The Tip

After an amazing discovery "test" ride last night, we are going to have a rescheduled Crank and Drank tonight. The trails were just about perfect so we need to take advantage of these conditions. 6 pm Behind ATX Bikes. Bring beer.

Bent at Angel Fire?

South part of the SATN

Me too. And video that we make doesn't ever do a scary thing justice either. A strange phenomena I think. Just makes you appreciate how truly gnarly the things in those awesome YouTube videos must really be. The things that make us go "whoa!" are really probably twice as big they appear to be.

There is a new trail that has a hundred yard section on it that I was challenged to describe to someone. It is rocky, but large rocks, not baby heads. But not ledges either. So there really isn't any technical skills involved to traverse it. The skill or challenge is really only picking a line to stay on top of the line of rocks and not fall into a crevice. Not exactly a natural skinny, but being able to balance helps. What do you call that kind of trail? Is it "technical" or is there another term?

I keep seeing the Strava rides and they are named "AF" Am I the only one that is confused that there isn't a word in front of those AFs? You know like, "Cold" or "Hot" or "Fun" Or "Hard?"

I laughed yesterday at someone's Strava ride title, "It was wring out your SOCKS hot." It really was, because by the end of my own ride I was thinking, "Why are my shoes feeling squishy? I didn't ride through a creek!" Maybe I should be, but I'm not scared of the heat. I put two bladders in my pack because 100 oz isn't enough water sometimes. And I'll stop and not "push on" if I start to feel anything strange.

And not one of those rigs has a cooler strapped on for beer. They call that mountain biking? sheez.

The SATN has not gotten any rain in the last 24 hours. All systems are go. See you behind ATX at 6. Bring beer!

Wheels down 6 pm. We might be riding some new trail. Bring beer!

With no more rain there is not a doubt in my mind that we will be good to go. Even if we get 1/2 inch tomorrow (20% chance forecast), if it happens before 2 pm, we'll still be good to go.

Went for a ride this morning. Circle C and Veloway were good to go. Barring any rain today Crank and Drank is on. Edited at 5:05: Never mind. It's raining on ATX Bikes right now.

I remember finding some keys on a trail one time and posted on Mojo that I had. The owner of the keys saw it and I eventually got them back to him. I thought that was very cool.

I really enjoyed the Mojo thread and wanted to keep it alive, hopefully. I wish that it could somehow all get copied and pasted here. http://www.bikemojo.com/speak/14-austin-voodoo/95861-apologies-jeff-foxworthy-you-might-trail-builder-if.html I thought about that thread when I was power washing some clothes outside just now.

I think he should ask the guy if he can take it for an extended ride first. I think that the seller would do that for someone that is sort of connected to the group of mtbers. Your brother needs to know if the bike fits, but more importantly, can his knee take it or not. It would be bad to buy a bike then decide, "nope, can't do it."

And the "new" trail, that is on the north bank of the small stream there, has survived multiple rain events with no blockage. It dries and is good to go very quickly after a big rain. I rode through there today with no problems. The newly developed short route around the wood blockage (on the bridge side of those trees) is easy to see too. I'll be curious how that new 50' of trail will do after a rain. By the way, the "new" trail is 3 1/2 years old. I have not ridden the original trail since the solution to EverWet trail was built.

I'm getting a little aggregate-ed by this thread so I need to calm down. Maybe I will compose a (rip)RAP song as a diversion.

This is flood damage. It's happened before in that exact same space. There is even more this time though because of all the tree clearing the city did recently just up stream. I'm thinking that a reroute should be worked just a few feet upstream from those trees that catch everything so we don't have to be confronted with this blockage after every flood event. That is what I did to bypass it when I rode past it on Saturday. It really only needs to a have a path weedeated out of the vegetation there. No big whoop. Much easier than clearing all that wood again.

Took a ride this morning. Pretty much everything I rode was good to go. The only real problem was on 45 on Median Well next to the red, white, and blue table jump. There was about 100 feet of sloppy wet stuff. But that was it on my entire ride. I even rode the east side of Phoenix. There's a bypass to avoid the west side of it. The west side of both Phoenix trails stay wet along time. I didn't even try there. Bambi and under Mopac, (north of The Hump) was also good. Those two right there is enough to know the rest of the SATN is probably good too. Escarpment Spillway didn't even get my feet wet. But Double Dip and Gravel Crossing were still under water. Bowie Sidewalk was 2-4" deep, so it could be crossed. I didn't look at the three downstream crossings from there. I would have ridden more dirt, because it was all so good, but I rode the 45 sidewalk to 1626, because I have been wanting to do that. It is really very pleasant. Of course it won't be so much so when the highway opens. But right now you can hear the birds and just enjoy the views. Very nicely done. And none of the many workers that saw me said a thing.

I've seen probably 20 different "Hitler in the bunker" videos. I laughed at every single one of them. This is the first one of these I've seen, but I'm guessing I'll be seeing a lot more. Good! And it's funny because it's true!

1) To ride a bike 2)To have a trail experience 3)To be outdoors 4)For exercise So with all the rain we've had, and that which is coming, we won't be able to exercise riding trail outdoors for awhile. But we can still get three out of four of those things by DOING TRAIL WORK! Go experience the trails in a different way. Get outdoors. Get a work out. Three out of four. Remember, not one bit of the single track you ride here in Austin is maintained by a government entity. It's almost exclusively done by volunteer mountain bikers. YOU! If every mountain biker would only maintain 50 feet of trail we would never have a problem. The point being that every little bit helps. Grab some loppers or a machete. Fire up the weed eater. Everything helps. And when you are walking out to trim those face slappers, walk on the side of the trail to knock back the encroaching vegetation. Coming and going. And drag your feet! Don't make me go all bartman on you metro sexual sensitive safe-place-seeking pansies to motivate you. Oops, sorry. But this is the perfect time to give back a little to our community.

My only worry about sharing the trails with the Onewheel folks is trail sanitizing. It's just another user group that REALLY wants to dumb down the trails. I'm sure that Dirt Surfer will be like some of us in preaching to his community to NOT do this. But knowing people, and how we MTBers have to fight this, I know it will only add to the problem. But besides that I don't have a problem with them. And I always say the more trail advocates the better. Even a person that only rides the gravel paths, if they call themselves a mountain biker, and will show up at a city council meeting with a protest sign about keeping trail access open when needed, I'm their brother.

Cool, but what KIND of bike? 😉

Word Your post made me miss bartman.