Infinite possibilities

Imagine this: from downtown Portland, you head west by foot or bike along the Columbia River all the way to coastal Tillamook, then return to the city by following the wild Salmonberry River. And that’s just your halfway mark! Next, you head east through the Columbia Gorge, turning right at Hood River, up to Mount Hood and through Estacada -- still by trail -- all the way back to Portland.

This ambitious vision, a seamless system of big loop trails heading out from the metro region in a figure eight, is what we’re calling the Infinity Loop. The trails that comprise this vision cut through some of the most stunning scenery the Pacific Northwest has to offer, and could, we hope, be an economic driver capable of drawing tourists from all over the world.

The Infinity Loop isn’t new, when broken down into its trail components. Many people have invested much time developing the Salmonberry Trail, Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail, Cazadero Trail, Banks Vernonia Trail, and The Coast Trail, to name but a few. The people planning, building and managing these trails deserve all the credit for creating these amazing regional tourist attractions.

What IS new about the Infinity Loop, however, is the idea of combining them into the aforementioned figure eight -- thus connecting many of Northwest Oregon’s iconic attractions and creating a potentially international tourist magnet.

At a meeting a few years ago, Portland State University’s Ethan Seltzer suggested promoting the new idea by hosting a conference in Portland in which attendees would look at a wall of screens, each projecting a live simultaneous feed from a hiker along the proposed trail equipped with a video phone. As conference-goers looked from screen to screen, they’d see someone on snow-capped Mt. Hood, another at the famous Vista Point in the Gorge, another sitting on a pier watching the seals at Astoria, another up to their knees in lapping ocean waves, and another deep in the steep-sided canyon of the Salmonberry River.

Hiking or biking the Infinity Loop in one hardcore go would be one way to experience all of these sights. Tourists might also enjoy a reward system, like a series of passport stamp, or an extended vacation, with stopping points in local downtowns offering a bed, great local food, and best of all, handcrafted IPAs that might make you want to do this loop forever.

Sound farfetched? Not to Metro, which is set to start planning the future Infinity Loop this summer in partnership with local jurisdictions, trail advocates, land trusts, businesses, health industry, chambers of commerce, tourism agencies, trail users, and the general public. The planning process will take a few years. Building and completing the new trails, like the Salmonberry and the Historic Columbia River Highway Trail, will take many years -- as will connecting those trails that already exist. It’s a plan that will be developed from the “bottom up,” with working teams of trail partners, planners and citizen advocates assembled into six or seven geographic sub-regions, and using existing trail plans already approved by government bodies and the general public.

Once complete, however, few of the world’s great trails will be able to compete with the Infinity Loop’s range of iconic elements. And beyond our natural wonders, Northwest Oregon is also one of the few rare places that has the advocates and enthusiasm to pull off a project of this scope.

With the Infinity Loop, we have the opportunity to create something amazing. So watch this space for future developments and let us know if you are interested in the effort.