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South Austin Trail Network, The SATN


The Tip

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Trail conditions are improving.

Slalom is the only thing that was bad today. Yes there are small mud pools here and there through most of what I rode, but Slalom was a terrible muddy mess. I walked it just to see what people were talking about. Unfortunately I do not see any solution to it to make it drain better.

Please do the community and your bike a favor. Stay off Slalom for at least a week. At least.

Gravel Crossing was still under water. Bowie Sidewalk crossing was dry. So strange how it works.

Edited by The Tip
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I just posted this on the Austin MTB Trail Conditions page on Facebook...

 

On yesterday's ride, we did 45 from the golf course to Meridian, did all the Meridian Bowl, up School Daze to 1826 and 45, up 1826 to Spruce Canyon, then Phoenix to Bandit, Disc Go Disc Go, then we bailed because I lost a brake pad. The only wet spots were on School Daze, everything else was great. Trails are drying out nicely and should be hero dirt today for the next several says. Only a slim chance of rain on Tuesday...cross your fingers!

 
 
 
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Slalom is good to go. Some bad spots still but they can now be avoided. You won't be creating anymore damage. The good news there is now you and your buddy can ride side by side on lots of it. Fun! That's a facetious statement to illustrate that the trails have been widened due to people riding it when they should not have.

The west end of Phoenix South was a sloppy, don't ride it, mess. The downed trees on Digo's Shortcut have now been cleared so that would be the best route through there for the next couple of days.

 

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Any thoughts on the two new bridges near the veloway? There’s already upstream debris on top and wedged underneath one of them from recent rains. Seems to me they are built too low, in the wrong spot, will cause issues upstream and delay access after big rains. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Trail conditions are good enough to ride. Be smart of course, but ride while you can.

I'm going to say that a jewel in our SATN crown is the Meridian Bowl. It is dry and ready. I suppose it's because there is not a lot of tree cover and it's on a hill. Dries faster.

There are now seven trails there. One of the new ones is called Up or Down. It can be ridden uphill, unlike four of the other ones that have ledges too high to get up. At least too high for most of us mere mortals to ride up! Now all we need out there is a lift chair. But that would be crazy here in Texas.

Edited by The Tip
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  • 2 weeks later...

People are amazing. This is a picture from under the Lynnbrook bridge at the end of "Over the River and Through the Woods" in Bauerle Ranch.

dSgrhOf87zIZLsJFZvZRr0RZb1Wp0tKEW2t7IBhU

A perfectly good armored crossing ignored to get one's bike all muddied up. Very strange. This is not a "look how ruined the trail is" picture. It's more of an illustration of how poor people's powers of observation are.

Speaking of Bauerle; there is an interesting thing happening on the north side of the loop. There is new tread developing where folks are cutting several of the corners. Not big reroutes, just new, faster lines. I'm assuming this is happening because more people are choosing to ride Bauerle in a clockwise direction as opposed to counterclockwise. I know I do this now. Making the north side a downhill run is a lot of fun. I used the little short cuts yesterday and it makes it much faster. So I get it. I'm not condemning the fact that it's happening. Just observing how different uses affects things. When I use to slowly climb that trail I would have never thought to cut the corners any.

Train Spotting, the trail up from Canterbury to get to Mary Moore, is very passable now.

Mary Moore Searight continues to entertain me greatly. 

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1 hour ago, The Tip said:

People are amazing. This is a picture from under the Lynnbrook bridge at the end of "Over the River and Through the Woods" in Bauerle Ranch.

dSgrhOf87zIZLsJFZvZRr0RZb1Wp0tKEW2t7IBhU

A perfectly good armored crossing ignored to get one's bike all muddied up. Very strange. This is not a "look how ruined the trail is" picture. It's more of an illustration of how poor people's powers of observation are.

 

I wonder if some of that is people crossing when the water's up where the armoring can't be seen.  Just a thought as I also wouldn't be surprised that there's people who are scared of riding on the rocks as well.

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1 hour ago, The Tip said:

People are amazing. This is a picture from under the Lynnbrook bridge at the end of "Over the River and Through the Woods" in Bauerle Ranch.

dSgrhOf87zIZLsJFZvZRr0RZb1Wp0tKEW2t7IBhU

A perfectly good armored crossing ignored to get one's bike all muddied up. Very strange. This is not a "look how ruined the trail is" picture. It's more of an illustration of how poor people's powers of observation are.

 

 
 


I think the problem there is the same that happens at the creek crossing by the cave area... The rocks are just maybe 6"-10" wide, and this being considered pretty narrow, along with rocks possibly being slick, may lead riders to just think that going to the sides will be the easier/safer route to take. Maybe just make the rock bridge a bit wider.

Edited by RidingAgain
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Hmmm. My experience does not match your suggestions. We armor the whole trail - like 10 feet wide. Solid rock for 10 feet. People ride around the rock armoring. The only thing that works is to pile brush on either side of the armoring so that if they want to ride in the mud, they have to stop and move the brush. They still stop and move the brush but it slows down some of the mud riders.

Attached is an example picture I found easily. (Too many pictures make it hard to find the one I want.)

Twenty three YBR 2019-01-11.jpeg

Edited by cxagent
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11 hours ago, cxagent said:

Hmmm. My experience does not match your suggestions. We armor the whole trail - like 10 feet wide. Solid rock for 10 feet. People ride around the rock armoring. The only thing that works is to pile brush on either side of the armoring so that if they want to ride in the mud, they have to stop and move the brush. They still stop and move the brush but it slows down some of the mud riders.

Attached is an example picture I found easily. (Too many pictures make it hard to find the one I want.)

Twenty three YBR 2019-01-11.jpeg

Clearly that armoring has created a rock garden that is too technical to ride.  I mean - where's the line? 😉 

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13 hours ago, cxagent said:

Hmmm. My experience does not match your suggestions. We armor the whole trail - like 10 feet wide. Solid rock for 10 feet. People ride around the rock armoring. The only thing that works is to pile brush on either side of the armoring so that if they want to ride in the mud, they have to stop and move the brush. They still stop and move the brush but it slows down some of the mud riders.

Attached is an example picture I found easily. (Too many pictures make it hard to find the one I want.)

Twenty three YBR 2019-01-11.jpeg

 
 


No doubt there will be some who just want to stay off the rocks, especially when it's an extended section like that in the photo above. But my comment was addressing the 3'-5' section in the first photo, that bridged what looked like a low area that water collects in. The above looks more like a small creek flow course. But sure, people will always try to avoid what they don't want to ride/walk on. The same thing can be seen at the short section just after the jeep road/driveway in the Slaughter Creek trail. I remember when that section of stones had just been laid down. Almost immediately there were tire marks to each side of it. It's going to happen, I just think that having a slightly wider lay of stone will lessen the amount of people who do it... Especially on 3'-5' sections.

BTW... Is that wide tire mark from a mountain bike or a motorbike?

Edited by RidingAgain
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