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We just finished an amazing seven-day family ride from Teluride to Moab. When I get home I hope to post a ride report.

The mesa you're viewing is the north facing escarpment of the Mesa Verde cuesta. This section is the Ute Mountain Tribal Park, further east is Mesa Verde National Park. Foreground is a trail at Hawkins Preserve, right outside my door. Bike is set up for zipping about town, to go to the library, grocery store, farmer's market and other errancs. Also ready for bikepacking and riding around at Hawkins Preserve.

On our way to the Telluride-to-Moab adventure we did a fun ride at Phil’s World. It was my first time there and it was great fun!

North of Pagosa Springs

Emerging from summer hibernation today but trails were muddy. Put together a 15-mile "gravel" route to kick off the non-suck weather.

I feel your pain. Low 60's to start, low 80's for the high. Mountains are the only way to get through August.

View from the top of Dale Ball yesterday morning. Yeah, it was a beautiful ride. 20 miles, 2000 feet of climbing, then a sushi lunch. Who wouldn't love that?

Shuttled up to 10,000 feet, then rode my 36T hardtail up to the highest point at 11,000 feet. The down was way more fun.

Indeed, rented a bike and rode for a day of fantastic train / tram / gondola lift assist with fantastic views of Matterhorn (and a bunch of other mountains). Not represented in the photos, but there was a pretty crazy cowbell serenade on one trail.

This morning was my first ride in Central Texas in two and a half months! Finished the ride right as the temperature reached 80 degrees. More of that please!

South trails the other morning.

Pic is from last week. I woke up to 46 degree temps. It peaked out around 80.

Trestle

Cars. Even riding the 1 mi from home to Brushy Creek, I avoid the bike lane on the road, instead opting for the sidewalks. Just don't trust drivers, especially the ones glued to their smartphones.

100% in the shade and downhill both ways.

This question feels like the same type of "what would be your dream car if money was no object"? I simply don't enjoy playing in those kind of (mind) spaces, its just not real. So my reply is going to be based in reality (of which, my 'dream answer' would lie around there too). I absolutly love the BCBC type of trail riding. I love tight techy narrow off-camber single track that makes you stay focused. The stuff that you have to thread together 2-3-4 moves in a row so that you can keep progressing down the trail. In this same category, I have to give Thumper the nod also. When the weather is really nice, the trail bed is perfectly tacky, and the canopy is clear...I luv, love, LOVE, riding Thumper. There I said it!!.... LOL It'w worth noting though, when I go to Bentonville and ride some of the fun, machine-built, fast and flowing stuff (ex: deep into Little Sugar)...I find myself getting to the bottom to pause and laugh out loud at how much fun those sections of trail can be. Simply put, good single track is good signle track. Cheers, CJB

Thread resurrection - Regarding the Toro Grande Expansion I recently contacted City of CP works and they said there is no date planned to break ground for Toro Grande South is just conceptual and budgeted between 2023 and 2028, initial planning with no surveying even done yet. I am planning a new loop between Church and Deadwood and want to get at least a year out of it if I do the work. I am not expecting developers to start until the city builds the road extension. Given that New Hope extension is well underway a betting man would say the North extension of Toro Grande will be first, especially give that the Indigo Ridge development area has expanded and rezoning to include houses along the New Hope area has recently been proposed. Now, that said there is brand new survey marks on the derelict county road (178) between Toro Grande and Raley Road and the city crews recently cleaned up all the illegal dumping on other end of 178 by the Sanctuary - this latter part could have been advised by the Fire Dept/Forestry though in light of recent fires and that dumping could impede crews.

I couldn't handle it. I got the kind that's just on the nose and was OK for a while, but then I had some unrelated anxiety issues which caused me a couple of panic attacks (also unrelated to the CPAP) and I could never put it back on. I am a light sleeper, so moving with something attached to my face would cause me to wake up multiple times a night. I lost some weight and became focused on sleeping on my side and I think that resolved my problem. Also look into a night guard which pulls your lower jaw forward. For some people, that makes all the difference. You can see if this would make a difference by laying face up, let your jaw slacken all the way back, breathe in deeply, then compare to it with the jaw pulled forward to see if it's different.

yeah, I should keep my wheels on the ground

That's how I did it! https://strava.app.link/naQNaQDsxCb

Haha yeah it really just depends on the day maybe. I rode City Park this past Sat morning starting at around 8:45am. We rode the short loop thinking the heat was going to get the best of us, but after finishing I was wishing we had done the longer loop. Weekdays I've been riding in the evening, and despite the scorching temps, I'm actually enjoying my time on the trail. Could be partly due to me sitting out most of Jun and Jul, and now just yearning for time on the trails. Still, envious of the all the great pics folks are posting of rides up high in the mountains.

