Adrian

On 8/6/2020 at 8:00 PM, AustinBike said:

Got this on the receipt:

And on the ticket:

Nowhere does it say anything about "leave this on your windshield" or in view for your car. These appear to be specifically for entrance to the trail. 

The data above is somewhat redacted, there is more on the actual pass.

Yeah, this ... ugh. The legality/ethical issue notwithstanding, I experienced a similar degree of confusion trying to figure out if I could ride the greenbelt a few weeks ago. Funemployment! I visited the city website and read the page on the parks closures and to see if I could figure it out. I couldn't. The language there was really unclear, non-specific, and seemed contradictory in spots. Doesn't seem like it has improved any.  

I went and rode Reimers' instead. 

1 hour ago, mack_turtle said:

I see, so it's like roads and public transit in Austin:

city growing rapidly? let's expand capacity at 1/16 that pace and hope everyone just goes away!

also school buildings

A similar topic came up in a conversation recently and I'm interested in surveying the responses to see if they're different than what's been posted here, on Mojo, and elsewhere in the past.

I'll take a flyer though: It depends, right?

I assume you're thinking of somewhere in the SATN - there certainly are many trails there that match your description. The SATN doesn't - and correct me if I'm wrong - have the sort of stewardship governance that trails like Slaughter Creek, etc. have. So everything is kinda tenuous and ad-hoc. Some good (Thanks for the mini ramps, whomever), some bad (sanitizing, widening, and other blandification - please stop.).  Certainly there are different opinions on what is fun, safe, etc. You're kinda left with consulting with some like-minded folks publicly or privately for a sanity check. Kinda just like you're doing here. 

Personally, I think the strongest argument for such change that you've listed is erosion repair/mitigation of fall line trails. Those guys are just going to get worse and we should, as a community, be advocates for sustainable trail construction. Again personally, I don't care about the Strava stuff. Anyways, whomever's KOM wouldn't be made irrelevant - it'd be made permanent. 🙂 I'm much more interested in trails being fun, challenging, and most importantly, still there tomorrow. 

37 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

is it just me, or are the trails MUCH wider in some spots? some of the singletrack is turning into a highway.

It is not just you.

In the last several years I've come across a number of rat snakes, garter snakes, some water (? or maybe just rat snakes in a small muddy pool - there were a handful of them swimming in there - creepy) snakes, and one, fat, really P.O.ed rattlesnake. Almost all of these in the SATN. 

The rattlesnake I'd come up on quickly around a bend. This was at Bauerle Ranch Park just up the hill from the pond maybe 2 years ago. The grass was sorta high on each side of the trail and I didn't see it until I made the turn and it was right in front of me. I thought it was a downed branch laying across the trail. Until I was almost on it and I saw it move. I bunny hopped it (really poorly) and stopped to turn around and make sure my wife didn't follow me right over it. She didn't, thankfully. We kept our distance since we really couldn't see where he'd went in the grass but were surprised at how loud the rattle was. 

Surprisingly, I've not seen a coral snake on the trails although my wife has several times. 

8 hours ago, The Tip said:

Getting to Mary Moore Searight; There is a housing development between Slaughter Creek Drive and Bilbrook. Formerly the way to get from Slaughter Creek Drive to Bilbrook was to ride up onto the water retention pond's berm and follow that all the way around until it hit the sidewalk behind the houses. Then the sidewalk between the houses, then sidewalk in front of houses, past the swinging gate thing that is always closed, onto to Bilbrook.

There is a better alternate, LESS OBTRUSIVE TO THE HOMEOWNERS, way now. When riding across the field from Slaughter Creek Drive, don't go up onto the berm, stay below it at it's base, out of sight (sort of) of the houses on the other side of the pond. Just as the berm is turning to the left, look to your right. There is an opening in the tree line. That single track through the forest will take you to Bilbrook. All out of sight of the houses. 

Ah... I think we've ridden past the eastern 'exit' of this and I'd wondered where the western end was. 

Thanks, going to give this a try next time we're out that way.