Weird, Quirky, Fun Portland

post by Corrine

How bare do I dare? 

I pondered that question as I bicycled from my hotel towards Oregon Park in Portland. Keep Portland Weird is the unofficial cultural slogan of the city and I wanted to experience that vibe. So, I was on my way to the World Naked Bike Ride Portland bike ride.

But could I ride naked in public? I’m not that modest but still. . . 

When I arrived at the park, I chatted with another first-time rider, and we discussed the dilemma of what to do. As we did, more and more people showed up who were in all states of undress. And when surrounded by hundreds of other mostly naked humans, it was easy to disrobe. I ended up riding in just my underwear, and it was such a joyous, fun occasion. A great way to experience the weird, eclectic, whimsical city of Portland.

Portland – Biking, Weirdness, and Biking Weirdness

Since retiring, my daughter Montana and I have made a point of meeting up in new-to-us cities for some mother-daughter bonding and as a chance to explore new places. Last fall we headed to Denver for a few days and this summer we decided to visit Portland. We always try to find weird, fun things to do. That was easy in Portland. I hadn’t ever watched the show Portlandia, so I didn’t really know what a fun and strange place it could be. Lots to choose from!

While researching what to do in Portland, I found out that besides having lots of weird, it also is pretty bike crazy. In fact, Portland actually has two naked bike rides. The first, Portland World Naked Bike Ride, is larger and is mainly a celebration of bikes and bodies. It occurred in July, so I missed it. The one in which I participated, World Naked Bike Ride Portland, is more focused on protest. (It split off from the other one a couple of years ago.) While the second also celebrates bodies of all shapes and sizes, it also serves as a protest for marginalized communities such as LGBTQ+ and immigrants. This year it was also protesting the taking over of our country by billionaires and the closing of the beloved Lloyd Center Mall in Portland. So, besides biking naked, I was also protesting! 

It was while researching things to do in Portland with Montana that I learned the World Naked Bike Ride Portland was happening the weekend prior to our visit. I looked for other biking opportunities, too, and found several. So, I decided to fly down early with my bike.

Biking Portland

One of the biking opportunities I found was the Bridge Pedal Ride. For the past 30 years on the second Sunday of August, Portland has closed all seven bridges across the Willamette River and the surrounding roads (including Interstate 405) to traffic for the Bridge Pedal Ride, a non-competitive celebration of cycling and walking that benefits local health programs. About 10,000 bicyclists participate in this event, following a route that encompasses all the bridges. When I found out it was also happening the weekend I would arrive in Portland, I had to sign up to do it. 

The morning after arriving in Portland, I headed out by bike to pick up my registration material for the Bridge Pedal Ride. I decided to further explore Portland, so I cycled along the riverfront and along the Springwater Corridor bike path. As I was biking along, I realized that I had been on this bike path the previous year when coming through Portland on the first day of my Bike NonStop US bike race. That brought back some fun memories. After reaching the Powell Butte Nature Park and riding some single track, I decided I better turn around as I still had the naked bike ride to do that night. I ended up biking a total of 43 miles that first day.

Portland has one of the best biking infrastructures of any U.S. city I’ve been to. Almost everywhere I biked, I was on either a bike path, a bike route, or a neighborhood greenway. And everywhere I biked, I saw other cyclists. I don’t think I ever went more than five minutes without seeing somebody else on a bike. Portland really is a bike-centric. Between biking and public transportation, I had no need to rent a car.

One of the many beautiful bike paths I cycled on

Early Sunday morning I cycled to the start of the Bridge Pedal Ride meeting more and more cyclists as I got closer. I had breakfast while watching the sun rise on the Fremont Bridge then cycled 23 miles with other bikers for an absolutely fun ride. There was live music on some of the bridges and the views were spectacular. It was fun to see so many families out on bikes. I was finished by 9 AM and since I had the whole afternoon free, I decided to do another bike ride up to Mount Tabor, an extinct volcano within Portland city limits. How weird is that? The area has been turned into a city park and was quite busy on a sunny, Sunday afternoon. By the time I got back to my hotel, I had biked a total of 47 miles for the day.

