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Help me plan my weekend!


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My brother's coming into town from Colorado this weekend. It's his first time visiting Texas to ride, so I want to show him a good time break his spirit with a bunch of chunky tech 😉.

He'll be getting in late Friday/early Saturday morning, and leaving Tuesday midday. I live in Cedar Park, but don't travel to ride all that much, so I haven't ridden all that many trail systems around here. This is a good excuse for me to get out and see new trails too, so I'm planning on taking advantage of it!

We definitely want to check out Spider Mtn, and spend a decent chunk of time showing him all the stuff I ride at Brushy. Aside from that, I'd like to take him through some of the Greenbelt, and probably Reveille Peak.

Tentative Plan:

-Saturday afternoon: BCBG tour (maybe 4C/Jester too? I haven't been there, but I've heard it's fun. Any description/reviews?)

-Sunday: Spider for a 3 or 4 hours, then RPR till dark. -- Anyone have a good route at RPR to make sure we hit all the good stuff?

-Monday: Crystal Falls, Ultimate Frisbee at 12 in Cedar Park, Brushy playtime

-Tuesday: Eat tacos, lol

I haven't decided how much of the greenbelt I want to take him through, so we might switch Saturday / Monday. I've got some other stuff I'd like to do with him in Cedar Park on Monday though, so staying close works better for that.

When I visit him in CO, he usually drags me through around 70 miles and 10,000 ft of climbing in a weekend, so I'm trying to work him over the same on his trip down here.

Anything else I'm missing? How much time should we budget if we go to Jester? RPR?

Thanks in advance!

 

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For RPR, I think it is more important to hit the Peak Loop and the Outer Loop than it is to do the Flow trail and Jaws, especially since you're doing Spider first. So I'd put the priority on fun exposed granite. But if you have time, do it all. 

 

RPR can be a confusing mess--and this is more true than ever now that they have the wide corridor trail plowing through, around and beside the singletrack. You could save this ride as a route and try to follow it on Strava though: https://www.strava.com/activities/2032260043  Or maybe you could wrangle a guide.

 

Hmmmm...schoolie...Crystal Falls....Ultimate Frisbee...not been to RPR...doesn't travel much... yeah I know you. 

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8 minutes ago, Barry said:

For RPR, I think it is more important to hit the Peak Loop and the Outer Loop than it is to do the Flow trail and Jaws, especially since you're doing Spider first. So I'd put the priority on fun exposed granite. But if you have time, do it all. 

  

RPR can be a confusing mess--and this is more true than ever now that they have the wide corridor trail plowing through, around and beside the singletrack. You could save this ride as a route and try to follow it on Strava though: https://www.strava.com/activities/2032260043  Or maybe you could wrangle a guide.

Awesome, that's the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks!

8 minutes ago, Barry said:

Hmmmm...schoolie...Crystal Falls....Ultimate Frisbee...not been to RPR...doesn't travel much... yeah I know you. 

Yep, you do 😉

14 minutes ago, CBaron said:

I don't have access to it at the moment, but someone post up a Strava link of last weekend's DeathMarch ride!  That'll teach him....

-CJB

And you do too Cody. I learned my lesson well enough on Sunday, not sure I want to go through that again just to show Joe some tech, lol.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2205301262

It definitely helped me feel like I know my way around down there though. I've been working on routes of a couple different lengths that I feel like were the highlights, without quite so much of the misery :)

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Ok got it!

Has he been to ATX before?  If not, then a nice little jaunt through sidewinder, rattlesnake and a few others would be enough to make him wince.  Most everyone who doesn't ride our stuff easily gets overwhelmed with the chunky, rocky, loose, steep tech we have around here.  It wouldn't be too hard to put together a 2-2.5 hr route featuring the highlights that would give many people plenty of (troubled) fun! 😉  I'm planning to be on the MX bike this weekend or I'd offer to join/lead you guys around.

The 4c stuff is really nice, but IMHO may not be as punishing as what could be done at BCGB.  YMMV

-CJB

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20 minutes ago, CBaron said:

Ok got it!

