Spring Break

I took a week and headed down to Austin to spend some time with Jenn and get in some good Texas hill country hiking and biking. I brought both my road and MTB bike down with me.

Day 1, Sunday:

I had intended on riding the TX Norba series race last Sunday but after driving 12 hours to Austin on Saturday, getting up at 5:30 AM and driving another 2 hours one way to race didn't sound like much fun. Instead I opted for a 2 hour ride at the Walnut Creek trails in Austin, these trails are great with the exception that they are multi-use and I have never seen so many hikers and runners, I must have seen over 100 people always around every turn there was someone there, usually with small children. I really wanted to let it out and blow through the maze of trails but I feared I might cream someone som I took it pretty easy. I brought Jenn's bike down and she had a pretty good crash within a couple of minutes of starting off. She had been doing her field work for about 10 hours the day before and was super tired. The hills of Austin are hilly and rugged and as I found out by the end of the week, quite taxing to chase small birds around all day.

Day 2, Monday:

I went to work with Jenn and we hiked the rugged wildlife preserves in Austin chasing her endangered Golden-Cheecked Warbler. After about 6 hours of busting through thick brush and climbing steep rocky slopes I was down with that and Jenn dropped me off at the Barton Creek Greenbelt Mountain bike trails. These trails are supposed to be some of the best urban MTB trails in the nation according to my Texas mountain bike book. I though that they sucked! I have never ridden such rocky crap, sections of which made the worst parts of rim job at Landahl look like Smithville. The trail is 12 miles out and back and on my return route about 6 miles from the trailhead I cut the sidewall of my rear tire and my Stan's wouldn't seal it up and I didn't bring a tube (stupid I know). Any way I ended up walking past a few homeless Bum camps in the woods, kinda scary and creepy to have these forest people watching me in the middle of nowhere but I made it to an interstate and Jenn picked me up. So much for a good ride.

Day 3, Tuesday:

More hiking with Jenn in Austin, this time after about 5 hours we got caught in the middle of a wildlife preserve in a monsoon, we had our wet weather gear which would have been good to get us out dry but...... we got lost! even with GPS, Maps and a compass, so much for my orienteering skills. After the better part of an hour in the downpour we wound up on some road and walked a few miles back to the truck. This was enough for me, I just wanted to go home. Walking soaking wet in catcus patches and ashe juniper woods sucks! In the matter of an hour we had rivers running through all of the back roads we had taken to the preserve.

Day 4, Wednesday:

All day hiking in the preserves again, dry but tired and very scratched up. We did a little hiking in the afternoon at the Bull Creek Watershed

Day 5, Thursday:

We drove out to Muleshoe bend and did some birding West of Austin in the hill country. I ended up riding the MTB trails at Muleshoe for about 2 hours, I hammered the loop 3 times and had a blast. The only bad thing was that I lost my brand new crank brothers multi-tool, I hadn't even used it once, I guess it bounced out of my jersey pocket.

Day 6, Friday:

Jenn had planned on working 4 hours so I went back to Walnut Creek and rode 3 hours in the morning, I took it easy and had fun with it. During the weekday this trail was a little less crowded but there were still tons of people hiking the trails with there dogs, you really gotta watch out on this trail for those people, it is tight and twisty and it wouldn't be hard to cream one of them.

Day 7, Saturday:

Our last day we went to a couple new spots to do some hiking and birding. We first went to Hamilton pool a great natural Grotto that is open to swimming, unfortunately we didn't have swim gear. I did get some good pictures tho.. I also picked up some FOY birds: Black throated green warbler, black and white warbler, northern parula, white eyed vireo and yellow throated vireo. I ended up with one lifer: canyon wren but only by sound.

We then headed for Reimer's Ranch to take a look at the Pedernales River, it is a gorgeous river that I intenend on kyaking in the near future. This place also has mtb trails that I rode a couple of years ago. I couldn't believe how many MTB'kers there were here, there had to be around 50 vehicles in the parking lot, there are so many trails here that it doesn't seem to be too crowded even with the numerous riders. I ended up with one really cool lifer -- Vermillion Flycatcher both male and female, I have never seen such a bright red on a bird, even with all my Central American and Carribean trips. I also got Inca Dove as a probable lifer, I couldn't remember but I may have gotten them before in Mexico.

Day 8, Sunday:

I made the 12 hour trip home from the warmth and sunny skies of central Texas. I really started to miss Jenn about half way home, so I guess that's why I just sat right down and wrote all this stuff. The trip was boring as *(&% and uneventful except for my flat tire in OK City. Now I am home and bummed because I have to go back to work on Tuesday. At least I have one day to get ready.....