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Thanks. Surgery is tomorrow morning.

I have held off telling people about this new trail - until now. It is starting to come together and we will need volunteers soon. So here it is. In 2017, Travis County hired a landscape architect to survey and design some new trails at Reimer's Ranch. Our very own MTB trail builder, rider and instructor Jake Carston helped with the design work. The attached PDF file shows the overview of that trail design. The design sat on the shelf for a while. ARR got a grant from REI to start building those trails. That process has now started. We will be building two of the 5 trails shown - marked I1 (Intermediate 1) and Return. These are intended to be Flow Trails. There is not enough elevation to call them Downhill Trails but there is enough to get a good flow without a lot of peddling. We have surveyed the planned trails and picked the I1 trail as the one we want to build first. It has great topology for fun and interesting trail. We have met with Travis County (land manager), REI (funding source) and KOM Trails. We want this trail open for Cranksgiving so we want to get KOM to do the biggest part of the flow trail. ARR will be building the return trail (how you get back up hill). This looks like it will come together and be ready in November. To have it ready in time, ARR will need volunteers to build the return trail. Work days will start in September to avoid the summer heat. Racers can plan on getting their PayDirt hours early this year. Keep an eye out for work day calls and come help build our new MTB trail! And make sure you thank Travis County, REI, KOM, and ARR for making it happen. 2017-03-31_Reimers Flow Trails.pdf

OK, we were reading some article that was talking about economic distribution (long story, don't ask, it will kill the mood.) Anyway, in that article they said that since ~2014 or so 33 new breweries opened in the Austin area. My wife refused to believe that there were that many breweries in the area. So I checked, and here is my list (which stands at 50+ right now): 4th Tap 512 Brewing ABGB Acopon Adelberts Austin Beerworks Blue Owl Bluebonnet Brewer's Table Brewtorium Celis Central District Circle Brewing Compadre Draught House Family Business Flying Man Brewing Friends and Allies Frontyard Brewing Ghost Note Guns and Oil Hi Sign Hops and Grain Independence Brewing Infamous Jester King Lazarus Live Oak Middleton Nomadic Beerworks North by Northwest Oasis Brewing Oddwood Orf Brewing Oskar Blues Pinthouse Burnet Pinthouse Lamar Pinthouse Round Rock Red Horn Brewing Rentsch Rusty Barrel Skull Mechanix Southern Heights St. Elmo Strange Land Suds Monkey Thirsty Planet Treaty Oak Twisted X Uncle Billy's Vista Brewing Zilker Our plan is to start making a weekly pilgrimage to somewhere neither of us has been - pretty sure I have been to half of them. And the brewery needs to have a both on-site brewing AND a taproom. I left some off that looked like brewing only. What am I missing from my list?

Best wishes on the surgery and the recovery. Pace yourself so the repair will heal as quick as it can, and so it will grow strong enough to last you a long time.

Awesome! Reimers has been a go-to for us since we moved here. Glad to hear trails are being expanded and we're totally down for some volunteer time this fall.

Oh shit, late to this one. Sorry to hear about this man, and GL with the surgery tomorrow!

Not in the cat family, but coatamundi (coati, ringtail cat) are related to raccoons. My first interaction with one was camping in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness in Arizona. We set our packs down to eat a snack, without realizing that within less than two minutes, one of the rascals would chew a hole in my pack to get to food. When we went to bed that night (no tent), they were rummaging through our camp within minutes of crawling into sleeping bags. That looks like a big fat happy fox at Walnut. There are lots of bunnies at WC that would make a tasty treat for Mr. Fox, who probably also forages for cat food and what not in the houses adjacent to the park. Foxes are crazy successful in urban and suburban environments.

Gah! Reading that injury report made skin crawl. Nasty stuff. Keep up the spirits, get the surgery, heal up.

I successfully navigated my insurance landscape and saw an Ortho on Friday. He said the knee feels loose, maybe an acl issue. MRI on Monday. At this point I'm struggling to walk any distance without pain which sorta puts a damper on my family trip out west this next week and my 40 miler in Telluride in two weeks. I mostly want to make sure I recover as fully and quickly as possible. Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

I'm asking around, but no reply yet. Let's see if I can track these guys down 🤷‍♂️

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but summer heat usually lasts until late Oct. That said, I'm interested in volunteering. Is the route already flagged? Is there any way we could get a variance to camp overnight on work weekends (or possibly weekdays)? Thumbs up for Cranksgiving at Reimers!

