Spring is my favorite time of year right now, ask me in a few months I will surely say winter.  But for today, spring is great.  So during my lunch break I went for a bike ride in McAllister Park.   I have been bringing sweetness with me every where I go lately, but due to rain she has spent most of her time just languishing in my back seat.  So far this year we have been on 7 rides, all in the last 2 weeks.    We have riding around McAllister Park 5 of those times, it is our favorite local ride mostly due to its proximity to my office.  We rode once around my neighborhood but since sweetness and I were both made for trail riding we avoid pavement as much as possible.  Last Thursday night we found ourselves in Austin so we rode about 10 miles around Town Lake.

The rain did do one good thing, the wildflowers are everywhere.  Sweetness, being a lady and all, really likes it when we ride through fields of flowers, so I stopped to take some pictures.  I took some video too but the quality with my phone is bad so you can’t really appreciate it.

Recent Rides at McAllister Park

Rode Friday April 10, 2009 at Government Canyon State Natural Area near Helotes, Texas.   Rode 4.95 miles then popped my rear tube, then walked 1 mile back to my car.

My overall impression of the park is mixed, I have never ridden through so much rock, the constant barrage of sharp rocks and a slow leak did my back tube in.    Riding up-hill through the rocks is tough, not much fun at all.  Bashing down hill through the rocks was fun, but caused me to lay sweetness down for the first time since starting to ride again.  I have a strong instinct towards saving myself over my bike, so I escaped unscathed.

I will go back to Government Canyon because  there is lots of beautiful country to see and I am a gluton for punishment.  Plus 3 days removed from the ride, it doesn’t seem so bad.  I just don’t enjoy riding in so much rock.  Living in the Texas Hill Country that is pretty much going to be a common problem.  The only other trails I have ridden in Texas are at McAllister Park in San Antonio, they have a number of rocky sections, but there is a lot of smoother dirt single track.

One of the smoother section of trail at Government Canyon

I started the ride heading north on Joe Johnston Route.  This trail is rocky double-track with a steady gentle ascent.  It was a good trail for warming up the legs.  About 0.8 miles up I turned right onto Wildcat Canyon.  I was ready for some single track and some good climbs.  The first .2 miles of this trail was excellent, some fast smoother trails and a few woop-de-dos in the middle of one nice dip in the trail.   Then the trail gets very rocky and the ascent becomes more intense with some 1-2 ft rock steps.  If you pick the right line most intermediate riders could handle this trail.   I was able to ride up more then 80% of the trail, then my age and general bad shape caught up to me and I had to walk my bike over some of the steeper sections.

Wildcat Canyon Trail

About 1.2 miles on this trail and I noticed my back tire was getting very low.  I left my pump in a friends backpack so I was very concerned about making it back to my car.  I decided to walk my bike the rest of the way up to avoid all the pressure on the tire caused by climbing.  I figured I could ride it back down.  I hit a fork in the trail and decided to take Sendero Balcones back to the parking area.

Sendero Balcones Trail

I figured I had climed so much that it would have to be mostly down-hill.  I was having too much fun riding down many long sections of rock steps then I popped the rear tube completely.  I made it 4.95 miles before the blowout, then I had to walk 1 mile back to my car.

GPS Track of ride at Government Canyon State Nature Area

Arggggh

For the past 5 days I have been riding at McAllister Park during my lunch breaks.  In 30-40 minutes I can get in a 3-5 mile ride on nice single track and double track dirt trails.  The trails offer some moderate climbs and descents and lots of winding narrow paths through Live Oak forests.

Today I found a program for my HTC Mogul Windows Mobile phone, GPS Cycle Computer, which uses the phone internal GPS to track my position, speed, elevation, and ride time.  This picture is from Google Earth with the KML file of todays ride; 4.13 miles in 35 minutes.

You can see this on an interactive map by clicking this link to Google Maps.

Over the past week I have ridden about 37 miles in the park.  My favorite trail is the “Red” trail with all the unmarked trails that branch off it.  Most are through the shade of the Oak Trees, and there is a large ravine with some short but steep descents.  This is a good area to help me regain my old technical riding skills without the danger of tumbling down 400 feet of mountain if I crash.

Sweetness is this Nishiki FS3 mountain bike I bought back in 1993.  I was in college at BYU and spent a lot of time on my bike.  I was spoiled as a mountain biker to live 15 minutes from some of the best single track trails in the United States.  My favorite trail was the Alpine Loop which ran across the Wasatch Mountains between Provo and American Fork Canyons.   

When we moved to Texas I gave up mountain biking.  I was very busy as a new young father and husband, plus I was in Texas, no mountains…  I saw lots of road bikers here but figured the mb scene was non-existent.

Sweetness and I got together some in 1997.  I lived just 1.5 miles from my work at USAA and would sometimes ride there.  That brief reunion ended with a nasty wreck involving my chest and a concrete curb.

With my current efforts to lose some weight and improve my general health I started walking.  Walking is slow and boring, and I don't run unless being chased.  I decided to bring Sweetness back into my life.  It had been sitting in our garage only occassionaly even glanced at for the past 11 years. 

This morning I gave it a good tune up and took it to McAllister Park in San Antonio.  The park is about 2 miles from my work, and has over 20 miles of dirt trails.  I rode a 6 mile loop around the park that included some fast level trails, some rocky technical single track, and some minor up and down hill riding.  For my first real ride in 13 years it was exhausting but excellent.  No crashes, they say you never forget how to ride a bike, that seemed to be true.  But hauling around my big fat backside is a little harder then the riding I did in college, all the more reason to lose the weight.  

The riding ended when I blew out the sidewall on the back tire while bouncing over some rocks.  The 15 year old tire could not take the pressure.  I was sitting on the ground looking at the tire and contemplating the trip to the bike shop for a replacement.  I was a little bummed cause I really like the tire set I have and I was worried I would not know what new tire to get.   I went into the shop and found the exact same tire I had!  I was shocked they still made it.  The dude at the shop seemed a little bewildered at my excitement over finding that tire. 

Sweetness rides again.