I drive on Preble Street by Back Cove regularly. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I've kept an eye on the parking lot and trail to see if social distancing and the stay-at-home order would impact the crowd.

At first it was noticeably unchanged. It seemed to taper a bit, and honestly today I was happy and surprised that despite the beautiful weather, it wasn't nearly as crowded as I had anticipated.

Still, it wasn't enough.

The City of Portland announced today that all parking lots for Back Cove would be closing due to overcrowding according to their announcement on Twitter.

Keep in mind, this is just the parking lots that are closing. The trails will remain open, but obviously limiting access will drastically reduce numbers on the Back Cove trails.

If you are in the Portland area and are looking for accessible trails and public spaces, you can reference the map resource here.

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