Turned out to be a nice day for a ride on Sunday the 25th and Kem and I both wanted to get in a nice long ride. As it turned out, so did Nat and Charisse, so they joined us. We took the drive up from Austin to Bertram and parked at one of the quicky marts to do a route from Bertram to Lampasas. Check out the details here.

The route is one of the better ones in central Texas. Rolling hills, nice long vistas of open country, cattle, goats and mesquite. The traffic on this particular occasion was light to nil. On occasion you can get a fair bit of pickup truck traffic but they’re usually very gracious about sharing the road. I did have one occasion last year when I was purposely run off the road by someone on this route but that’s the exception rather than the rule.

Keep an eye peeled for dogs.  While I’ve done this route and never encountered any dogs, twice now I’ve been chased down and had to outrun them. Such are the hazards of cycling far from the maddening crowds. But on the upside the views and fresh air usually make up for it.

The route’s 25 miles up and 25 back for a nice rolling 50. Lampasas is at the 25 mile mark of the ride and a good place to fuel up with water and other things if you didn’t bring enough along. There’s no place at all to stop otherwise. No cattle guards, but the road surface is the type of asphalt made from small stones. On a road bike sporting 100psi+ tires, plan on feeling plenty of road surface.