The Tip

And it's not that we want the trails all to ourselves either. Well, most of the MTB community that is. Shoot, some of the MTB community doesn't want to even share with other mountain bikers! lol

😁 We parents are not being sadistic when we do this. At least that's what I tell myself! We are just trying to desensitize our kids to their unwarranted embarrassments. (Anyone buying that explanation?)

Lakeway!

I think that this is the crux of it right there. For Texans it's just natural to say, "howdy." In other "cultures" it shows weakness or something. I don't know. You walk down the streets of New York City and nobody is going to look or speak to you. But even big city Austin people will occasionally say something. At least the Texans will!

Here comes a rider heading towards me on the trail. We pass, I give the nod and I say, "how's it going?" The other rider pretends I don't even exist! Seriously? Hey bud, I KNOW you see me. It's just down right creepy. It doesn't matter if they have ear buds in or not. You don't have to say anything. Just nod your friggin head or something. Jeez. And this is on SATN trails where you might pass two riders all day on a ride. And that's on a busy day. So it's not like you're nodding your head continually. It's just weird to pass and not do anything. No wonder we mountain bikers get a bad reputation sometimes. If you can't even acknowledge a fellow biker I shudder to think how you react to a walker.

It was good PR. Any time "mountain bike trails" are mentioned as being good helps the cause. "They started as basically old game trails and then the bikers started connecting them." Love it. Isn't that how ALL trails get made? That's my story and I'm sticking to it at least.

Interesting. They suggest $20 a day is normal. I know a lot of us have multiple bikes in their garages. Mine already looks like a bike rental shop.

Made me think of that old joke, Q: What do you call the medical student that finished last in his class? A: Doctor

That's sort of my problem. But for me its that I drink whisky like I drink beer. "Sipping" is not in my vocabulary.

The Back 40 was not all out in the wilderness like I thought something called the Back 40 would be. Going ccw we just followed along the road at first . I would say you could see houses 60% of the time. Not that it had anything to do with the trail. It was just different from what I was expecting. Speaking of houses, I learned to dread seeing approaching houses and street signs from the trail. That indicated that a killer climb up to that street was coming up. Based on our nine guy's experience, you have a 25% chance of getting a puncture or side wall tear on the Back 40. Be prepared to repair out there. It took us slow guys just under five hours to ride the 21+ mile loop. This included four tire repair stops, two falling off a cliff stops for me, a couple of other crashes, and one waiting for a driver to come take one rider to the ER stop. My Strava time was 567th out of 601 for the Whole Quesadilla CCW Phat Tire Bike Shop prices were surprisingly reasonable on tires. And other stuff too. It is difficult for a newbie to figure the best ways to do all the Bentonville trails. You should have a good idea on how to prior to getting there. You might enjoy it without research of course, but I think it best to not waste time "exploring" because you will run out of time to experience everything. We are in south Austin. It took us 10 hours including gas and one 40 minute meal stop. It was the same both ways. Google Maps will tell us it's 8.75 hours. We drove 75 mph just about the whole time. Go figure.

Yes, it's in the Latta Branch Greenbelt, just west of Beckett, across the street from Dick Nichols. If you can find anyone's Strava ride and look at the map, that car is on a trail marked on the map as "Rocky Trail."

Awhile back I went to every trail head in this area to look at signage and found these signs as pictured, minus the no hunting sign, at everyone of them. Notice that the signage is new-ish looking too. Meaning you must assume it to be "recent" policy. You have to be a very good internet sleuth to go through the COA Parks Department website to find where it says, "hiking only" for this area. As a matter of fact I stopped writing this post to try and find where I had found it before. I spent 10 minutes and couldn't this time. But I know it is still the policy because I had a discussion with a park police person at a meeting about it a couple of months ago. We should devout efforts into getting mtbing officially allowed there. It is almost the same size as Walnut Creek and has as good of topography. And of course we should work on getting more areas of the SATN sanctioned. And there are efforts being made towards that. I know I have said this before but our mtbing community should make golden images of cxagent to idolize for his "patience of Job" devotion to the tedious work of working with the City and other entities in accomplishing just that. In the SATN and the rest of the Austin area as well.

I don't have time to watch lengthy videos like that. Can you summarize what is in those videos? Cool stuff.

This is as pleasing of a story as the African poacher that got stomped by elephants than eaten by lions.

Don't ride muddy trail. Yes we know that. But if we waited until there is absolutely no mud anywhere on the trail, not only would we really limit our time on the trail, but then we would be dealing with moon dust too. How ironic! I contend that it is okay to ride trail that has SOME "bad" spots. The problem is that a bunch of riders have different opinions than I do about what percentage the "allowable" bad spots are. So unfortunately we have to be over militant about sending the "don't ride muddy trails" message. This is such an inexact thing of course, because how do you really measure, but I think that a 95/5% mix is acceptable. That means on 5% of the trail you are going to have to get off your bike and walk around the muddy patch. And none of the patches I am talking about are ever more than 5 feet long. But 95% of the trail is probably hero dirt. I think that a 90/10 mix would make it not worthwhile to ride. Again, inexact, but am I making any sense? I feel it is unfair to shame a guy in the parking lot on a muddy bike without knowing his full story. He might have just discovered for the community that 95% of the trail was good, "but don't ride _____ because I did and it was not ready. That's why my bike is dirty."

This made me laugh because I have the "impressed" reaction to guys that are talking too. Actually call it jealous. Here I am just trying to keep up and these guys are talking like they're sitting in a recliner watching a football game. What the hell?! But it doesn't bother me at all. I will also carry on a conversation sometimes during a ride. Group rides are social rides so I expect conversations. I also expect to ride slowly when I go out with my wife. And, like you, other times I enjoy getting lost in the wilderness, listening to nothing but the outdoors. Rides can be different things and I like that. I enjoy group rides because they force me to just ride. I have a maintenance problem. If I am riding by myself and a branch brushes my arm I will stop to cut it. This happens even when I tell myself at the start of that solo ride that, "I'm not stopping today!"

Hopefully not a new rainmaker. Giant Trance Advanced Pro 1.

Tonight's Crank and Drank: https://www.strava.com/activities/2249711587 15.5 miles of flowy fun. 6 pm behind ATX Bikes. Won't even need a dranking jacket tonight.

https://www.bartonspringsbikerental.com/ Across Barton Springs Rd from Baby Acapulco. They have a lovely video of them sending customers out into the street with no helmets. ps mcfly, your Barton Springs pool scenery discussion is worthless without pictures by the way.

More flowery than bikey: A speaking of the Veloway, LaCrosse was jammed packed with parked cars. The Wildflower Center is going gangbusters.

ATX Bikes will be starting it's new rental operation this coming week with all new Giant models. ATX Bikes is located on the South Austin Trail Network (SATN). It is literally at their back door. The SATN has 85 miles of flowy and fast trails with small sections of techy stuff scattered about.

Agree with your post. But 100 miles is a way too conservative estimate. Shoot, the SATN is now at least 85 miles all by itself. And I never include any of the BCGB in that mileage total. Not even the BCGB trails on our GOOD side of the creek.

There is a trail that connects Firehouse to that South Bay Lane crossover. That will allow you to get to LaCrosse on the east side of Mopac if you are northbound on Firehouse and wanting to get to the top of Terminus.

They should charge admission!

I imagine. Right behind Valero. I was looking at Sluggo's picture above, right above mine, trying to decide if his too was at that spot.