Rambling Roads

Great weather in Austin today and Tony and I did a ride from just south of Rollingwood all the way up to the Arboretum and back. You can actually get a pretty decent ride through the central city and steer clear of most busy roads – not without a few hills though. I hate riding Highway 360 through town despite how popular it is with cyclists. Way too much traffic going at high speeds. Instead, aside from a few busy intersections, our route took us on mostly residential streets.

Going north, we went up to the west of Mopac and through some of the hillier parts of west Austin. Scenia Drive goes up along the river and as the name implies is definitely scenic. Then you catch Balcones Dr and head up toward Mt Bonnell. We didn’t go by way of Mt Bonnell though. The route behind Camp Mabry on Edgemont Drive is much nicer in my opinion and less heavily traveled.

Surprisingly enough, we found Texas Mountain Laurel already starting to bloom in a few places. It seems a little early for that. And in one strategically placed flowerbed along Rollingwood, a good sized bed of Bluebonnets was already in bloom too. Spring is definitely in the air.

Eventually we wound our way up to Mesa and from there, a fun downhill to cross Hwy 360 and over to the Arboretum. From there, we could have extended the ride up Rain Creek Pkwy but time was short today so we made that the apex of the ride and headed back. We crossed over east of Mopac on Steck and made our way south on Shoal Creek. As usual, LOTS of riders on Shoal Creek.

The ride wasn’t complete without a good coffee stop, so we pulled in at Cafe Medici on West Lynn on the way back.

All in all, a pretty nice ride of 33 miles. Click through the map for all the details.

ExperiencePlus! is doing a photo contest. Seemed like fun so figured I’d dig through some of my old cycling related photos and reminisce in the process. Update: turns out they have a People’s Choice contest going too. You can vote for one of my pics by clicking one of the Vote! links below and following their directions.

There are three categories and you can submit three photos in each category.

• Food & Local Culture: Photos of locals, outdoor markets, indoor markets, fabulous meals, grapes on vines, beautiful monuments.
• Panoramas & Vistas: What did you marvel at on your trip?
• Cyclists: You, your travel buddies, or locals who share your love for bicycling!

Below are my submissions in each of the categories.

For Food & Local Culture:

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My first pick is of a very memorable lunch in the town of Peratallada in Catalonia, Spain. After a morning of cycling from the beaches of the Costa Brava we pulled into this small town for a very welcome lunch. We started with this very fresh salad of olives, tomatoes, greens, onions, tuna and egg topped with tapanade. This was at the restaurant at the Hotel Pati in Peratallada.

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My second entry in this category comes from Tuscany near Castagneto Carducci. We were cycling through the small towns in the western part of Tuscany and pulled into this little market. They specialized in Cinghiale – or wild boar. They even had a stuffed one, to let you know exactly what you’re eating. Here, Leon gives the boar a little chin chuck.

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My third food entry comes from the peak of Mont Ventoux in Provence in France. The climb up Mont Ventoux is a legendary stage of Tour de France. After the grueling 21.8 km climb you’ll find some enterprising folks have put market tables up there and you can snack on pastries and even sausages! At this point you’ve definitely worked up an appetite so dig in.

Vistas

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One of my favorite pictures and memories came while I was cycling down the west coast of the south island of New Zealand. As you head south down the Haast Highway, one of the towns you pass through is Fox Glacier. We over-nighted in Fox Glacier and at the crack of dawn headed out to do a hike around Lake Matheson near there. If it’s just still enough and clear enough, you can get a great reflective view of Aoraki/Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. A little mist in the morning air made it all the more interesting a scene in my opinion.

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The ride from Girona, Spain over to Tossa de Mar has you passing through rural countryside and then over some steep hills before you hit the coast. You come down out of the hills on a winding, steep road and suddenly the Mediterranean is there before you. As we cycled our way into Tossa, I stopped by the side of the road to take this picture of Tossa de Mar from a distance. What a fun day and ride that was.

