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:

Vistas

Cyclists

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 Enchanted 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 here 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.

Despite the very gusty winds of the last few days, it’s been fun getting out to ride on this year’s Easter Hill Country Tour. There were some longer and more challenging rides among the menu of routes but I didn’t opt to take them. Instead I took a shorter (but hilly) ride on Fri morning and then later rode in Fredericksburg up Lower Crabapple Rd.

The first part of the Fri ride was very hilly. The hills started almost immediately. Saw lots of folks walking up ’em. At one point I saw a guy on a recumbent bike just topple over because he was moving so slow. More like he just rolled off. Maybe that’s how he gets off one of those bikes going up hill. (?)

The Fri morning ride was marred by coming up on the aftermath of a very bad bike wreck. At some point we had to come down from the hills we’d climbed and we had some steep, fast descents. I’m not sure what happened but as I rounded a corner I saw lots of folks around a woman that was down on the ground. Looked bad. Lots of blood. Very scary. Someone later said they helicoptered her down to San Antonio but I don’t really know. I just hope she’s ok.

Later in the day I rode out of Fredericksburg and up Crabapple Rd. That’s where I snapped this picture of my bike. I love heading out that road. Pretty country. Couldn’t help snag a photo of the bike too.

The other photo of bikers was taken as we took off on Saturday. The ride I did Saturday was only 35 miles. Knowing that at least half of that would be against a strong wind, it seemed like it’d be plenty. We did finish with an excellent tailwind though, on a quiet road along the Guadalupe river. I ran into a couple friends from Austin, Joel & Eileen, and their friend Charles, just as I was starting the ride. Seemed we were all happy with a reasonable and leisurely pace, so we stuck together. Made riding against that wind a little easier.

With temps pushing into the 90’s this weekend, some nice chilled wine on the patio of the B&B at the end of the day was just the ticket. I’d brought along some rosé that fit the bill just perfectly. Brought back good memories of France last summer. Speaking of France, coincidentally the Lavendar at Becker Vineyards is in bloom this weekend so I took a side trip over there to check it out. Snagged the photo below.

It continues to be ridiculously windy here on a regular basis this spring but yesterday we were treated to a fantastic morning when the temps were cool and the winds were light and out of the north east. Jim, Tony and I planned to do a route we’ve done before: a 40-miler out of Bertram that goes to Burnet, and then back to Bertram. It’s a great route of rolling hill country backroads.

While we’ve seen few if any Bluebonnets this spring the weather’s at least been conducive to lots of yellow flowers. I snapped this one along the way. Seemed appropriate to get some of the old barbed wire fence in the picture too.

The picture of me on the bike is only a few feet from where I took the pic of the flowers. In fact, you can see the flowers and fence off behind me. I’d just gotten back on the bike when Tony snapped this one of me.

We’ve had very little rain this year, so it’s not been a good year to see wildflowers in central Texas. But while it’s been a bad year for the flowers, I still love to get out around Fredericksburg and Stonewall in particular and cycle the [mostly] quiet roads.

This is the first year I’ve done the LBJ 100 ride, but I’ve ridden all the roads of their routes. That one was a couple weekends ago. This past weekend was back to the same area and some of the same roads on the Pedal Power Wildflower Ride. The Pedal Power ride includes the Willow City loop route. It’s always one of my favorites. The picture here in the corner of Bluebonnets was one of the few along the way. Very few to speak of this year. Contrast that picture with last year. What a difference some rain makes.

We had good weather for both rides this year. Chilly starts but it warmed up quickly. Thankfully only light breezes. It has been almost perpetually windy this spring so to have a couple mornings when it wasn’t routinely gusting to 20mph was a blessing.

The 2nd picture here is of me having a beer after the LBJ 100 ride. It was close to 90 that day by the time we finished so the brewsky was welcome. You wouldn’t know it by looking but this tent/table was set up smack dab in the middle of the tarmac of the airfield on the LBJ ranch. It’s kinda weird. There’s a huge landing strip out in the middle of a field of cattle where LBJ used to land the Air Force One of the day. On the day of the ride, the landing strip was used as a parking lot and road. It felt odd driving down the runway where LBJ used to land his plane. LBJ’s daughter Luci was there to lead the ride out. Not surprisingly perhaps, there was a fair amount of speechify’ing at the start of the ride. Someone even sang the national anthem. Mostly people just wanted to get on their bikes and ride.