Some people forget how to use IMHO.

I don't compromise on anything except maybe time. If there's a bike I want, I might wait until there's a deal. There is a pleasure in owning something and knowing you got a deal on it. There are a lot of other areas in my life that I don't care much about yet spend a lot of money on compared to bicycles - house, cars, health insurance....but none of these brings the pleasure of a nice bike, or keeps me strong or healthy. I built the last five bikes from the frame up with new parts.

Bike that fits and works. Brakes, shifting, suspension, etc. Helmet that fits comfortably. Try a few on. Ventilation is important. A $50 helmet will be just fine. Some method of carrying water. Lots of water, actually, because the heat will zap it out of you fast. Glasses to keep bugs and stuff out of your eyeballs. The $5 ones from Harbor Freight are just fine if you don't need RX lenses. Clear or lightly tinted lenses for riding in the woods. Comfy athletic clothes. Avoid cotton. Cycling shorts are a good idea for longer rides to protect your taint. Gloves. Never expensive but hardware store work gloves (like Mechanic) can work. You will fall and use your hands to stop yourself at some point. Multi-tool, spare tube, portable pump. Walnut is a great place to start. Roy Guerro Park has a little trails. Slaughter Creek Nature Preserve in South Austin a great because it's not terribly difficult and it's impossible to get lost as it's a one-way loop. Tuesday nights at 6:00 behind ATX Bikes on Slaughter is Crank n Drank, weather permitting. It's a great ride for all abilities. SATN is very difficult to navigate on your own. I don't know a lot about Freeride512, but you need to look up what "freeride" is first. That might be a bit advanced for you even at the beginner level. Let me know if you want to explore SATN or need mechanical help with the bike.

I'll strongly encourage safety glasses too. I have cracked three helmets, so I preach all the time to ALWAYS wear one. I won't ride to the mailbox without a helmet. But I think you have already got that message. But now I have to preach about safety glasses. I know they have saved me on multiple occasions but this past Thursday they REALLY saved me big time. I was hit in my glasses with a small sharp stick. It knocked my glasses off my head and then scratched my forehead. It would have been a serious injury without those glasses on.

I wish I’d thought about that! I did resort to the can in my pocket when I broke my ankle, but this looks better! have you upgraded your crutch tips? The stock ones are scary in wet surfaces. Just because you’re not riding doesn’t mean you can’t be upgrading stuff!

Necessity is the mother of invention!

Oh man! This sucks Throet! I hope you get better soon. I need you well so you can remind me how bad my fitness is like usual

Sorry to hear... Glad it wasn't worse.

Tonight walking the big hound we saw two guys on their OW in our hood (Rattan Creek) in North Austin. Saw them the other evening as well. Maybe part of your crew? I wanted to chat them up but wasn't possible Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Just as amazing!

I’ve seen both Fox and bobcat at Walnut. Last bobcat I saw about 2 years ago on church hill was freakin huge. Odd he was out midday during summer. Probably spooked from his usual hideout. There was a fox hanging in inner log loop I’d see regularly on weekday morning rides until they started construction on the sidewalk/NWC trail. Crappy Pic below. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I loved great sport/superbikes. Always did at least 25K miles a year.

Simple solution. I called ATX Bikes and told them about this thread and this problem. They called their property manager. The property manager didn't know about it. They said they would contact the security company and tell them that anybody with a mountain bike is welcome to use the parking lot behind ATX "as a clubhouse" if they want to. They did remind us to respect the Austin Diagnostic Clinic's parking lot and not park there. I think we MTBers have been doing pretty good with that. Crank and Drank lives!

Other people with more personal knowledge can handle the 'trails ride' recommendations. But I have recommendations fro planning your trip. I plan to drive not more than 4 or 5 hours most days. I try to plan a ride that is about that distance away. So on a trip to Moab (hitting only the high points, not every ride) Palo Duro Canyon (Amarillo) Taos NM Durango CO Phil's World (Cortez CO only about 2 hours from Durango but not to be missed) Moab UT Return Trip Fruita CO Breckenridge CO Colorado Springs Palo Duro again Waco We never felt like were just trapped in the truck for hour after hour after hour.

In Colorado Springs there's always the USAFA Falcon Trail. I rode it last Aug on my way up to Breck. It's a fun ~13mi loop w/ 1,300 ft of elevation change that has a bit of everything. https://www.mtbproject.com/trail/269633/usafa-falcon-trail

If I buy one of these can I ride with you guys?