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Perhaps one of my all time favorite cycling routes was a day cycling in Provence. From Sault heading south toward Gordes you can go by way of the road that winds its way through the Gorges de Nesque. Out of Sault, you climb, climb, climb and then – a glorious descent, for miles and miles down twisting roads and fantastic scenery. In this photo, I’m just about to head down the descent, with the cycling Mecca Mt Ventoux in the distance. That’s not snow on the Mt, it’s the barren rocky top of Mt Ventoux.

Cyclists

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This photo comes from a cycling trip to Moose Mountain Lodge in New Hampshire. It’s not far from Vermont and what trip to Vermont doesn’t include a photo op next to a covered bridge? In this case, the Union Village covered bridge. In the picture, me and Kem.

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On the road to Peratallada in Catalonia, Spain the riding that morning was pretty effortless and everyone was all smiles. It definitely got hilly later but we were having a lot of fun on this flat section. Somehow from the seat of my bike I was able to circle around to catch Larry, Joe, Chris and Cindy just right.

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Cycling the hills of the Sonoma coast isn’t all that easy. There are plenty of challenging hills. But Kem (foreground) makes it look easy here.

Our weather the last couple of weekends has been pretty good for cycling. Last weekend Jim, Tony and I got out north of Liberty Hill and rode out to Joppa and back. It’s somewhere around a 35 mile loop. Good roads, not much traffic. For the most part, it’s only a route that makes sense in the winter months. It’s a loop route that from start to finish has no place to stop for water or anything else – that is, unless you wanted to go beg for something at someone’s house/ranch. I’m not sure I’d recommend that in TX. Or, you could carry a lot more water than usual.

This weekend was equally nice. Maybe even a bit warmer. Just did the usual loop ride from the house a couple times though rather than head out to the boonies. So, no new photos. I thought this one from last weekend was a particularly good one of Jim and me though.

Yet another weekend in central Texas with outstanding weather provided another opportunity to seek out an interesting cycling route. This time it was down to Dripping Springs and a second shot at the Mt Gainor Goner route. Kem and I were down in the same area over Labor Day weekend and did some of this same route but we had not done the whole loop.

From Dripping Springs, the route turns out to be a 45 miler. It rolls along Creek Rd and then heads south over rolling and sometimes steep hills. None of the hills are long but the route is up and down enough it’s still a workout. Nothing but country roads and scenery – and a few cows – until you got all the way down to Wimberley. We only hit the fringe of Wimberley though before heading back. We could have probably made the loop without hitting Wimberley at all but there was no other place to stop for water and even though we might have had enough to get back, it’s never a good idea to get caught out on the bike in the middle of nowhere and run out of water. And you can never tell if you’ll get a flat tire or have some other mechanical issue that’ll cause you to be out there far longer than you imagined. We thankfully had no such problems on this ride though. Just good times.

Snapped this photo of cows along Pursley Rd.

It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve taken the time to venture this far out into the hill country and cycle around the Utopia, Vanderpool and Leakey area. These are some of the most scenic roads in south central TX but they’re also pretty remote from Austin. It’s at least a 3-4 hour drive out there so you need to be thinking about making a weekend of it and so I did. I drove down to Uvalde on Friday and then did this ride on Saturday. Stayed Sat night again in Uvalde and took the scenic and long way back to Austin on Sunday.

The 52 mile loop route is more of a square as you can see in the route map image. Each of the 4 legs has a distinct character. The first section starting around Garner State Park is ‘lumpy’. Rolling hills. Pretty scenery and views. There’s pretty much nothing else out there until you get to Utopia. Great name for a small town out in the middle of nowhere. There’s not much to Utopia and that 2nd leg of the route is mostly flat. A tail wind at this point had most of us flying thru this section of the ride. Just past Vanderpool you make a left and head west on the most challenging part of the ride. You’re almost immediately greeted by the first of two long (2 miles long each) climbs. Grades are in the 3-4% range so not horrible but you’re huffing and puffing for a good long while. Views and scenery are great and the fast descents down curvy roads on the other side are a blast. The last leg heads south back to Garner State Park. At times you’re along the Rio Frio river. Surprisingly there was actually some water in the river, though not much. The last section is pretty flat though even a little breeze at this point felt like a headwind so I was pleased to see the finish line at Seven Bluffs cabins.