I'll suggest this to Mr. JB, and see if it helps. His sciatica started just this summer. This is a seemingly bad injury that just...faded away post. This past Saturday we went to check out a dirt/gravel road that looked to have a good chance of going out to a point with an amazing view. The gravel ended abruptly, but a sweet, smooth and very rideable two-track continued through the Pondersa and aspen, so we were zipping along side by side at a pretty good pace. Then a dead, but very strong branch hidden in some oak brush grabbed my handle bar, yanked it hard right. I went left taking out Mr. JB and instantly we were down in a tangled pile of arms, legs and bikes. I went down hard on my left shoulder and it HURT, it felt like there was some kind of serious damage. Mr. JB was fine, but it took us a few minutes to extricate ourselves and I needed help getting up. On the way home was trying to sort out who to go to: Urgent Care/ER/walk-in clinic, but went home first to get some of the dirt off. Slathered on some hard core prescription pain creme with lidocaine and steroid foam that was on hand & decided to wait until Sunday morning for the walk-in clinic, because not hurting so bad. Next day, range of motion was good, there was soreness but no serious pain, and it all resolved over the next day or two. Went for a nice ride yesterday (Tuesday). All good. Amazed that anything that hurt so bad initially wasn't a severe injury, and resolved completely. I had my InReach and didn't need to use it, of course, but it was a reminder that an accident can come out of seemingly nowhere in benign surroundings.

Monarch Crest, a tad under 12K. A glorious day!

One of the locals hipped me to an off the map trail, did 1600’ of climbing to get here, great views.

I drive to the ride when I a take the ice chest for post-ride dranking. I drive to the ride a lot. 😁 I also drive to the ride if I'm going somewhere far and exotic, like Walnut. But like Sluggo said, most of my SATN rides start about a block from my house.

Thanks for the update. If it was too wet this morning, then it is probably still too wet, as we got a good hour or so of steady drizzle mid-morning. And oh yeah I definitely remember us moving the "diving board" back on Truth-or-Dare. Took 3 of us as I recall. I'm still leery approaching that spot, always wondering if the step-down will be there or not. I'm loving the new berms towards the end of DD going E-to-W by the way. Big thanks to whoever put in that work!

I've tried reaching out to them for over a week. Their website shows no bikes are available. I saw someone from a bike shop post that GG told them they were closing. I'm really bummed. It looks like they've spun off Revved to be a contract frame builder.

Riding to ride is easy if you live in South/Southwest Austin.

100% this

More dropped this morning. More tonight. Might try to hit the greenbelt in the morning. I can't believe that I actually look forward to a big rain dump that closes the trails for a few days. My yard is a shitshow.

I have not ridden Spider yet, will eventually get there, but it is not my thing. What really grinds me about that place is the attitude that it is the best riding in TX and the number of people that seem to only ride there. They complain about all the other trail options that we have and whenever someone is coming to town they tell them that is the first place they need to ride. It's like the people who go to a steakhouse and order the single shrimp dish on the menu. I get it, maybe you are a pescatarian but don't go dumping on the wide selection of steaks on the menu because you want the fish. We live in an area with a wide number of trails, but our trails are part of the topology of central TX. Instead of bemoaning the fact that there is only one Spider Mt. and we need more lift-serviced locations. We are what we are and the earth decided that long before any of us are here. I've biked all around the world, not just around the US and I can tell you that the best trail in the world, is, in fact, the one you are riding at the moment. Last night it was the burn-out husk of Suburban Ninja which ended up being a a ride through the rain at the end. But it didn't matter. I had a great time. Because it was the trail I was riding at the moment.

I ebb and flow with regard to riding to the trail(s). I'd say my primary determinant is fitness. Once I get a base of fitness I prolly ride to the ride about 75% of the time. The times where I don't are usually because the trail system is a bit further than the OVERALL time alotment I have for the day. All that said, every place we've lived (or bought a house) in Austin over the passed 25 yrs. we have factored in road & mtn bike routes from home (to the trails or group rides). Its not the #1 factor, but its in the top 5 for sure. Later, CJB

A couple of observations of your valid concerns: First, are you accounting for the time it takes to drive there? I will ride to Walnut Creek for a group ride, and if I take a more scenic route to include some single track and riding that is not road , it takes me just under an hour and I get 10 miles in. If I drive there, it takes me 15 to 20 minutes. I just leave early enough to meet the group for the ride time, so it doesn't cut into my trail ride time. Next, I certainly understand the concern about cost. I chewed through a rear Maxxis tire that was not cheap. However, I add that to my health budget, as I am much fitter and healthier now that I ride to the trail a bit more.

Rib Cage is a blast.

shout out to Leif D aka Wookie for Starting Pace Bend.

