Portis

Total Miles
5.3

Elevation

2,490.62 ft

Duration

0.5 Hours

Technical Rating

3

Easy

Best Time

Summer, Fall

Trail Overview

Portis is the second loop in the Thunder Trails and has similar difficulty to the Thunder Loop. Going counterclockwise, it goes over chunky slabs of rock and embedded small rocks in the trail, making for a jarring ride. It has tight turns through the gambel oak and pinyon pine trees. It stays up on top of the mesa, with not much elevation change, only climbing slightly uphill as it goes south. There are sticks and roots in the trail to watch out for, and branches to avoid. This one has a bit less rock than Thunder Loop. It crosses Thunder Road as it rounds the south end of the loop, and heads back north through an easier forest terrain that has more wide open sections, and fewer rocks and bushes. You get an awesome view of Lone Cone Peak to the south before you head back north. The east side of the loop is more fast and flowy between tall ponderosa pine trees. It crosses a couple of wooden bridges on its way north as well.

Photos of Portis

Portis
Portis

Difficulty

This is an easy single track that has some rocky sections on the west half of the loop, but it doesn't have any big obstacles or ledges. In general, the east half of the loop is easier than the west half as it has hardly any rock.

Technical Rating

3

Status Reports

There are no status reports yet for this trail.

Access Description

Follow the signs from the west end of the town of Norwood to the Thunder Trails Trailhead. There is a small dirt parking lot with a turnaround that is okay for small trailers. There are 4 smaller loops that can be ridden as one big loop, for a total of about 20 miles. It is easy to intermediate difficulty and would take an average rider a couple of hours to complete the entire loop.

Popular Trails