I had high hopes for a bike-and-bus trip to the famed Ridgefield, Washington Birdfest & Bluegrass Festival this weekend.  My plan was to bike from my home in North Portland to the Burnt Bridge Creek trail in Vancouver.  I'd ride the trail until it intersected with one of C-Tran's bus lines to Ridgefield.  It'd be a bike, bus, birds, and bluegrass day!

Pretty good plan, huh?

To plan my trip I started at our brand spanking new regional bike maps webpage.  No matter where you want to go in the entire region, we've got the bike map listed to plan your trip. We've got maps on there that I didn't even know existed (Sandy, OR bike map?!)

Since I know how to get from home to Vancouver, I skipped the Portland bike map and went straight to Vancouver's "Cycling the Cities" map to plan my route from downtown Vancouver to the Burnt Bridge Creek trail and my C-Tran connection.  So far so good.

Next step, which bus to Ridgefield.  C-Tran's website is very user-friendly with a great trip planning feature.  I easily found the schedule for the Ridgefield connector bus (pdf file).  Great - the bus stops right in downtown Ridgefield, bluegrass central.  Now to check the times...

Noooooooo! C-Tran's Ridgefield connector doesn't run on the weekends! 

But for all you Ridgefield, La Center, and Clark County Hinterland commuters out there, you can catch it in the mornings at 6:05 and 7:25am.  It's a straight shot to the 99th Street Transit Center with connections to downtown Portland, Lloyd Center, and downtown Vancouver.  There's also a bus that leaves around midday  and a "dial-a-ride" service that's first-come, first-serve.

I guess I'll have to carpool up to the Bluegrass Festival this weekend; I don't think I'll be up for a 22 mile bike ride home after a full day of birds and music.