Family road trip from Seattle to San Fran in late July - ride suggestions?

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Family road trip from Seattle to San Fran in late July - ride suggestions?
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flag AndrewFleming
O+
Posted: May 11, 2021 at 10:42 Quote
We have a 2-week family road trip from Seattle to San Fran in late July. We only have our flights and rental car pinned down and we're building up our plans. It's me, my wife and our 13 and 15 year old sons. We plan to do a little of everything, hiking, city visits, etc. but we want to fit in a few rides. We won't be bringing bikes so we'll need to rent. And we're not looking for double black runs, but we're not beginners either. Anyways... got suggestions?
flag BenLow2019
Posted: May 11, 2021 at 10:49 Quote
Not that I have any prime suggestions but I want to recommend clarifying your travel plan. You stated 'road trip' which would suggest that you're driving from Seattle through Oregon to San Francisco, but then you stated 'flights' which suggests you are not driving at all. So I guess I am curious what is the actual route intended so that folks can better assist?
Finally - have you looked at Trailforks for the area you plan to explore? They have hiking and biking trails all mapped out.
flag AndrewFleming
O+
Posted: May 11, 2021 at 12:28 Quote
We’re flying into Seattle, driving and doing stuff for 2 weeks, then flying back from San Fran. Our route and destinations are in the works. Yes, I have TrailForks and use it all the time.
flag lancemountainbike
FL
Posted: May 12, 2021 at 13:05 Quote
Fat Tire Farm in Hood River does high end MTB rentals and has plenty of nearby trails and access to other outdoorsy stuff. Timberline or Ski Bowl on Mt. Hood are both have lift served bike parks with rentals, so that could be another option. Timberline's bike park is not very steep or challenging, the black diamonds there would be, at best blues anywhere else and the blues there would be greens elsewhere. However, the chairlift is a modern high speed one and Timberline lodge itself is an old WPA construct and pretty cool to visit if you like that sort of thing. Ski Bowl's runs are (for me) more fun and they have a lot of other activities there, but the chairlifts are old and slow.
flag AndrewFleming
O+
Posted: May 13, 2021 at 5:39 Quote
lancemountainbike wrote:
Fat Tire Farm in Hood River does high end MTB rentals and has plenty of nearby trails and access to other outdoorsy stuff. Timberline or Ski Bowl on Mt. Hood are both have lift served bike parks with rentals, so that could be another option. Timberline's bike park is not very steep or challenging, the black diamonds there would be, at best blues anywhere else and the blues there would be greens elsewhere. However, the chairlift is a modern high speed one and Timberline lodge itself is an old WPA construct and pretty cool to visit if you like that sort of thing. Ski Bowl's runs are (for me) more fun and they have a lot of other activities there, but the chairlifts are old and slow.

Thanks! Having bike rentals at the trails certainly helps too.
flag lancemountainbike
FL
Posted: May 13, 2021 at 7:42 Quote
No problem. I was working with the assumption that your rental vehicle wouldn't work for hauling bikes around.

One other option near Mt. Hood would be to rent from Mt. Hood Bicycles in Welches, take the bus up to Timberline and ride the Timberline to Town (T2T) trail back down to the shop.

I don't know about what sort of rental and riding options are available in Bend, but I would be surprised if there weren't some options there.
flag fgiraffe
O+
Posted: May 14, 2021 at 18:03 Quote
Could do a lot worse than spending a day in Santa Cruz. The Specialized Experience Center is renting now, maybe by July the Santa Cruz or the Ibis demo programs will be open again. The benefit of either of these is ease: park the car, and take an easy pedal from the rental place to access either the Emma McCrary Trail and/or Wilder Ranch State Park. Both are very affordable, but book ahead. Plus fun tourist stuff to do on the boardwalk after you bike (junk food, roller coaster, etc).

Closer to SF is Split Rock Tap and Wheel in Fairfax/Marin County, which offers rentals. Could ride from there to the Tamarancho Loop.

Can also rent cruiser bikes from Sports Basement in the SF Presidio, then bike along the water and over the GG Bridge to Sausilito, maybe take the ferry back to SF. That's more casual riding but still fun in a tourist kinda way.

These are not necessarily the ABSOLUTE BEST riding but they are the EASIEST options if you don't want to have to try to get four rental bikes into your rental car and drive somewhere.
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