I might be on my way... (Portland, Forest Grove: apartment, to rent, to buy)

[stevepax]

Just had a job interview this morning for a big company in Portland, and it went really well. I have a couple of questions for the locals.

Mountain biking - where can I do it? I'm in Utah now, where mountains abound and there are trails everywhere. I don't mean where can I ride a paved mixed-use trail (otherwise known as a sidewalk), I mean nice singletrack, even if it's not up in a mountain.

Canoeing and Sea kayaking - where can I do that? If I go alone, I can't really go to the river if it's too hard to paddle back upstream to my car, since I won't have a shuttle car to bring me back up. Right there in Portland, are there any lakes or whatever where a guy can just pull up with a car and drop a canoe in the water and get some exercise, but still just go right back to his car where he started?

Where to live - I'll be coming with my wife and 3 small children. We'll just have to rent an apartment for a while before trying to buy a home. I'd love it to be safe, and super close to the light rail or something so I can sell my second car. I'll be working right downtown. I won't be rich, either - I can probably spend up to $1200 a month on a 3-bdrm, but I'd really, really like to keep it around or under $1000 a month. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[juggler]

Re: mountain biking, there are (surprisingly) very few single-track trails in the immediately Portland area. Forest Park has lots of great trails, but they are for peds only. Mountain bikes are allowed on the fire roads within the park, however. The nearest decent single-track to me (located on the west side) is a trail around Hagg Lake, near Forest Grove. There are LOTS of MTB trails in the coast range and around Mt. Hood, but again, you gotta drive a ways to get there.