The Tip

Perhaps a good ploy would be to put this idea into the heads of the Scottish Woods and Lost Creek residents. They have the motivation, and perhaps the pull and resources, to make it happen.

So somebody else remembers! Thanks chuckt. How long ago did they fence it off and put up the signs?

Bef It is amazing. Before I had kids I believed "you are a product of your environment." But after raising two totally DIFFERENT boys, in the same environment, I now will argue until I'm blue in the face that "you are genetically predisposed" to be a certain way. For your SATN adventure I would put in behind ATX Bikes. The almost five miles of trail between Mopac and Escarpment is pretty mild. Two short rock gardens. We do the Take a Kid Mountain Biking events there. Some of those little kids are on striders. When you need more mileage search on Strava for House Fire and 45 XL. That's eight miles worth of smooth, twisty, flowing fun. Again, with a few short rock gardens.

I like this forum as a good sounding board. Mostly informed people that I respect their opinions. So... ...I like to see the rides of the people I follow on Strava. It is educational to me for various reasons. But then, sort of like the YouTube rabbit hole, I start clicking on the Flybys and start looking at stranger's rides. Then their flybys too. All educational, sometimes more so than my friend's rides. So today on the ride of a stranger, I see that he was riding trails that I know are muddy. Real muddy. One trail somebody just posted somewhere "Don't ride that (particular) trail, it's a wreck." As I was seething (relatively that is, this is a first world problem, I get it) about the damage I was sure he did, I debated whether or not to comment on his ride to "don't ride muddy trails" etc. I ended up not doing it because I was mad and was worried about my wording. But then I thought maybe I shouldn't comment on stranger's rides ever. Because it's too creepy? Your opinion: Is it weird to post a comment on a stranger's ride? Not necessarily an admonishment. Maybe just a question or friendly observation? I never have but I was really close to doing so today.

More of us should understand this concept. Of course it doesn't always help, but if there are more of us than them it makes things possible. Also, I believe, the more press and discussion about trails, the more they are a "real" thing. Real things are easier to protect than hearsay and mystical concepts. But it is a trade off for sure.

It would be a death match between the BCP and the SOS people as to which would shut down the project first! Mack Turtle's suggestion is also too logical to work. Have the designated Greenbelt parking near the food court entrance to sell the idea to the mall people. Customers! Of course there would have to be a trail head behind the "No Parking on ROW" signs. See first sentence in my post.

City of Austin. The city Greenbelt land goes all the way up to 360. The city land bordering 360 goes quite a ways north of the mall too. So instead of the "No Parking on the ROW" signs they could build a build a narrow parking lot with head in parking almost a mile long. That would accommodate 600 cars. They could charge $5 to park and have it paid for pretty quick and then stop charging. Too simple a solution. It'll never happen. Remember when people use to park there, along 360, and walk down? Before the signs?

Thanks for the feedback. I think my Strava references were misconstrued though. I mentioned how many Strava riders had been on this trail as an indication of the trail's relative popularity. My main concern is the "I fear change" thinkers. Even original trail builders should be concerned about public opinion before they start changing things because, you know, how we mtbers are.

I've never had a coverage problem with AT&T. Well, except at Big Bend. I carry my phone in my water pack. I'm not answering my phone when I ride. Screen is cushioned by the bladder. Lots of crashes, never a hurt phone.

This is so weird that you posted this. I was just talking with my wife this morning saying I wish I could find someone to help me conjugate some gerunds.

Once my house A/C went out. I bought a window unit for maybe $300 and set it up in the bedroom just for sleeping and TV watching while we waited the long weekend for repairs. Hank's A/C is owned by Hank Hodes, an avid mountain biker in our group and a decent fellow. I wish I had a list of what everyone here did. For example if you need a welder, I got a mountain biker guy for ya.

