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The SATN SOCIAL Fall, 2019. A celebration of the South Austin Trail Network. Saturday, October 26th. 8:00 am - 5:00 pm-ish ATX BIKES parking lot, Slaughter Lane @ Beckett Sponsored by ATX BIKES and GIANT Bicycles. What is it? It is not a race, it's just a big social ride. There are three routes that all start and return to the ATX Bikes' parking lot. The north is 18 miles, the east is 15, the south is 25. Do all three for a 58 mile ride. This ride will be 90% dirt. The rest is a little road, a little sidewalk. The routing is trying to use as much of the SATN that is not in a gray area. A gray area is one where the landowner is tolerating limited use of it so far, but it's not officially been sanctioned. This ride avoids all of those. ATX Bikes and Giant Bicycles will be providing food, beer, and some prizes. Prizes will be in a drawing. Tickets will be earned by completing a route. So if you only do one route you will get some tickets. Do all three, get more. Do bonus mileage, get even more. Giant Bicycles will be bringing their demo trailer. Oh yes, this event is an actual thing! Get there early to pay your registration, sign your waiver, pay your donation to charity, get your bike number, and get your start time assigned. KIDDING! There will be none of that. This is all free and it's all for fun. It's a SOCIAL ride! It's a social ride that will educate people about the South Austin Trail Network and to make it a more legitimate thing. The more it is recognized the more of it that can be sanctioned and appreciated by the landowners. "Hey! We have a cool thing here." Perhaps one day we will be able to have a ride that uses all 90 miles of the SATN. So mark your calendars and tell your buds about it. Look for routes to be posted soon so you can practice and get them down. Recruit a group to ride with on the day of The SATN Social too. Just pick photogenic people though because you will be taking pictures of yourselves in the far reaches of the SATN as proof that you rode it all. The routes: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&mid=1uW17XVqKni7OhNBs-iZfFjq84wvng9H9&ll=30.19231555044796%2C-97.87136449999997&z=13

Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 19. That shall be the Enchilada Buffet. There has been some recent discussion as to the route - let it be known that the Elders have conferred, and have dictated that the current route is THE route. Perhaps in the future, the route shall be added to, but the EB shall be the EB, and the route shall never be lessened. So get used to some Thumper pre-rides with Cody, people. The week following The Enchilada Buffet is the Real Ale Ride, and the week following that Austin is hosting Singlespeed USA - so if the weather decides to fuck us over, the EB will be rain dated to January. That is all.

Consider using the Basin for all camping and hiking fun. The altitude bump will help with slightly lower temperatures. Other than that, just be ready to drive everywhere at 45 mph in the park. Put more water than you can possibly use in the car if you go to visit park sites, like Santa Elena or Boquillas Canyons, and don't go anywhere on foot without at least a liter or more per person. If something goes sideways while driving or hiking that keeps you unable to get back, not having water can quickly escalate an inconvenience to an emergency.

Sampling a gift from my sister who was in Wisconsin yesterday. It makes the crappy wifi almost tolerable, can't keep the Man U game streaming for more than about 2 minutes.

Duthie was awesome! My wife had a great time and I got to do some fun lines!

I've been collecting DNA samples for your database for years now. I put them in little green bags next to the trail. Have you not been collecting them?

Since you’re there, check out BB ranch state park. I think it’s much more scenic than the NP if traveling mostly by vehicle. The way I recommend spending a day: head west out of the NP, drive thru Terlingua, stop at Baton Warnock center for good info. Stack up on water and snacks. Head west down 170 and enjoy the state park, stoping at cool spots you deem acceptable for a view and small hike (lots along the route). After however long you’d like head back east and stop at the ole Thirsty Goat for food and drinks. Dog should be welcome on the patio. From there you’re on your own. We did this exact thing recently and it was the best day of the trip.