The ride was pretty well organized. Good water/food stops and support. There was plenty of food at the end of the ride too. BBQ with all the sides plus water & beer. I inhaled a plate of food. One beer was plenty.

The picture below was taken by a pro along the side of the road. He sits there all day and takes photos of motorcyclists and bicyclists. You can then find your photo on his website. It was pretty good so I bought it.

When most people that cycle are winding down their season of riding, it’s just starting to get good here in central Texas. I’ve been taking advantage of that and trying to find interesting routes just about every weekend. One of my favorites is the “Little Switzerland” route north of Fredericksburg, TX. Click the route map for all the turn by turn details.

This route is a lot of fun. It’s got plenty of quiet rural roads without much traffic and great scenery at just about any time of year. It’s got three sections that are a bit more challenging but at 42 miles, the route isn’t likely to crater your day. North out of F’burg you climb Mt Crabapple on Crabapple Rd. I always stop at the top to look back into the valley. My favorite part of the ride is Welgehausen Rd because it offers sweeping views of Enchanged Rock. As you tear down a long descent it’s hard to take the time to stop and get a look or snap a shot of Enchanted Rock but it’s a great view and worth taking a minute. The picture below of Kem and me was taken at this point and you can see Enchanted Rock in the distance. From this point you climb an area called Swiss Miss and then head south for a long stretch on hwy 2323. For some reason the wind always seems to be coming out of the south at this point and it is generally uphill at this point in the route too so not surprisingly the stretch is known as the “grinder”. It fits.

After the ride it was time for a tasty brew and a bite to eat at the Altdorf in Fredericksburg.

This weekend was the Outlaw Trail bike ride up in Round Rock. This ride’s been going on and I’ve been attending it for about as long as I’ve lived in Texas. The routes have changed over the years – it used to take you west over toward Cedar Park in the early 90′s – but in more recent years, they just head north up beyond Wier, TX. There’s too much traffic to the west.

I woke up to rain Saturday morning and I contemplated not going this year. It hasn’t rained more than a few drops here since some time in the spring so I’m ok with it raining, even if I have to cancel a bike ride. But, by all accounts, the rain was not going to last long. There wasn’t even anything showing on the radar. So I loaded up the bike and headed to Round Rock. Sure enough, 8 miles or so down the road the rain stopped and it was dry as a bone.

Several other friends were also riding Saturday morning and Kem and Tony pulled in right after I’d gotten there. Skies seemed to suggest we weren’t going to see any more rain for awhile so we got ready and hit the road about 8 with everyone else at the mass start. Despite the fact there wasn’t any rain, conditions were less than ideal. We had a wind coming out of the southeast gusting to 20+. For a ride that headed to the northeast that made for a pretty nice start to the ride. For about the first 20 miles we had a pretty decent tail wind or a little cross wind. As you can see in the photo here, at the first rest stop we were all smiles. With that wind, we were easily riding at a 20+ mph pace. Kem’s in the photo too and it was taken by Tony.

Of course, we realized that we’d have to turn back into the wind at some point. As such I was pretty sure I was going to prefer the 40-something miler instead of the 50 miler. We rode the 50 mile route for awhile but we took the opportunity to veer off when the routes diverged again. We spent most of the rest of the ride slogging against a tough wind. It was tough going. Gear down and hunker down. It’d have been easier if it wasn’t such open country to the northeast of Round Rock. Fields have been picked and in lots of places there’s no cover at all. Just wide open spaces and empty fields.

