This route includes some street crossings that are less than ideal but hopefully in the future they will be improved! And in the meantime, it’s still a pleasant ride in between two parks that takes you by the white water park and some good views of the river.
Start off by heading downhill down NW 9th Street. There is a painted bike lane on this road but be careful and cars do like to speed along the road. At the bottom of the hill take the roundabout to cross the street onto NW Nashville Ave and then take a right on NW Harmon Blvd. Harmon is a greenway that is signed 20mph for cars and includes curb bulb outs and speed bumps to try to slow traffic down.
Keep heading down Harmon and make a right onto NW Galveston Ave. This is the most worrisome crossing on the route as the traffic on Galveston can be busy. You can ride into the lane to make the left on Columbia or if you are uncomfortable doing that, ride on the sidewalk or bike land down Galveston and use the crosswalk to make the left onto Columbia.
NW Columbia Street also has speedbumps along it and a painted bike lane for this section. Ride down Columbia until you get to NW Allen Road and make a left. It winds around until you make another left on SW Shevlin Hixon Drive. This will bring you down a hill and along the Bend Whitewater Park.
Cross under the Colorado bridge and keep riding along SW Shevlin Hixon Drive crossing Columbia Street to get into Riverbend Park. From there you can take the paths int he park to get onto the River Trail. Cross at the bridge to get to Farewell Bend Park.