Another helmet story for you on the fence: Had been skiing for 1-2 years and someone made the point that I wear a helmet when I ride my bike (21 speed Costco special) and I go alot faster on my skis than my bike so logically I should wear a helmet while skiing. Now, remember this was Washington state so skiing isn't that fluffy pow-pow you get in CO. 8/10 ski days of the year It's ice, or at best groomed ice; so falling hurts. Anyways, I agreed, purchased a helmet and some time toward the end of the year, my buddies and I were looking for fresh tracks and ducked under a temp fence made from flagging tape and bamboo posts. The tape caught on my backpack and eventually brought me to a full stop until the pole let loose from the snow and WACK! speared me in the back of the head. If I hadn't been wearing a helmet, I would have been tasting bamboo skewer for the rest of my (short) life.

Good meeting you too John, he's pretty excited about having an adult sized bike, even if he has to mount with a rolling start for a little while as he grows into it 😄

The SATN SOCIAL Fall, 2019. A celebration of the South Austin Trail Network. Saturday, October 26th. 8:00 am - 5:00 pm-ish ATX BIKES parking lot, Slaughter Lane @ Beckett Sponsored by ATX BIKES and GIANT Bicycles. What is it? It is not a race, it's just a big social ride. There are three routes that all start and return to the ATX Bikes' parking lot. The north is 18 miles, the east is 15, the south is 23. Do all three for a 56 mile ride. This ride will be 90% dirt. The rest is a little road, a little sidewalk. The routing is trying to use as much of the SATN that is not in a gray area. A gray area is one where the landowner is tolerating limited use of it so far, but it's not officially been sanctioned. This ride avoids all of those. ATX Bikes and Giant Bicycles will be providing food, beer, and some prizes. Prizes will be in a drawing. Tickets will be earned by completing a route. So if you only do one route you will get some tickets. Do all three, get more. Do bonus mileage, get even more. Giant Bicycles will be bringing their demo trailer. Oh yes, this event is an actual thing! Get there early to pay your registration, sign your waiver, pay your donation to charity, get your bike number, and get your start time assigned. KIDDING! There will be none of that. This is all free and it's all for fun. It's a SOCIAL ride! It's a social ride that will educate people about the South Austin Trail Network and to make it a more legitimate thing. The more it is recognized the more of it that can be sanctioned and appreciated by the landowners. "Hey! We have a cool thing here." Perhaps one day we will be able to have a ride that uses all 90 miles of the SATN. So mark your calendars and tell your buds about it. Look for routes to be posted soon so you can practice and get them down. Recruit a group to ride with on the day of The SATN Social too. Just pick photogenic people though because you will be taking pictures of yourselves in the far reaches of the SATN as proof that you rode it all.

Saw these guys open for Les Claypool. Really good. Along the same genre.

Getting back to the local stuff. Cypress Creek rum coming out of Wimberly. If you ever have a chance, stop by and grab some of their barrel aged stuff. Pretty damn good.

Rented a "mountain bike" to ride today in Chicago. Basket. Seatpost shock. Fat "comfort" saddle. The funniest part was that I brought shoes and pedals (riding a trail tomorrow) but they did not have a pedal wrench. Even funnier was that the plastic pedals had hex bolt and not standard pedals. The girl had no clue and asked if the pedal/shoes that I had was some new thing that they are doing now. Let's just say that I used to do this ride all the time when I lived here, but in the ~25 years that I have been gone they have really done a good job on the lakefront. Literally no elevation, welcome to the midwest. Did about 12 miles and then turned around to head back north and got hammered by a headwind all the way back. But the weather played nice today.

The expensive plastic frame was purchased used, ridden hard for years, and then handed down to my son when I got a new bike. And when he cracked the frame, it was repaired with glue and fabric. And he paid for it himself from his hard-earned wages and we supported a local craftsman in the process. Hard to see much downside. We are all happy. And you should probably convert your lawn to a vegetable garden or wildlife habitat since maintaining lawns is a huge waste of resources, though we will be happy to stay off of it all the same.

When i take mine for a walk and she sh*ts, she gets the bag tied to her leash/collar. Been doing this with my dogs for almost two decades. I've condescendingly been asked why she has a sh*tbag tied to her by other dog walkers and I just reply, "its not mine, im not carrying it". The look on their face is priceless. The bags next to the trail are insane. If the city put some attendants down there and started handing out some bad ass fines, it'd more than pay for the cost of the attendants and labor to pick it up.