Riverside Trail
Mountain Biking the Clackamas River, Oregon

From Portland, take Exit 12A Eastbound off of I-205 to Estacada and Clackamas via Highway 212.   Follow Highway 212 for 3.5 miles through Clackamas, and follow Highway 224 to the right where there is a junction.  Follow Highway 224 SE for 39 miles, snaking along the beautiful banks of the Clackamas River, to where a small bridge crosses the Oak Grove Fork of the river. 

Just past the bridge is a junction with Forest Road 46 - follow FR46 to the right toward Detroit Lake and Bagby Hot Springs.  Pull almost immediately to the right into the Rainbow Campground.  The trailhead is about a quarter mile into the campground, at the far end of the loop - unmarked, we missed it the first time by.

The Riverside Trail winds along the banks of the Clackamas River for it's entirety.  It offers many views of the river, and many places to stop and take a break at river's edge.  The trail does have some ups and downs, and does have a few places where it's a little tight getting around the corners, particularly where the hillside is exposed.  In between, there is lots of fun, zippy singletrack.

Almost immediately, you cross a creek bed, where inexperienced riders will have to carry the bike across.  Then just up ahead is the first of several wooden bridges - this one is easy to ride across, some others require a carry.  For experienced riders in good shape, there are very few places you'll have to carry or hike-a-bike on this trail.  For us out-of-shape sorts, we did have to walk several times to make it up some of the hills, but never too far, and a fun stretch almost always followed.

Sandra didn't like the amount of rocks and roots on the trail, nor the exposed areas and tight squeezes - I found them exciting and had a blast.  After about half the trail's length, she had had enough, and wanted to turn back - too bad because I thought it was a lot of fun - zippy singletrack, lots of short ups and downs, enough obstacles to make it interesting, but not so many we had to walk it.  Some of the best views and stops in the trail were still to come, so we didn't get to enjoy it to its full extent. 

Bottom line, I guess, is that experienced riders who don't mind the small obstacles will probably love this trail - it's not difficult, and if you have good control of your bike, you won't feel at all uncomfortable about the little bit of cliff-hugging.  There is a lot of potential fun here.  However, new beginners might wish they'd made another choice due to the rocks, roots, narrow tree splits, and other intermediate maneuvers that having fun on this trail will require.  Heck, it's almost worth visiting just for the beautiful drive along Highway 224, watching the kayakers and rafters having a ball on the river.