Live music on the bridge!

Montana wasn’t due to arrive until later Monday, so I had plenty of time Monday morning to bike out and explore some of the trails in Forest Park. This park is within the city limits, yet you feel like you are in the wilderness. So many trails to explore but I had time only for a shorter 27-mile ride before dropping my bike off at our hotel, getting a shower and hopping on the light rail to meet Montana at the airport. It was fun to see so many different areas of Portland by bike and explore some of its city parks. 

Fun With Montana

Montana is not a biker, but Portland has a lot of other things to do. In fact, once Montana arrived, things got even busier. We had made a list of all the fun, weird things we wanted to do in Portland but were limited because Montana was there for less than three days. We certainly tried our best to do as much as we could.

That first night, Montana arrived at 6:30 PM and as soon as we got back downtown, we headed out to catch some live comedy at Al's Den in the basement of McMenamins Crystal Hotel. We got to hear comedians trying out their raw, fresh, unfiltered work. Some of it was good and some of it was pretty bad, but that was part of the fun. Immediately afterward, we walked to the Toasted S’Mores Bar. Who knew such a place existed? Only in weird Portland. Having sweet tooths, we knew we had to experience it. And to our surprise, it just happened to be National S’More Day. How serendipitous! It also meant we got a 25% discount, too! 

The next day was warm and sunny, so we took the train north to the Columbia River to go kayaking. So fun to be out on the water for a few hours. After a late lunch at a Tiki-themed restaurant, we headed back to decide on our evening entertainment. Montana is a singer/songwriter (www.aeyreofficial.com) and wanted to hear live music. I was game for hearing new bands, too. Even on a Tuesday night, there were several options. We finally decided to head to Mississippi Studios to hear three indie rock bands, none of which either of us had ever heard. 

Kayaking on the Columbia River

It was a lot of fun to hear live music and we both agreed that we liked the first band, The Flooks, the best. They performed with paper bags on their heads which was weird yet fun. The venue was full of twenty- and thirty-somethings but nobody seemed to care that an old lady (me) was rocking out, too! By the time we took the bus back to our hotel, it was way past my bedtime!

The 4T Plus 

The next day, I wanted us to do the 4T. This official route includes a Train, a Trail, a Tram, and a Trolley to make a big loop. It sounded like a fun, weird thing that would allow us to see more sights around Portland.

We started by taking the train to Washington Park where we exited 260 feet below ground after going through a three-mile tunnel. (Weird fun fact - this station is the deepest transit station in North America!) You could spend several days exploring Washington Park, a large historic greenspace that features major cultural attractions, but we only had time for a couple of things. 

We take the Train (our first T) to the deepest transit station in North America

We started by visiting the Portland Zoo, which surprised us. It was larger and nicer than we both expected. Both Montana and I have mixed feelings about zoos. We know they are great for advocating for wild animals and educating the public, but we don’t like seeing wild animals fenced in. The animals we were most fascinated by were the weird-looking lamprey eels in the stream and pond section. 

After walking quickly around the zoo to see all the exhibits, we took a shuttle to the International Rose Test Garden. We had no idea that the climate of Portland, with cool, rainy winters and warm summers, was perfect for growing roses. They have a huge garden with over 600 varieties of roses. June is the best month to visit the garden, but there were still plenty of blooms in August. We tried to find the most fragrant roses. It was a beautiful, peaceful place to spend some time, but the 4T trail was calling us.

Just a very small section of the rose garden

Next up was the hike up Marquam Trail. We accessed it from the on ramp to Highway 26 which felt a bit weird. The 4-mile trail climbs to Council Crest at 1076 feet, the highest point in Portland. The section of trail past the high point was closed due to a water main repair, so we had to walk on a steep, busy, winding road with no shoulder instead. Oh well, all part of the adventure. After the high point, the trail drops back down to the Oregon Health and Science University where we accessed the tram

The hiking Trail starts by the on ramp for a busy highway!

