Saturday and Sunday (the 6th and 7th)?
So do you have a plan for Saturday and Sunday? I’ll be in San Antonio Sunday at some point. Stopping in Austin either day is a possibility if I can juggle some other stuff.
Juggling club is Thursday and Sunday : P
… no really… I’ll be there too
We’re riding Thursday-Sunday probably at least once a day.
PM me and I can shoot you my phone number. 
rode Purgatory Creek
As no one else had time, I rode Purgatory Creek in San Marcos instead. It was pretty great but the character of trails is way different than what I’ve been doing in Germany (expected that and no surprise). It’s much less of a division between “climbing” for a long time and then (after a rest) having a lengthy downhill and is more continuous up and down. This proved to be really exhausting as I was riding and riding and riding and soon totally exhausted. What made it worse was 1) I forgot why I used to mountain bike early in the morning when I used to live in Texas and rode between 11:30am and 2pm! i.e. the hot of the day at 88F and 2) I’ve grown more unaccustomed to the heat and humidity than I had thought 
and 3) I must be more out of shape than I thought (no unicycling or biking for the last 12 days, that’s close to a record for me for the last 10-15 years).
As far as I can remember (I’ve only ridden Madrone Trail at Canyon Lake on a mountain bike), Purgatory Creek is pretty similar to Madrone with only short climb and lots of ups and downs and pretty rocky with a lot of rock gardens (although I remember Madrone having a few larger rock ledges and drops). I remember the terrain at City Park also being similar, but with much more elevation (steeper uphills and downhills) as well as much larger ledges and drops and such. There were a number of muddy areas and one spot where a trail was impassable as it was over a foot under water, but there was a close by alternative. But all in all the trails were pretty rideable and perhaps with the recent rains even better grip than normal as I expect it is usually totally dry and maybe somewhat sandy.
I had to cut my ride short to get back for something so I only rode about half of the trails I think (maybe even less). In total I had 4.5 miles. It was really fun and the KH29 was the perfect wheel size (big thanks goes to Panotaker for setting me up with the KH29 :) ). I instantly felt comfortable on the 29 and the speed was way better than the 24 while the downhills were not nearly as intimidating and hard to control as the 36 (and not so many head-clearance problems as on the 36!). I also had no issues with the rim brakes and felt immediately comfortable with them and had good control on the downhills (I think the disc would still be way better on a 20+ minute >2000ft downhill like in the Alps, but Texas doesn’t have any of those, so no deficit). Thanks Panotaker and the setup is perfect with the brake adjusted nicely and the lever positioned well. I was a little skeptical about the WTB Stout 2.3 tire maybe lacking a little too much in volume, but it seemed to soak up the rocks well enough. I think at that pressure the tire is maybe a little slow, but for muni that is pretty much irrelevant.
I had few problems on the short rocky downhills and rode almost all of them (a few after the second or third try). On the uphills I had to walk a bunch: interestingly more frequently not because they were technically too hard but because I was so exhausted from the heat on lack of “rests” of the terrain that I am more used to. It was about 88F during my ride and there was a lot of standing water around from the rains in the last week, so it was pretty humid (and lots of mosquitoes). I was really surprised how exhausted I was in the heat and for the second half of the ride I had to force myself to stop every 10-15 minutes and take a short break to cool down (my body is no longer used to that kind of heat even though I grew up here and did tons of sports and biking in the heat). If possible, I will try and ride early in the morning (on days with a high over 85F, which looks like from here on out).
Government Canyon/Austin
I’m hoping to be able to ride 3-4 times from Thursday to Sunday when it looks like a lot of riders will be here and am planning to come up to Austin for the weekend, but I need to coordinate with the family and such…
Are you going to be in San Antonio before/after the weekend? as it would be great to also ride Government Canyon (say on Friday or Monday morning).
Should we try and set up some ride times? maybe City Park early Sunday morning?
Glad you are enjoying the KH29 Nathan! It must be freezing where you are from because 88 degrees is like a cold front in Texas! Me and a friend almost died out there in City Park a couple of years ago. It was 103 degrees, we ran out of water and almost dehydrated. Luckily I had a GPS, so we cut through the brush to get back to the road, and road that back to our vehicles. A couple of other times we got really bad charley horses because of the heat, where we couldn’t even move. I try not to ride when it’s over 100 now.
You might want to drive out to Bandera. Plenty of trails out there and no floods as far as i know. If not, I will see you this weekend so we can ride here in Austin.
Ralph
muni Friday early, group ride Sunday in Austin
So I got out to Spring Lake Preserve in San Marcos today. At first I was disappointed as there was quite a bit of double track and it was really muddy (way muddier than Purgatory Creek even though I rode that 2 days after the rain and now it’s been 3+ days since it rained). But then things improved and I found some decent single track 
Especially the short downhill from the end of Lamar Ave was great: rode that without a single dismount! It was fun and I handled the heat a little better than last time (rode from 10:30-12:15 and temperature around 86-89F). Total ride distance of about 4 miles in about 1:45 (again had time constraints so I had to quit early).
Tomorrow morning I am planing to do a ride early - maybe 7-9am or 8-10am. If anyone has time I’d love to meet up - thinking of City Park or Government Canyon… although I also want to ride Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort some time (been there on a mountain bike 2 years ago and it was pretty great). Anyone have time? Anyone know how Flat Rock Ranch is on a muni? I know there’s no way to cover the 26 miles, but I remember the trails being pretty nice.
Saturday I probably won’t be able to ride.
@Ralph: so let’s plan for a group muni ride Sunday in the Austin area (City Park or something better).
I’m down for Sunday at city park. Noon?
