Gresham Outdoor Activities

Hosted by the Rose City Rollers, who dubbed it the Bridgetown Brawl, the 2011 Western Regional Tournament for all-female, flat-track roller derby sends the top three leagues to the WFTDA championships. The ninth bout caps Saturday's brawl bracket with a one-hour avalanche of speeding limbs, determining a contender for the tournament's championship round and, ultimately, WFTDA's domination of every doll-parts factory in the world. Like a turf war on skates, these ferocious femmes use their concrete-inspired blocking skills to get the team's lead jammer from the back to the front of the pack, evading elbow thrusts, hip checks, and both literal and metaphorical clotheslines.

At G6 Airpark, patrons of all ages bound safely between the open-jump arena and sports-based courts that comprise the 12,000 square-foot indoor trampoline park. Interconnected trampolines bordered by neon-green pads stretch from wall to wall, encouraging guests to defy gravity's demands as they spring into the air. On the dodge-ball court, jumpers fly while skirting air-filled orbs flung from opposing teams, and on the basketball court they vault over the rim, slam dunking. Guests practice more elaborate aerial flips and full-speed hugging exercises into the foam-filled trick zone, whereas the children-only area provides a safe haven for little ones. In between leaps and bounds, bouncers halt for a pizza or shaved ice from the café, which can also supply party fare for energy-burning, activity-filled birthday parties.

Run by a team of Portland fanatics and passionate cyclists, Pedal Bike Tours shares their enthusiasm for the city through entertaining and accessible tours. The routes take advantage of Portland’s extensive network of bike lanes to meander through downtown, along the Willamette River, and through lush Forest Park. Each guide’s expertise comes in handy on food tours and microbrewery tours, as riders stop for bites or pints and soak up info about each of their stops. A few tours take riders beyond Rose City limits, and include van trips to explore Oregon’s coast or wine country. Pedal Bike Tours keeps tours as safe and comfortable as possible by providing helmets, locks, and lights, as well as rain jackets and jousting lances if necessary.

Today's side deal gets your feet rolling on a long-deferred New Year's resolution: for $40, you enroll in a half-marathon training course at Foot Traffic University ($85 value). Training begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday, January 30, at the Northeast Foot Traffic store for runners and walkers committed to participating in the Foot Traffic Flat Half Marathon. Weekly meetings vary throughout Lake Oswego, Downtown Portland, and Northeast Portland. Along with a 10% discount at any of Foot Traffic's stores, you'll get $15 off admission to the race itself (up to $60 fee).

For its 2012 Halloween season, Four Horsemen Haunted Attractions treats fright-seekers to a double helping of scares with two connected haunted houses spanning more than 18,000 square feet. The gut-wrenching walkthroughs kick off with Grimtales, a ghastly spectacle that brings out the horror hiding beneath the surface of the Brothers Grimm’s famous fairytales. Dressed in macabre interpretations of such characters as Little Red Riding Hood and the Pied Piper, Four Horsemen's actors elicit screams through dialogue and shocking reveals, elevating the genre beyond cheap-and-dirty scare tactics, such as jumping out from behind a door or dressing up like each guest’s high-school gym teacher. Pestilence plunges already on-edge patrons into a necromantic nightmare, walking them through the story of an evil cult that has begun to reanimate the dead. Scripted live-action sequences and seamlessly integrated video back up roving monsters, creating a uniquely immersive haunted experience.

Rolling out bikes outfitted with rocket launchers and overdrive, Portland Bicycle Tours is the city’s oldest bike-tour company with experienced guides who prefer bipedals to bipeds and know the area like the back of a hand doubling as an unsanctioned cheat sheet. Regardless of your shape, size, or time dimension, a winsome fleet of two-wheeled rubber burners is gearing up to guide riders. During the River City Bridge Tour, pedal through the sound barrier, causing windows to smash all along the East Bank. There will be a quick pause at the bridge for some scenic snapshots and carefree bungee bicycling. The tour continues across the Willamette River to the roads of West Side and Old Town, where public art displays, parks, and swaying trees compete for the attention of your bucking mechanical beast.