The picture below was taken by Tony at one of the rest stops along the LBJ ride.

I’ve been able to get out to ride the last three days. It’s felt great to get some exercise and get out in the sun. The previous couple days it was reasonably warm, but windy. Today though, much colder. Lower 30’s this morning so I waited till afternoon to get in another ride today. We topped out around 50. Cold enough I’m going to put on all the gear to keep warm. Here I am with scull cap over the ears, fleece jersey and neck gaiter.

Our get-away in August included a day of cycling in Marin and Sonoma counties on the Holstein 100. Kem found this ride online and it looked like it might be perfect for us to do while we were out in the Sonoma area tasting wines and otherwise just hanging out and enjoying the scenery.

With the ride being in its 17th year, we expected a fairly well organized and planned event. Generally speaking, that was true, but I was surprised to find minor details overlooked. The ride started in Tomales at the local high school and looked to be pretty well attended. The parking lot was jammed with cars. Tomales is small and the high school locker room has only two stalls. To be specific: rent a few more portable toilets next time – especially for the ride start/end. I think I waited 20 min or more just to use the toilet at the start of the ride. It was never quite clear whether there was or wasn’t going to be a mass start. We just took off ’cause it looked like others were already going.

Having just flown in from Texas and our typical hot August weather, it was a bit of a jolt to the system to start the morning off in the low 50’s with a steady drizzle. Ugh! I was freezing. Thankfully we’d planned ahead enough that we had jackets, but neither of us had packed anything for our legs. The day before though, we figured that might be a problem and we’d stopped in at Mike’s Bikes and I got some leg warmers. I was sure glad I had!

Conditions were not ideal for riding that morning – it was foggy and there was a steady drizzle going – but we came to ride and we were not disappointed with what we found. The route was interesting and the terrain varied. We started with the idea that we’d do the 100K ride. On that route we had a couple of really good climbs. The 2nd of those climbs was referred to by other riders as “the wall” but we found it wasn’t as hard as the 1st big climb of the morning.

The rest stops were great. There were plenty of interesting food choices and the folks tending the rest stops were nice and fun to talk to. The first one we pulled into was especially fun. They had set up wooden cutout cows and we took some pictures next to them. (See the one in this post.) They also had a big ‘hat with horns’ you could put on that was just perfect for a photo op. Sorry, no links to that one. 😉

Around 40 miles in though, we ran into trouble. Kem rounded a corner and caught the lip of the road and fell! She was really hurting and EMS came and carted her off to Petaluma. There she got some xrays and thankfully we concluded there was nothing broken or serious enough that it was going to require a further stay at the hospital. Just plenty of shoulder and thumb pain and a pretty good knock on the head. The EMS guys from Tomales were a great help and so were the other random riders that stopped to help and make the call to EMS. The crazy guy in the pickup that came by before EMS though and essentially told us all to “go to hell” was more than a little disconcerting. A big thanks to the guy from the coast guard whose name I never got that carted both Kem’s and my bike and me back to Tomales. That guy was a saint and more than did his good deed for the day.

All in all, despite the trouble we had, I liked the ride and route and would certainly recommend it. Maybe we’ll get a chance to ride it again some time but that’s a pretty big maybe, considering the logistics involved.

I was back in eastern Iowa with my bike recently. On the day before dad’s surgery, we made the best of the nice weather and thought a picnic was in order. Mom and dad drove over to Bellevue to the park next to the river, while I bicycled over to meet them. One of my favorite routes in all of eastern Iowa is the one from Maquoketa to Bellevue through Andrew and Springbrook. It’s a 46 mile loop or somewhere around that.

This part of Iowa is very rolling. There are some short but steep climbs on this route but it makes for some very pretty country. Bluffs border the road at some points. Then you descend into valleys where creeks run alongside the road. Lots of fields, farms and livestock. Redwing Blackbirds dogged me pretty much all the way over and all the way back. I’d forgotten how aggressive they can be. Perhaps I should say protective. As they swooped in, I was glad I was wearing a helmet. The blackbirds were joined by the much more pleasant sounding Meadow Larks and Cardinals. Familiar sounds to go along with the familiar sights.

The photo below was just one I snapped with the iphone camera on the way back to Andrew from Springbrook.