After taking the tram back down to the downtown area, we just had a short trolley ride back to our hotel. It was a weird but fun thing to have completed. We were tired but there was no rest for the weary. 

Tram ride back down to downtown Portland

And lastly, our Tram (streetcar) ride back to our hotel

More Exploring and Fun

Next up, we wanted to have dinner at the Hawthorne Asylum Food Carts. Yes, this really was the site of a psychiatric hospital that operated from 1861 to 1883, but it now houses around 20 food carts serving food from Burmese to Greek to Korean Fusion. Another weird Portland oddity but with really good food! Montana had a gyro while I had a Japanese fusion bowl.

And next up for the evening was live improv at the Curious Comedy Theater. We saw online that on Wednesdays the theater welcomes both new and seasoned performers, so we decided to give it a try even though it was outside our comfort zones. Pretty much everybody else at the venue had done improv before, but they welcomed us newbies and it ended up being a lot of fun. It was a totally different group of people than I normally hang out with, but Montana and I really enjoyed participating. We managed to not embarrass ourselves too badly, and even if we had, it wouldn’t have mattered. 

Earlier Montana had noted that there were ghost tours available in downtown Portland. We weren’t sure we could make it in time, but as soon as the improv finished, we rushed out to catch a bus back downtown and made it just in time to buy tickets five minutes before the tour. Whew! The ghost tour wasn’t very scary, but our tour guide was a great storyteller, and we learned quite a bit of history about downtown Portland, including unsolved murders of the past and stories about people seeing and feeling the haunted spirits of those who had died violently and tragically. It was great fun, but I was exhausted by the time we got back to our hotel at 11 PM. We had been going non-stop all day.

There’s Still More

While walking around and exploring Portland we kept seeing these large six-foot painted crows. We found out they are part of an art installation that had been put up the week before we arrived. There are 30 painted crows that all have names and back stories and have been installed in iconic locations all around Portland. They are celebrating an upcoming stop-motion fantasy adventure film based on the novel, Wildwood, that is set in a magical forest around Portland. I downloaded the app and we found a few of the crows on our adventures. 

Finally, Thursday came and it was time for Montana to leave. But my fun wasn’t done. Earlier, I created a biking route that would take me past all the crows. After dropping Montana off at the airport, I went on a quest with my bike to find them all. After 42 miles and 2400 feet of climbing, I had "collected" all the crows.  It was a fun, whimsical adventure to do, and it took me by several well-known Portland landmarks such as the Pittock Mansion, the courthouse, and Voodoo Doughnuts. It was a great way to finish up my time in Portland.

Several of the thirty crow sculptures that I "collected"

I 🩷 Portland

I don’t know if it was the perfect weather (sunny and low 80’s F every day) or the fact that I didn’t have to drive a car in traffic, but I loved Portland. It was quirky and weird and fun. I highly recommend a trip here. I might have to come back. After all, I haven’t experienced the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium or Mill Ends Park, the smallest urban park that consists of just one tree! So many weird and fun things to do. I highly recommend a visit. 

Great Timing on My Denali Bikepacking Trip

post by  Corrine

The forecast for Denali National Park seemed almost unbelievable. I had to check it again. 

Three days of sunny 70-degree Fahrenheit weather with no wind?! That almost never happens in in the park. And that nearly perfect weather would start in two days. Excellent timing to get my August Bikepack Every Month Challenge done. With nothing else planned I decided to take advantage of this window of opportunity.

And it gets better. A portion of the Denali Park Road would remain closed to automobile and bus traffic for the remainder of the season although it would open up to bikers and hikers in a couple of weeks. The road has been closed at mile 43 (out of 92 miles) just east of Polychrome Pass for five years due to construction of a bridge over the Pretty Rocks slide area. But bikers and hikers have been allowed to take a five-mile detour on a gravel bar around the construction area. This would be the last season to experience the second half of the park road without buses and other vehicles. 

The detour has multiple water crossings and some rocky terrain, but it is usually doable if the water levels aren’t too high. I reached out to friends who had done it recently and it sounded like I should be able to make it around. 

The timing was perfect for me to do a bikepacking trip in Denali.

