G3 Summit Ride
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Three times up Germantown Road and a bonus climb up Thompson make this ride in the West Hills of Portland a keeper.
Note: I took the opening climb up Thompson a little too briskly and paid for it later.
None of us had been up the north side of Germantown Road in a couple of years — not sure why since the traffic isn’t bad on an early Sunday morning. It’s actually a very pleasant 2-mile ascent with nothing steeper than 9% and probably an average 6-7% grade.
We gathered at the top and headed down the south side of Germantown to the intersection of Kaiser. The retreat back up is the most gentle of the three G climbs and there’s a bit more traffic on the road. We all began to feel the effort in our legs by the top.
Third Time’s A Charm
After returning to the top of Germantown Road we did an about face and descended the south side again. Our final climb took us up Old Germantown Road — a really nice, quiet, and generally steep climb. G3 Summit is a quick but exceptionally solid bike route. You’re never far from home but you’ll know you’ve done some good climbing by the time your returning back to town on Skyline.
Cue Sheet:
- Start: Starbucks at 23rd & Overton
- Head West on Overton
- L – 25th
- R – Lovejoy
- R – Cornell
- R – Thompson
- R – Skyline
- R – Germantown Road. Descend to the bottom, turn around and climb back up.
- X – Skyline. Descend to Kaiser Rd. Turn around and climb back up to to top of Germantown. Turn around again and descend to Old Germantown Rd.
- L – Old Germantown Rd
- R – Germantown Rd
- R – Skyline
- L – Thompson
- L – Cornell
- L – Lovejoy
- L- 25th
- R – Overton
