Customer Reviews:
 A New Review July 9, 2003
snowleopard (Oregon)
I wrote a review of this book back in 2004, and in May of 2007 I am re-writing it due to changes in development, and the fact that I have now ridden most of the rides listed here.
Much of my praise, and criticism of the book remains the same. I felt the author did a great job of finding some out of the way rides and wrote a much needed book about it. I also felt that the maps left something to be desired and were hard to follow without an additional detailed map, and that rapid growth in the Portland area and ensuing development was encroching on the rides. For the most part, I stand by that, but would like to further comment.
The good news is that I have discovered that several of the rides in the book are still great rides, and I should have given the author more credit before: Vancouver Lake, George, Champoeg, Mt. Angel and a few others remain very nice, still with light traffic. Others, such as Washouogal River, Clackamas River, Boring and Skyline (inside) have been devloped and increased quite a bit in traffic in the last decade, making them dangerous at times. The Happy Valley area has been so developed with new roads and new houses, the map no longer matches, and the description is off. And while the Springwater Trail still has a chewed up 7 miles of near pavé (French for cobblestones) roughness, the route has been expanded, and the ride along the Willamette river is beautiful, and smooth.
The author has also written a second book along these lines, with more rides, which can be found at many local bike shops, specifically River City Cycles who I believed helped get this book published.
My main complaint is still the maps. Here's to hoping that someone can come along and enter the rides into Google Maps/Earth (or Bikley, or MotionBased) and share them with the world, which would help a great deal.
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