Kem and I got away to do a little cycling in the Hill Country over the Labor Day weekend. Kem had been searching the web for a place to stay and ran across the Mt Gainor Inn. Turns out, we’d biked by this place a couple of years before. It’s located south of Dripping Springs along one of the many great country roads there that are perfect for cycling. Turns out we’re not the only ones to head out there for cycling. They cater to the cycling crowd.

The winds were fierce both of the days we rode. They were probably sustained at 20+ mph and gusting to over 30. These are the same winds that fanned the flames of the wildfires that erupted around central Texas over Labor Day weekend. On top of that the temps on Sunday were headed over 100 again so the length of our rides were not that long. Still though, the roads and scenery are so nice around there it made for some great rides. Rolling countryside, pretty low traffic in most cases.

Aside from the riding, that area from Dripping Springs down to Wimberley has started to sprout vineyards and olive orchards. We ventured over to Bella Vista Ranch one afternoon. They do both wines and olive oil but they’re mainly known for their olive oil.

The next day we drove over to Driftwood Vineyards. We’ve been over to this place before but it’s been a couple years. You almost need a 4 wheel drive to get back in there. Not quite, but it’s a long, hilly, gravel drive to get there. It was fun to see how they’d been growing. They’d spruced up the area around the tasting room with a new patio area that looked good for large events. They make and sell wine from both Texas and California grapes. We got a bottle to have with lunch on their porch.

Evenings were nice at Mt Gainor. We just hung out and watched the sun set over the hill country. For dinner we found Creek Road Cafe in Dripping Springs. This place was surprisingly good for a little town. Check out their menu. The lamb chops came recommended from our innkeeper and she didn’t steer me wrong.

We finally got a little rain around here. We’ve been in a major drought and haven’t seen much measurable rainfall since last fall. So when a gully washer blew through last Thursday, it was very welcome.

That little bit of rain resulted in a bumper crop of Rain Lilies. Rain Lilies are great. They seem to pop up and grown over night a day or so after a rain storm. It doesn’t seem to be every rain storm, but when the conditions are right – and I’m not exactly sure what those conditions are – they pop up and bloom rapidly. Once in awhile you get a bumper crop of them like we did this weekend. They’re everywhere! In big clusters even. My pictures here don’t quite do them justice. I took them with the phone camera while out on a bike ride over the weekend and they didn’t turn out all that well. But, you get a sense of the clusters.

These flowers don’t seem to have much of scent unless you’re up close – like right up against your nose. Imagine the scent of a very earthy smelling Easter Lily. That’s sort of it. Sort of.

The weekend ushered in some spectacular cool weather for a change. We don’t usually see cool weather at this time of year. Right about now it’s usually starting to get very hot, so I’ve been soaking it up. Turned out to be an ideal day on Saturday to do the Burnet ride that Jim and Tony and I had planned earlier in the week.

The route was actually part of the Armadillo Classic bike ride but since we ride the roads around Liberty Hill and Bertram a lot, and we had no intention of doing the 105 miler that would otherwise take us out to Burnet, we decided we’d just make up our own route based on a part of the Armadillo. We did a figure 8 loop’ty loop route that left Burnet and went up to Lake Victor and then headed west and then back south to Burnet. Then a loop route to the south of Burnet. All in all, about mid 40 miles. I calculated 43, but Jim’s bike computer showed 46. So it was somewhere in there.

Aside from a pretty stiff wind out of the north on Saturday, the route and ride were great! Scenic countryside throughout and not much else. Little traffic and no place to stop along the way. As far as we could tell there’s nothing in Lake Victor except a few houses and Baptist church. Thankfully we’d brought enough water and snacks to do the 1st loop of about 30 miles without any trouble. We took a break back in Burnet and then did the shorter loop to the south to finish it up.

In the photo here, you’ll find Tony on the left, me on the far right and Jim’s friend Mary in the middle. Jim’s taking the pic. We stopped to see the yellow flowers you can see in the picture. Generally the wildflowers were pretty good this weekend. It’s too late for bluebonnets, but lots of yellow flowers and “Indian Blanket” were showing.