It is finally spring in Southeast Texas and the wildflowers have been blooming for several weeks in Houston now. The weather has been unpredictable the last month but it seems to be lined up to be great weather for us this next week.
I have been working on the tour route for this trip for a couple months and have put together something that covers some familiar areas and some new areas. I always try to do something new, but it gets hard without going too far from home for the start and finish.
This tour was planned to include 4 of us - Dave, me, Elie, and Reba. At the last minute, work unfortunately interrupted Elie's plans and he will be unable to join us. We will miss him! So now it is a tour of three.
This tour will cover part of the Texas Hill Country, albeit the far eastern part which is closer for us. We will start and end the tour at Bluff Creek Ranch in Warda, TX again - the same as last year. Bluff Creek Ranch (Warda) is a working cattle ranch that has about 9 miles of single-track mountain bike trails. It is a favorite of many mountain bikers from Houston, San Antonio, and Austin and makes a great day-trip for riders from those areas. They also host a couple of races every year which have a great turn-out.
My one racing experience in my 35 years of riding a bicycle happened at Warda back in 2010. One of my best friends convinced me to do a 12-hour, 4-woman relay race there. She told me that I could have margaritas - so naturally I was in! Our team name was the "Older Than Dirt Divas" (I think the oldest of us was 40!) and we took 2nd place overall. I have a really cool plaque to commemorate my one foray into racing. One of our friends provided support and washed our bikes in between laps because it was wet, sloppy, and muddy! It was a great time - but I was happy to make that my first and last racing experience.
Warda still has a special place in my heart for camping and just getting away from the city with friends for riding mountain bikes using as a base for road and gravel loops.
The route this year includes stays at 4 Texas State Parks and one LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority) park. This is a record for me as far as state parks go for one tour. The tour is 6 days and 5 nights and will be somewhere around 225 miles. We will just be getting in the groove of touring when we are done, so I have planned shorter days so there is no rush to get out of camp in the morning and we can have plenty of time to stop and explore as desired.
We will be able to do longer tours and explore areas further from Houston and Texas once we retire next year.
Here is a brief overview of the map - it resembles a figure-8 this year. This tour includes two, new-to-me parks at Lockhart and Fayetteville. And I am looking forward to revisiting the other three parks that I have not been to in many years.
The route should provide lots of opportunity for wildflowers - as well as some good old-fashioned great riding and exploring.
We will travel to Warda on Saturday (4/13) and camp there overnight before heading out on Sunday morning (4/14). Stay tuned for update to enjoy the scenery and tour with us.
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