The Tip

I think the kids call that "duck face." VERY trendy!

Here's my ride of just the Flow Trails area. Has some pictures. https://www.strava.com/activities/3233028054#81375001325 Yes, the Starting Gate trail head is close to the park entrance but it definitely is not open now. That is an "in the future" project. Park at the regular parking lot and find your way over.

Quit wasting time working on turning technique. Go build more berms! 😉

The closest spot would be Mary Moore Searight. But it's not exactly in the center of the SATN. It does have some challenging stuff if you know where to find it. The center of the SATN universe is at ATX Bikes' parking lot. There's a new challenging trail, Aesthetics, right behind there. There are a few other challenging spots easily accessible from there too. Bowie Stonewall is about the most difficult trail in the SATN but it is not very long. E Spank is fun. It LOOKS more techy than it actually is. The Meridian Bowl has some techy options. But the SATN is mostly flowy stuff with small obstacles here and there. Also a lot more berms and jumps lately. All more or less connected too.

Have you been in every smoke filled room in the world? No? Then you cannot state the above as fact. I doubt there is one too, but the way things seem so orchestrated, there might very well be. Study history. Groups that want to enact change attempt to create chaos so that they can take power and "save" the population from itself.

Another example of a picture or video not doing justice to the pucker factor of a feature. I'm not quite sure of the purpose of the new mountain goat trail you discovered. It certainly is not an easy up return to the top of the drop. Just a techy challenge I suppose.

Some people ride single speed. They don't need gears. Some people ride hard tails. They don't need rear suspension. Some people ride rigids. They don't need suspension at all. Some people ride 26" wheel bikes. They don't need that extra rollover ability of a 29er. I'm not going to try and convince somebody they need a dropper post. I had years of great riding fun without one. All I can do is share the knowledge with them that a geared, full suspension, 29er, with a dropper post makes riding more fun for ME. I will never quit using any of those fun enhancing things Nothing on a bike is going to last forever. Tires and perhaps droppers are things that wear out the fastest. I'm not going to stop using tires just because one of them failed me at some point. Same with a dropper.

My friend, a life long motorcycle rider that sold his last one a couple of years ago, said he was going to get an ebike. I said be sure and get a helmet. He said he would just wear one of his motorcycle helmets. I laughed out loud at the imagery and told him to spend an extra eighty bucks at the bike store for a bicycle style helmet. I convinced him thank heavens.

Do you pay the doctor in one dollar bills? 😄

But we've lost LOTS of those liberty fights already. I was highly opposed to the seat belt mandate for your stated reasons. And the only person that LAW helps is the individual. It doesn't insure others safety. But requiring masks helps everyone's health. I'm good giving up some liberty for that. At least until a month or so after the infections, hospitalization, and deaths, flattens out. But open everything up. You want to go to a football game in the fall? Wear a required mask. Very small price to pay. But people are still going to get sick. Until they don't. The Spanish Flu just went away. No cure, no vaccine, it just stopped.

I totally don't get this. Why in the world would you resent someone for wearing a mask? It has zero impact on you. This represents the depths of stupidity to me. Is it a political thing? That is the only explanation I can think of. What makes way more sense is for her to yell at him for NOT wearing a mask. "You are trying to kill me" is something people could get very upset about.

Yup, one of my many sayings: "It's all new trail at night"

I was trying to NOT get angry at HEB today at Slaughter and Escarpment. 92% of the people had masks on. The non-mask wearers just don't understand that they are putting ME at risk. They should not have the right to put others at risk. Mandating masks is not an affront to my freedoms. And I am very much a personal freedom/rights kind of guy. They already tell us to wear seat belts under penalty of law. And that's to protect the individuals, not others. Maybe a better example would be they make us get our car inspected to make us safer, but also to make it safe for other drivers. Nobody protests those mandates. But, we can't do this shut down forever. Business has to open. The purpose of the shut down, as stated numerous times by numerous officials, was to "flatten the curve" not wait for a cure. People are still going to get sick. Now hopefully they (me too!) can be adequately cared for.

Go into any sports store or Walmart and look at the empty bike racks. Really amazing. I would guess that a percentage of the newbies will get hooked and continue to bike. I don't see why not. Not sure if y'all know this or not, but riding a bike is freakin' awesome!

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.