Looking at some of the categories that haven't had a post in a long time, some over a year. Not threads, I mean specifically "Road/BMX" and "Austin Ridge Riders" ARR is a worthy organization of course. But the point is maybe the board could be cleaned up and simplified, thus making it easier to navigate, if we jettisoned some flotsam. The very few things posted in those six(?) different places could not only be posted in other places, but they would more readily be found by all when they were.

Do you have an A/C guy working on it?

This is all hypothetical. Suppose there is a trail that has been around for four years. It's been ridden by 400 Strava different riders. But it's not a great trail. It gets you from here to there so it's a good connector. That's why it's used a lot. But it's not a lot of fun. Mostly just mileage out in the country. What is your opinion on reworking that trail to be more fun and in the process maybe making it a little longer? Are you going to be offended that your KOM is no longer relevant? Are you going to try and reopen the closed down boring, straight, and poorly planned down a fall line (erosion problem) trail?

😄 No. Trolling the youngsters here.

Go into any store that sells bikes. I've recently been in an Academy and Dick's. Their bike inventories were very small. Empty shelves. I am hoping all of our local bike stores are doing equally well.

This made me laugh out loud. Then I got sad because I know it's a truth.

Still no word. I have seen some Strava activity on it though. And have not heard of any arrests out there. So there's that.

One of my golfing buddies, who is 67 (OLD guy!), told me he is going to buy a RadWagon ebike. He owned a motorcycle for most of his life but doesn't anymore. He said he misses riding and being outdoors and that this would be a good substitute. He thinks he will go to the store with it too. So that will save a car trip. And it will also make one more citizen that is concerned about bike lanes.

So true. But we both know how unlikely it is for this to happen. Even in our circle of friends it's hard to get anyone to do the most simple "give back." I know I have a trail maintenance "problem." That's why I like group rides because when I am alone I cannot help stopping to fix something. This happens even when I swear to myself at the start of a ride "I'm not stopping today!" But, I have done an experiment more than once, where I purposely did NOT snap a new growth face slapper. A simple stop, snap, and the trail would be clear. But I don't do it. The experiment is, "will anyone do this simple trail improving task?" Almost always the face slapper stays and the trail begins to widen as everyone just avoids the face slapper. Very sad. This is not to say there is no one out there doing work. I talk to people that want to do things and do indeed go out. But it is a discouragingly small group. Even though I do my damnedest to shame all the mudder truckers into doing something! 😄

I'll vent here please. The campaign to educate the public as to trail etiquette is always difficult. But this increase in newbies on the trails is making it just about impossible. Three examples: -We were exiting the paved Veloway. An older couple were trying to start riding the wrong way. The wife said, "It looks like everyone is going one direction." (and there were a LOT of people riding by) The man says, "But there's a white line in the middle. That means we ride this way (wrong way)." I was able to convince them which way to go. So an example of the correct thing to do so much in their face and yet they chose differently. Amazing. -I took a picture of a big rut at the end of Bambi, about 40 feet from Davis Lane. The rutting continued south. Why would anyone continue onward after doing that at the entrance to a trail? But the newbie point is, after taking the picture I heard... -... a family of four coming off the new Bambi finish, and turning uphill. I ran from the rut place to shout, "It's really muddy up there. You won't like it." The father's response? "Thank you" as they all rode on. I shouted at their backs, "You'll harm the trail" but they were gone. SOOO frustrating. Rant over. Thank you

I was just having a discussion about this. I assume everyone is like me. When I see a new trail, I take it. But I see on Strava that a surprising number of people are not nearly as adventurous. What's up with that?

There are not any "no bike" signs anywhere. I never even thought about it. Until now. Thanks a lot! grrrr. 😄

We rode around on the now closed golf course paths. Scenic and interesting. There is also some other single track trail that says "no bikes" that we rode. We saw the sign when we were exiting it.

We went to Inks Lake yesterday. You had to have a reservation to get in which we did. They were turning drive up people away because they had "reached capacity." The strange thing is that we were just about the only people in the entire park. I would guess we saw maybe 15 campsites being used. Just for day use like us. I don't get it.