on either side of the street. If it is a nice day, they may start filling up after 10 or so. Don't worry. Most people do short hikes, so after the first mile, it will be not crowded at all. If those lots are full, there is another lot at the Leif Ericksen trailhead about a quarter mile east. It connects back to Wildwood by a twisty little "Canyon trail".

As mentioned, Leif is a jeep road and WW is an actual (yet non-technical) trail. Depends on what you want!

If you are feeling more adventurous, there are a lot of good hard trail routes in the gorge (near Multonomah falls). Starting from the falls is a 14 mile out and back that finishes at Larch mountain. It is a crazy cool overlook. There will be several people with big radios, cool to chat with.

Have fun!

Gotcha... good to know. I do have to run 18 miles, so will have to figure out how far I can go with either getting to a water fountain or back to the car. So if I do have to go back to the car to swap a bottle out, would probably only be doing 5 miles out at the most.

Probably don't want anything that's too technical from a trail runner perspective, just because I haven't ran a legit trail in quite some time.

WW is really nice.
For 18 miles, you can't go wrong parking at Germantown and running 4.5 northbound, turning around, stopping off to refill at the car, then 4.5 more southbound. That is all great runable trail with no serious climbs. (The first quarter mile of the north run with drop and that is the most severe stuff on that route.)
WW is cool since it has mile markers every quarter mile. Look for blue diamonds cut into trees about 6 feet off the ground. The mile sign is above them, about 8 feet.

Leif also has mile posts, but since it is a much straighter road, a GPS watch is more reliable than the twisty stuff under dense trees.

I run quite a bit of hills, so not worried about climbs. My biggest concern would be twisting an ankle. Are there a lot of trails that branch off a main trail that would make it easy to get lost?


Thanks a ton!

Wildwood is pretty easy to follow, 95 percent of the crossings are well marked. There is *some* ankle twisting risks because it is a narrow trail. If you are going 18 miles, that's going to take a while. It winds and undulates.

I've been running in Portland for 20 years, and when I do long runs I do them more often on Leif. It's straight, wide, no chance of wrong turns. Every quarter mile is clearly marked. Hills are gradual. You can almost approximate your pace on the roads, just do so in a forest canopy. Parking for Leif is easy; just drive up Thurman as far as you can and look for street parking.

Don't get me wrong, running on Wildwood is fantastic. It's just more of a pure trail running experience. And the idea above to go from Germantown in either direction is a great one, I've done that too.

Either way, if your'e a runner and you're in Portland, hit some Forest Park. Good luck

Clay hit it on the head.
Yes, ankle twisting is always a potential problem, even on well groomed trails like wildwood. Since you are talking about quite a big run, I can see losing concentration in that last hour, amplifying the risk. Again, as Clay said...hard to get lost. Just keep an eye out for the blue diamonds. If you've been going for awhile without out, just turn back and find out where you went wrong.

Something fun would be a hybrid WW/Leif loop:
Park at Germantown, run south on WW, left on chesnut, left on Leif, up cannon (above I said Canyon, sorry!) trail back to your car: 18 miles and you do all the potentially ankle rolly stuff when you are fresh and run Leif on the back leg. There is no water out there, however.

I've run wildwood for my birthday these last few years -

I took my new camera with me this past year - here's what it looks like! :)