Trip Preparations

Although I was fine going by myself, it would be nice to have someone else along for the stream crossings on the detour. But who else would have last minute free time? Eric wasn’t available. I asked several friends if they wanted to join me but unfortunately none could make it.

As I was pondering this, I got a text from a new friend, Neal, asking if I wanted to bike up Murphy Dome Road that afternoon. 

I had just met Neal the weekend before when he joined in on a longer ride that friends had organized. He had started long-distance biking a couple of years ago and loved doing multiday trips. He is an optimistic, fun person to ride with, he was about my speed, and more importantly, he had flexible time off due to being retired from the military. He also spends his free time fixing up old, discarded bikes to give away to those who need them, so his bike mechanic skills are extraordinaire. The perfect travel partner! I texted him my plans and asked if he wanted to come along. It took him just minutes to check his calendar for family commitments before saying yes. Once again, perfect timing made this happen.

Next, I reached out to my former patients, Jenna and Simon Hamm, who own Camp Denali near the end of the park road. Earlier, they had invited me to stop and say hi if I was ever out that way. I texted to see if they would be around and Jenna texted back saying they were around. She also said that if Neal and I made it out there, we could spend the night and get dinner and breakfast. Wow! Camp Denali is a high-end backcountry lodge in a magnificent setting normally costing hundreds of dollars per person per night. I couldn’t believe their generosity. I told Jenna that we would try our darndest to get there but it would depend on whether we could get across the streams on the detour. 

Jenna and Simon Hamm who own Camp Denali

So, the plan was set. Neal and I would bike to Igloo Creek Campground on day one, then to Camp Denali on day two, back to Igloo Creek on day three, then back to our vehicles on the final day. 

But when I rechecked the weather forecast one final time before we left, I saw that NOAA had put out a high wind warning for the Denali area that would start the evening of our third day. They were calling for sustained 30-40 mph winds with gusts to 70 mph. That was not good! I decided to still go for it; we could always do a big push out from Camp Denali on day three and hopefully get done before the winds really picked up. I told Eric to inReach message me with any changes in that forecast. 

To Igloo Creek Campground

Day one went as planned. We drove to the park, got our reservations and backcountry permits, and finally started biking around noon. The first nine miles of the park road are a steady uphill grind with 1300 feet of climbing but it’s on pavement so it isn’t too bad. The weather was great, and we weren’t in a hurry. We stopped often for photos, especially of Denali, out in all her glory. We got to the campground with plenty of time for a walk before dinner and an early bedtime. We planned to get up early the next morning since it would be a long day, especially with the unknown gravel bar detour.

To Camp Denali

We woke to another glorious day, and we were packed up and biking by 7 AM. First was the big climb over Sable Pass where we got a fairly close glimpse of a bear that ran off when it spied us. Then our quick descent to the road closure was delayed by a three-bus traffic jam. They kept trading places and turning sideways to give all the tourists a good look at a caribou walking down the road. It finally left the road, and we were able to bomb downhill. 

Bus traffic jam due to caribou on the road - And Denali is out, too!

Then it was time for the off-road adventure. We first had to carry our bikes and then bags down steep stairs the park service has installed for people to access the gravel bar. The traverse ended up being pretty easy. It has multiple stream crossings, but none were more than shin deep. Most were bikeable. I brought waterproof socks and a light pair of river shoes to wear for those. Enough bikers have done the detour so that we were able to follow their tire tracks. We opted to walk some chunky gravel areas, but the detour also has nice firm sandy areas that follow game trails. They are like buffed out single track in places. About halfway across, a big caribou came trotting across the gravel bar and crossed a stream really close to us. Less than two hours later we were pushing up the final stream bed back to the road. 

Steep stairs!

Lots of stream crossings

Close up caribou.  Notice the rocky terrain.