Shuttle was way worth it for those of us that hate to climb. Also made the beers and burgers at Tesuque that much better😁

I rode up Bishop's Lodge road and cut in at the bottom of Lower Winsor (first arrow). Then I did the climb up Burn which was aptly named (second arrow). At the top of the Ridgeline, I could have taken Saddleback north but opted for Juan south (third arrow). That dumped me out on 475, where I rode up and down to Dale Ball (squiggly line off 475) where I did a little 2-3 mile lap then headed back down into town to the house. 20 miles, 2100 feet of climbing.

Best bike fit advice I ever received! Used one of Specialized's sit bone gauges at BSS over 10 years ago and have been rocking a 155mm Henge Comp saddle ever since (though they're getting hard to find!). Couldn't believe that I was a "large", so it was even more surprising that more people aren't on wider saddles! Pretty easy to measure your own width - may surprise you!

I climbed to the shuttle drop-off and decided not to go the extra 100 feet to the top. Did I miss out?

The R&I was a sufferfest for me. I did much worse in these 80's and high humidity than I did a couple of weeks ago starting at 104°F. The little bit of rain wasn't enough to accumulate in the soil, but amazingly you could feel the extra traction on that moon dust from just a bit of extra moisture!

Hmm, there is something really weird happening outside. Water appears to be falling, from the sky. Not sure who to notify, so just posted here to warn people in case it turns out to be some sort of environmental hazard.

Last year we were in SW Colorado for several months. I'd had my eye on a dirt road in the Dolores River canyon bottom for an inaugural bikepacking trip. We had pre packed, so we unloaded fully packed bikes and started in late afternoon. We had so much water -- bottles on fork, two liters in the frame pack, maybe a liter in a feed bag on the handle bars. And off we go in the late afternoon sunshine. It wasn't too hard to pedal a loaded bike. And then we hit the first giant mud puddle. This one has just barely enough room to squeak by along the edge. Every 75 yards or so there was another giant puddle and some had no way to get by. We tried bushwhacking. The oak brush was thick and it wasn't a satisfactory solution. Then, I tried riding around the edge of one last monster puddle, my front tire slid down into the soup about 2 feet from the end. It was so deep and there was so much ooze at the bottom that I couldn't pedal out. I put a foot out, and the water and ooze were almost knee deep. After that, we pedaled on a bit, found a nice campsite and settled in for the night and slept well. In the morning we pedaled back to the car. The puddles had receded just enough that we could ooch around the edges so got back to the car without too much trouble. We're in the same area now so there will be a Round Deux in three weeks or so. The monsoons have been much more moderate this summer, so the road should be mostly dry. The start of this ride is only about a 40 minute drive, so we'll probably do a recon for the first few miles before we return with loaded bikes.

Back in the HH days, some customers (who were friends of mine), would have occasional gear-gatherings. They'd show up to the shop (which sat on a 1/2 acre) with their bike loaded down with their setup. It was a show and tell of sorts to help newbs and each other with ideas and best practices. Addtionally, I know that frequently their shake down rides would consist of heading out 'into the wild' of Austin trails and simply spending the night somewhere...CP, BCGB, etc.. I've not really done legit bikepacking (even though I followed the sport closely), but on a few occasions my teen son and I would throw a hammock into our pack, grab a burrito and muffin and ride off into some of the 'unmentionables' to spend the night on the side of the trail in some obscure spot. We'd setup hammocks, eat burrito, talk about stuff, sleep, wake up, eat muffin, and then take the scenic route home....it was essentially a basic S24O with my son. @sherpaxc @Mattlikesbikes@GFisher

After a pretty healthy trail climb…. Also, I had to wear a heavy jersey, it was in the low 60’s when I departed.

Absolutely. "Tech" means something different these days. It's doesn't mean the ground covered with rocks and roots, with tricky lines to negotiate. Now it means having the speed and ability to hit the upcoming 8 foot long tabletop, after just nailing the 7 foot long tabletop behind you. And yes, ATX folks (who didn't grow up steeped in BMX) are likely behind the flow-curve from areas with a lot of newer trails.

I'm surprised that you haven't gotten any responses, as usually there are plenty of opinions on medical care here. However, this is a very specific request that understandably folks may shy away from. Hopefully you're already getting the care you need, but if I had to recommend somebody local, it would probably be this guy. Honestly not sure if he bikes at all, but I've seen him for a couple of different issues that have impacted my biking. I've never been disappointed. Good luck with your ailment. I know from experience that rib injuries are a drag. Treatment options are extremely limited though, and you may find that just giving yourself the rest needed to recover will let that soft tissue repair on its own. Matthew D. Driscoll, MD- Orthopedics | Austin Regional Clinic

Put the trailbike on a diet and lost a pound by removing the DD assegai and DHF EXO+ combo i was running. Made a trip to the sale rack and found a Rekon for the rear and DHR2 up front. Both EXO only. Should make the cloudcroft climbs a little easier.