But, we decided to give it the old college try. First, we made a detour back to the office to check on moving sites for tonight. We mentioned we were off to do the bike road between the parks, and this lady used the word "challenging".
And yes... we would say that both of those words accurately describe the route!
This area had a bad forest fire in September 2011.
Taking a water break at the top of a hill.
Only 11 miles to go now!
Ruth, peddling hard to get to the top.
There were no flat sections. If you weren't going down... you were going up!
Ready to head back down.
Although the road is open to traffic, there was hardly any. The whole time, we saw maybe ten vehicles.
Nice views.
Stopped for a snack at Buescher State Park.
Small lake at Buescher State Park.
Coming back was slightly easier because we had the wind in our favor, plus there was a little more downhill than uphill. Good thing, because we were definitely getting tired at this point. Quite a few of the hills were steep enough to have the bikes in the lowest gear possible. Glad to have good quality bikes because we would not have attempted this ride with our previous bikes!
We ended up doing a 28 mile (45 km) bike ride. Feeling pretty good about doing these sorts of things at age 57, however the real goal is to be still doing them at 77!
I had to lie down and rest for a half an hour after that!
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A bunch of different Thermacell Mosquito Products are on sale, today only!
And in Canada...
Top 4 reasons to ride a bike: 1) come home tired 2) it's healthy and economical exercise 3) be able to eat burritos and drink beer and still keep my schoolboy figure and 4) half the time when I'm driving a car I'm gritting my teeth and wishing horrible deaths on the people around me. That never happens on a bike.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the area we frequent around Fredericksburg is becoming quite the cycling mecca.
Yep, those are definitely four good reasons for riding a bike! The fourth one though is not fun if you are riding a bike on a busy road, that I don't enjoy but riding it on the road between the two parks is so calming. :-)
DeleteOnly 28 miles? I think you might be slacking off a bit... :cD
ReplyDeleteSorry, we will try to do better next time! ;-)
DeleteIf you plan to make 77 - ya might consider HELMETS! Most places it is the LAW.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, Keith... I can find no such LAW in most places! Can you point us to where you got your information?
DeleteLaw or no law, consider the importance of what lies under a helmet. To me, it is a small inconvenience that is totally worth it. Even riding bike paths and staying off roads with motor vehicles, there is always the potential for a crash. I have fallen a couple of times over the years and hit my head on pavement. Very thankful to have my gray matter protected by a helmet. Helmets are a personal choice but a no brainer to me (pardon the pun!)
DeleteYes, you are correct! I do have a helmet that I always wear when I am on rough terrain or on a busy road, I just figured this was a quiet and smooth road that I didn't really need it. I will start making an effort to wear it all the time and yes, Kevin needs to purchase one as well and I need to make sure he wears it. :-)
DeleteTexas doesn't require helmets for motorcycles. We saw many bikers in groups and pairs today between Del Rio and Marathon.
ReplyDeleteTexas also doesn't have a mandatory law for wearing helmets on bicycles either.
DeleteI’m really enjoying following you on your state park jaunts. These were the same parks we camped in during our 6 week summer tour of southern Texas last year and we were rained out 90% of the time! With lots of flooded areas. Lol! Nice to see what they look like in the sun and dry! Happy trails!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lynnette, we have been enjoying our visits at the Texas State Parks. Overall we have had decent weather but we have also had some wet days. It poured with rain overnight here at Bastrop SP but luckily enough we got most of our exploring done the other day. Today we head off to park Sherman up for the summer.
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