Has he been to ATX before?  If not, then a nice little jaunt through sidewinder, rattlesnake and a few others would be enough to make him wince.  Most everyone who doesn't ride our stuff easily gets overwhelmed with the chunky, rocky, loose, steep tech we have around here.  It wouldn't be too hard to put together a 2-2.5 hr route featuring the highlights that would give many people plenty of (troubled) fun! 😉  I'm planning to be on the MX bike this weekend or I'd offer to join/lead you guys around.

The 4c stuff is really nice, but IMHO may not be as punishing as what could be done at BCGB.  YMMV

-CJB

Nope, he hasn't been to ATX. The primary goal isn't actually to demoralize him, lol, but I do want him to experience the kind of riding I get to do down here, same as he does for me when I visit out there. Springs has some extended rowdy downhills, all linked up with fireroad climbs, so it's a lot different than here.

I know we rode sidewinder and I think rattlesnake on Sunday, but that was far enough into the route that I was losing track of where we were. If you've got a ride that would be a good reference for this shorter loop, that'd be awesome.

The sections I remember that I wanted to be sure to hit again are HOL backside stuff, dump truck (great view), Rudy's Chute, play around on ledges/drops at the gravel pit, and Jedi/Mulch. The descent from Via Fortuna was a blast, but maybe not worth the distance to get there depending on time.

Doing out and back to Zilker would be fun, stopping for lunch, etc., but I probably would only do that if we end up making it an all day affair on Monday.

Oh yeah... what's Zilker like with SXSW going on? Is that something I need to care about?

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2 hours ago, schoolie said:

Oh yeah... what's Zilker like with SXSW going on? Is that something I need to care about?

Yes, I came here only to warn you about this.  I would not try to park at Zilker this weekend, and the main trail will be very busy with tourists.  I'd plan on a different access point if you want to maximize your quality ride time.  Now, if you're into people watching, then the main trail should be good this weekend.  Just expect it to be slow and frustrating at times as far as riding goes.

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10 hours ago, AustinBike said:

I am planning to do a GB ride on Saturday but my ride would be in the morning, either 9 or 10. It will end at a brewery if that helps.

THIS ^^^^

When I read the first post in this thread I thought, if AB had a GB ride going, that would be the ticket for showing your brother the grunt.

Edited by Ridenfool
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13 hours ago, AustinBike said:

I am planning to do a GB ride on Saturday but my ride would be in the morning, either 9 or 10. It will end at a brewery if that helps.

Cool! I'm not sure yet when we'll be up and rolling Saturday though, depends how early he can leave work Friday, how smooth his drive goes, etc. Unfortunately, it probably won't be until early afternoon.

I do think I got a good enough tour from y'all on Sunday to show him around on my own though, so thanks for that!

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Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you want to hit, but if you are looking for alternatives, Mt. Lakeway might be fun if you have a couple of hours.  Park up by the water tower behind the swim center.  Coming from CO, he may not think too much of the climb, but there's enough Central TX rocky goodness to make it interesting...

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9 hours ago, schoolie said:

Cool! I'm not sure yet when we'll be up and rolling Saturday though, depends how early he can leave work Friday, how smooth his drive goes, etc. Unfortunately, it probably won't be until early afternoon.

I do think I got a good enough tour from y'all on Sunday to show him around on my own though, so thanks for that!

Depending on the other ride options for Sunday, I could possibly do a Sunday GB ride too, but about the same time.

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22 hours ago, CBaron said:

Sounds like you've got a plan formulating.  But if you are wanting some more data points, here is the "normal" BCGB ride I do when I go visit my southie buds.  Its a super nice loop hitting some quality trail.  That said, it doesn't cover some of the nastier stuff (for better or worse).

https://www.strava.com/activities/943694033

Later,
CJB

Sweet, thanks Cody! I'm riffing off this ride a bit, thanks for the ideas :).

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We ended up getting a great ride in at the greenbelt today. Only took a few wrong turns, and hit pretty much everything we were aiming for. 30 miles of fun, started at HOL, went all the way to Zilker and along town lake for a bit, then back to Travis country to hit sidewinder/jedi/mulch. Crossed the creek (kept our feet dry!) and climbed HOL backside back to the car.

@CBaron thanks for the sidewinder suggestion, that was a fun tough little bit of trail. I know we rode it during the Death March, but I didn't remember where it was or what it was called. Glad I could show him that.

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