Some parts were like buffed out single track

Next were all the passes and hills. We pedaled up Highway Pass then to Stony Dome where we had lunch. Denali was still out though clouds were moving in. A Camp Denali bus was parked at the lookout and a couple of hikers were heading to it. Perfect timing. One hiker was the lodge naturalist, Lily, so I told her to let the Hamms know that we would be there by dinner time! Then Neal and I had to bike up Grassy Pass and finally Thoroughfare Pass and the Eielson Visitor Center (closed for the season) before a long 25-mile mostly downhill ride to the side road to Camp Denali. The final half mile uphill to the lodge is so steep that we opted to push our bikes. The camp manager came out and generously helped me push my bike the final bit. We had just enough time for hot showers (such luxury!) and to get settled in our cabin before it was dinner time.

This road is steeper than it looks

Camp Denali is an amazing place to spend a few nights. Although it is expensive, I would highly recommend it. The staff is phenomenal, the cabins are great, and the food is gourmet quality. They lead daily hikes and adventures, and they have evening lectures by visiting well-known authors, naturalists, and artists. We wished we had time to relax and partake of all they had to offer.

Cute cabin where we spent the night

But unfortunately, the high wind warning forecast had not changed. We would have to ride almost 90 miles the next day to finish before the winds arrived. So, it would be another early bedtime and even earlier morning start.

Finishing Our Ride

Our morning started at 6 AM. After a steep half-mile downhill, the 25 miles back up to Eielson is mostly uphill (2300 feet elevation gain). Fortunately, with fresher legs and a little tailwind, it took less time than we expected. We started seeing more bikers, some headed out like us and some headed in (we made sure they all knew about the high wind warning). Two young men from Fairbanks, Dax and Micah, hopscotched with us on the way back. They were stronger riders, but one crashed when a ground squirrel ran in front of him. He was okay but a little shook up and had some nasty road rash down his side. I made sure he was okay physically while Neal made sure his bike was okay. (It pays to have a bike mechanic and a doctor around!) He was able to continue biking, albeit being a bit more cautious. They had bus tickets and planned to take the bus back after they made it around the gravel bar section. 

It's a long uphill climb back to Eielson

We ended up seeing 14 bikers on our way out from Camp Denali

That got Neal and me to thinking. Maybe we should try to catch a bus back, too, and save ourselves 43 miles of riding. The more we thought about it, the more we liked that idea. That way, we would be done biking before the winds got too strong. But we didn’t have bus tickets, so we weren’t sure they would let us on. 

We got back to the steep stairs only to find the area in a bit of chaos with a bunch of people all standing around on the other side of the bridge. When Neal took his bike to the top first, he found out that the stairs were closed due to a bear in the area. (Of course, we had no way of knowing this until we were up the stairs.) They had not let anybody go down the stairs for about four hours. I arrived to find out that they hadn’t wanted to let us to go back down to get our bags. Fortunately, the bear had finally moved on just before we arrived, so they let us retrieve our bags. An earlier biker had to wait four hours to retrieve his bike after bringing his bags up first. The park is serious about keeping people 300 yards away from bears, if possible, to minimize bear-human interactions.

By now there were five of us with bikes wanting to get on a bus, but each bus has room for only two bikes. And the buses only come every 30 minutes or so. Plus, there were hikers wanting to get on the buses, too. We managed to get it all sorted out with the help of a dispatcher, and I ended up on the next bus with Andy, the unfortunate biker who had had to wait four hours. 

We spent the bus ride back talking and bonding over our shared experiences in Denali Park and the coincidence that we were both doctors. He lives outside of Leavenworth, WA and is considering a move, possibly to Alaska. I was able to share my insights about outdoor adventuring and practicing medicine here. We decided to meet up in Healy for dinner. Although Andy wasn’t happy about his four-hour wait, he did admit that if the timing had been different, we wouldn’t have met. So, that serendipitous timing worked out well. 

Andy, the physician-biker who I got to bond with on the bus ride out of the park

In fact, the timing this entire trip – planned and unplanned – worked out just right. The good weather forecast, meeting Neal just days earlier and then having him text me about biking, the Hamms being at Camp Denali and having space for us, the bad weather forecast that forced us to leave early but allowed me to have a fun encounter with a fellow physician biker. Timing really was everything in making this trip an amazing experience.