Need a ride from the airport to the hotel? Looking for an Amberite in your area to share driving expenses? Post your message here by mailing simone (at) wyrdrune.com .
From Irene Schwarting:
Hello all, and welcome (soon) to Ambercon Northwest 2009. As many of you know, but many may not, we do our best at ACNW to help coordinate travel arrangements to and from the Edgefield lodge. Many of you will be arriving by plane, some by train, some by bus, and some with cars. Since the Edgefield is not within walking distance of the airport, bus terminal or train station, and not everyone wants to rent a car, we'd like to help coordinate carpools.
(Teleportation, shadowwalking, astral projection, and other mechanisms are outside of my purvue. You're on your own.)
If you would like to ride-share, or would like to offer rides to/from the con, please let me know via a reply to this email. For travelers, please let me know your mode of travel (bus, train, plane), flight numbers, arrival/departure time. The weekend before the con I will provide everyone with contact info for others arriving or departing within an hour so at the same location so you may coordinate ride-shares among yourselves. If we have volunteers for pickup/dropoff, I'll include them on those contact emails.
Options for getting to Edgefield consist of the Blue Star Airport shuttle, which ranges from $about 29 for one person one way ($46.75round trip). Additional passengers are $3 each.
Cabs are approximately $30 - 35 one way from the trainstation, bus terminal, or airport. Contact info is below in this message.
Another option you may consider is taking the MAX light rail - this takes less than an hour from the airport and costs $2.00. Madeline's detailed instructions are below and still accurate.
New this year, the new MAC Green Line makes it much quicker to get to the Edgefield from downtown. (And vice versa.) For those coming in to the train station (Union Station): Walk south from Union Station Amtrak Depot (800 NW 6th Ave) to Union Station/NW 6th & Hoyt St MAX Station. Board MAX Green Line to Clackamas Town Center. Get off at NE 82nd Ave MAX Station. Go to NE 82nd & MAX Overpass. Board 77 Broadway-Halsey to Troutdale. Get off at 2100 Block SW Halsey (Edgefield Manor) . And there you are! $2.30 per trip.
Please let me know if you have questions or if there's anything I can help with (short of driving, because I don't have a car.) Thanks! Looking forward to seeing you all soon.
General ground information about the PDX airport can be found at
http://www.flypdx.com/grnd_trans.aspx
The pickup area for taxis and town cars is located in the center section of the airport terminal's lower roadway on the baggage claim and departure level. Airporter shuttles are found in the section of the lower roadway closest to the garage.
It's about 14 miles from Troutdale to the PDX airport.
For more information check out the cabs at
- Green Cab 503-234-1414 http://www.greentrans.com/
- Radio Cab Company 503-227-1212 http://www.radiocab.net/
- Broadway Cab 503-227-1234 http://www.broadwaycab.com/
For the shuttle:
From Madeline Ferwerda, Bus Ninja:
If you're willing to try public transportation, you can get from the airport to the Edgefield with very little walking and for very little money. The cost for one person is $2.00, and the trip takes about an hour. You can plan your specific trip at the TriMet website (http://www.trimet.org/index.shtml): plug in "PDX" as your starting point and "Edgefield Winery in Troutdale" as your destination.
Coming outdoors from the baggage claim, you walk to your right and find the light rail tracks (at the very end of the pedestrain area on the right, you can't miss it), and just before them the machines where you purchase your ticket. You only need a ticket in case ticket-checkers come through: otherwise there is no barrier to getting on and off the train. Don't worry if you walk up to the ticket machine and see a train waiting: the train will usually wait around for 10 or 15 minutes, so odds are very good that it isn't going to leave without you. You get on the MAX Red Line light rail train (the only train that comes to the airport, you can't go wrong). Often there are two trains, one that will take you away eventually, and one that is resting with its doors closed. The MAX is a two-car train; it has elevated seats at the ends that face forward, and ground-level seats in the middle that face sideways. The train is usually carrying only 5-10 people per car when it leaves, so you have plenty of space for luggage.
You go about five stops along to the "NE 82nd Ave MAX Station" and get off. (The station just before "NE 82nd Ave MAX Station" is "Gateway/NE 99th Ave Transit Center". These stations come after the MAX travels through fields for awhile, then along a highway for awhile, and then turns and travels through a city. There are several cheap hotel signs visible around the 82nd Ave stop, like signs for a Days Inn and a Comfort Inn.) You go up stairs or use the elevator to get to the overpass, and wait for a bus at the shelter 10 feet to the left of the top of the stairs--you don't even have to cross the street. This bus stop sometimes has crowds of loud teenagers and is less clean; there are only seats for a few people, and keep in mind that you will want a coat that can manage cold wind. However, there is shelter from the rain, and the bus is very visible when it comes.
Two busses come by that stop, the 72 and the 77. You want the "77 Broadway-Halsey to Troutdale". You show your MAX ticket to the driver and tell him you're going to the Edgefield. About five people will get on with you. The bus turns right immediately off 82nd, and you drive down Halsey for about half an hour, quite a long time, most of it through residential neighborhoods. By the time you get to the Edgefield stop, the bus has probably been empty for some ten minutes. A bit past 238th Avenue, you may see an Edgefield sign on the right, or the vineyards on the right and left, and push the stop signal; more likely, the bus driver will remember where you are going and stop on his own. Regardless, the bus stops directly in front of the Edgefield, which is to the right, and you walk up the driveway past the vineyard.
If you miss the stop, there is no need to worry: it's only one mile more to the end of the line, a couple minutes. Waiting for the bus to turn around and come back is perfectly reasonable.
You can take the same transit back, from across the street of the Edgefield to the northwest corner of Halsey and 82nd. The bus stop across Halsey from the Edgefield isn't marked, so be ready to stand and wave to flag down the bus. The stop at 82nd and Halsey also isn't very obvious, because it's the corner before the main stop, but you'll see a bunch of other people getting off there, and if you tell the driver you're going to the MAX and sit up front, he'll probably cue you. People get off at that corner because it is easier to walk across Halsey to get to the MAX station than it is to wait for the bus to turn left into the main stop and then have to walk across 82nd to get to the MAX station.
Looking for a roommate to share one of those spacious rooms? Post your message here [ simone (at) wyrdrune.com ].
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