REVIEW
Fat Tire Furlough
Two nearby mountain bike trails offer freedom and fear--and they're not in Forest Park or on Powell Butte.

BY CHRISTINA MELANDER
melander@wweek.com

 

It's 5 pm on a pristine weekday, and you've spent the better part of eight hours in a temperature-controlled enclave. It might as well be a cave. You need to revive with a fresh bicycle-generated breeze. Straddling bikes with enough accouterments to make Q envious, westside residents usually head for Forest Park's Leif Erikson Drive, where they encounter a bevy of mirror images. East-of-the-Willamette dwellers sweat it out to Powell Butte only to find trail jams similar to those they just mucked through in cars on the way home. These are both solid mountain-biking destinations, but they offer little in the way of solitude and solace.

Single-track trails at Hagg Lake and Eagle Creek, on the other hand, accommodate different skill levels and--barring heavy commuter traffic--are only 45 minutes outside Portland. Though these routes can be overrun with bikers on the weekends, effectively boosting the difficulty of some sections from tricky to treacherous, a pre-dusk weekday ride is free of clutter.

My quest was to find a ride more challenging and changeable than a rails-to-trails course but not as limiting as the vertical fire roads in Forest Park. That search will continue because the Eagle Creek (Gorge Trail 400) and Hagg Lake routes I tested have some terrifying sections that demand frequent dismounting unless you're Ned Overend or Missy Giove. The on-off process is so trying that you will undoubtedly gain confidence by cruising over logs and climbing steep inclines you'd otherwise balk at; riding through is actually less exhausting than getting off and on your machine.

Outside Magazine's Adventure Guide to the Pacific Northwest rates Trail 400 and the Hagg Lake loop as easy-to-moderate, and a seemingly helpful guy at Mountain View Bicycles in Hood River assured me that the Gorge Trail was perfect for beginners--perhaps, if you're a beginner downhill racer who's already graduated from recreational mountain biking to this sport, which counts a padded body suit as requisite equipment. Take it from a true, and not entirely cowardly, beginner: Trail 400 is not the way to ease into off-road riding.

Pedal-to-the-metal takes on a whole new meaning when cruising by rural Sea-Doo revelers in Hagg Lake's many parks, but this loop is a better choice than Trail 400 for inexperienced rockhoppers. The route may be frustrating at first, but with a little perseverance it's rewarding. Conversely, the bulk of the Eagle Creek trail runs along a precipitous ledge complete with scary off-camber turns and acute angle switchbacks. Use this chart to determine which route is up your alley--and beware of bonking.

The Eagle Creek Trail requires a Trail-Park pass; the cost is $3 per day or $25 for a yearly pass, available at Oregon Mountain Community, REI (Jantzen Beach) and G.I. Joe's stores.

 

	HAGG LAKE LOOP GORGE TRAIL	GORGE TRAIL 400
400 round-trip distance	11 miles	16 miles
elevation gain	50 feet	750 feet
wildlife	osprey, black snake	deer, stray cats
noise	jetskis, motorboats	Highway 84
people you're likely to see	beer-swilling, bikini-clad boaters	none
scenery similar to	Lake Michigan	Borneo
terrain covers	tall-grass meadows, park sidewalks, pavement, steep forested trail	stairs, highway exit gravel road, pavement, steep forested trail
acrophobic factor	low	heart-stopping
bruisability factor	unavoidable	severe
chance of losing yourself	likely; trails disappear into the road that circles the lake; some dead ends	unlikely once you get out of Eagle Creek
added attractions	swimming	fish hatchery
added dangers	washouts	cars on the approach road
yikes	blackberry brambles	steep drop-off
recommended for	Sporty Spice, confident beginners who can take a little pain, accomplished shredders	Gabrielle Reece, fearless athletes who don't mind 20-foot tumbles, accomplished shredders
directions	26 West to Highway 6 West, to 47 South through Forest Grove, turn right on Scoggins Valley Road to parking lot	I-84 East to Exit 41; park at the first trailhead parking lot just past the hatchery; bike back up the exit, roll up the stairs and ride east toward Dodson

 

originally published July 29, 1998