With the relative calm the holidays bring, we thought we’d go someplace warm and ride our bikes on trails and roads we’d never seen before. We got on a plane and headed for Austin…where it was colder than Boston. Oh, well. Adventures seldom work out as planned. Otherwise, we’d call them vacations.
A large portion of Austin is in a flood plain, so extensive measures have been taken to provide safe runoff for flash flood waters, which means an extensive network of wide culverts, intersecting and rambling across town below street level. Graffiti artists and vandals alike have decorated these subterranean spaces. Nature has intruded in interesting ways. Because Texas is in a prolonged drought, we spent some time exploring this alternative space, evergreening a place that is often not green at all, but still super fun to ride through.
Another great thing about riding in and around Austin is the variety of terrain, everything from primitive mountain bike trails to manicured and paved river paths.
Here is sunset in one of the many arroyos, dry creek beds, that spider through the countryside outside town.
Exploring the arroyos was maybe the coolest thing we did on this trip. They’d twist and turn, test your skills, force you to get off and carry the bike, and then reward you with a waterfall, like the one below.
The landscape surrounding Austin is one of those magical places where you can find yourself spinning through a desertscape one minute, broad stands of thickets the next, and then on under a sprawling hickory at the edge of green meadow.
We woke up on a sunny Christmas morning, snug in our sleeping bags, unzipped the fly and cooked breakfast on the fire. It was colder than we wanted it to be, but it’s funny how a campfire breakfast will put you right.
All photos by Rob V.