Sunday: early or late afternoon
I still have to work out the final “permission” but Sunday looks promising for me.
I’d rather do early or late so I’m gone half the day (and have the other half for family): i.e. start at 8am/9am or 3pm or so? early sounds good to me as it’s cooler but late afternoon ok if no on wants to wake up that early on Sunday.
CP was as technical as expected
I rode City Park today and it was great!! At first I was a little confused as I’ve only ridden clockwise and they’ve changed the direction to counter-clockwise. Then I missed the start and clipped off the first section (rode it later though twice).
I got started at 7:50am!! So it was still cool. I didn’t finish up until noon and by then it was hot! Unfortunately I had a dismount yesterday into a cactus field and “rode” the tire through (and over) the cactus (plus I got a bunch of spines in my thighs). Last night I patched 4 holes and thought that was good. But no, today I patched 3 more holes on the trail and I still didn’t have them all (I didn’t have an extra tube and I was running out of patches). So I spent a lot of time fixing holes and then pumping again, always making sure I had enough pressure. It also made the riding harder as most of the time I had too much air in the tire (better than getting another flat as I only had one patch left). @Ralph: don’t worry I’m buying a new tube and I didn’t damage the rim as I always kept pumping to keep the pressure up.
City Park is so much fun! So very rocky (but then I knew that). I couldn’t ride any of the big multi-ledge uphills, but was able to ride quite a few downhill! A 24" would probably be a lot more appropriate for CP, but I did pretty well on the 29". The corners were definitely a blast! It took some getting used to the large number of rocks, but I adapted well and was able to ride quite a bit (I didn’t hop much of anything, but rode what I could). Sadly I walked down most of the larger multi-ledge drop sections, but successfully rode almost all of the not so huge ones (roughly I did some 2ft singles and almost all multiple 1 footers but only a few of the multiple 1 1/2 foot drops and none of the multi 2ft drops).
I did one lap but missed 2 parts. Afterwards I re-did the missing part and then did another quarter loop. Total 6 miles. It was good to start early but at the end it was hot and 90F I think, but I think I am finally getting used to the heat again Didn’t feel nearly as exhausted as my last 2 rides in Texas – ok, I was also technically challenged much more of the time, so I had an excuse to walk most of the steep uphills.
Also saw a coyote and a roadrunner on the trail. The trail itself was pretty good: two sections with a running “creek” along the trail for about 100 yards (both rideable) and 2 large puddles maybe 30ft long (walked both), plus a bunch of other small puddles (mostly rideable). So definitely wet for CP but quite fine for riding.
Only 2 crashes (lots of voluntary dismounts). Once I maneuvered a tight corner in front of a tree and was concentrating on an upcoming rock section and unknowingly looped my backpack onto a tree branch stub while twisting to make the rock garden and -whew- suddenly my upper body got ripped back while my legs, the uni and my hips were still going forward. Ouch! It twisted me to the side into the tree and my forearm got grated along the bark. My other crash was where I rode the first 2 drops of a big 3-drop section and then bailed on the last and landed on my butt and wrist (yes, was wearing my wrist guards thank you).
Looking forward to riding it again, as the second time usually is so much more flow Plus it’ll be fun the ride with someone else and see how others tackle the technical problems. Unfortunately only 2 stationary photos as I was by myself (one mountain biker in the parking lot when starting, two motorcyclists in the parking lot after my first loop and then 2 mountain bikers in the parking lot as I finished, but on the trail I encountered not a single person).
Hey MUCFreerider, I’ll be in Austin today (Saturday) and maybe Sunday. Feel free to call/text me two one four 4356705
If you want to ride on Sunday, I suggest Saint Ed’s Park on Spicewood Springs road. It has the best trails in Austin. Lots of uphill, but a huge downhill run. Lots of technical stuff along the way with some huge drops. Is where I take all the out-of-towners. Plus is next to Thumper, which the mountain bikers claim is the hardest trail in Austin. We can hit it St. Eds Sunday morning before it gets too hot, but is mostly tree covered, so it’s not too bad. I’ll bring my spare KH24 incase you want to use that Nathan instead of the 29.
As far as City Park, I normally ride it counter clockwise. It has better drops that way. The motorcycles don’t really know which way you are going since I just stop when I hear them coming, and I rarely see any bicycles out there. The direction is just to keep the motorcycles from crashing into each other.
Saint Ed’s Park Sunday morning
Never been there and don’t know anything about it, but it sounds pretty good (I have vague recollections of doing/practicing inline skate knee slides down a steep hill near Spicewood Springs Road about 20 years ago, so I believe it is hilly).
So do we have a meeting time and exact place (is there a trailhead or parking lot at Saint Ed’s Park on Spicewood Springs road?). I’ll be coming up alone on IH-35 from New Braunfels if anyone lives out south and wants to carpool (e.g. from San Marcos).
I’m offline today until about 10pm, but will be ready to ride early in the morning. 
For directions, just google St Eds Park in Austin Texas and you can see where it is on google maps. Basically, from the 360 loop, go north on Spicewood Springs road, I believe after you cross bridge number 5, the entrance and the parking to the park is on the left. Meet up at 9:00 AM. If you can’t find it, call me @ 512-914-7349.
Ralph
Cool.
Cell Number for tomorrow: two ten-542-8991
See you at nine.
Nathan
St Eds./ Thumper/ Dry Comal Creek
So last Sunday Ralph (Panotaker) and I rode St. Eds and Thumper.
It’s too bad that the other guys seemingly decided that 9am was too early so there were only two of us:(, as I was hoping for 4 or 5 riders!
Both St. Eds and Thumper were fun, although I think I still prefer City Park…
After St. Eds Ralph was already feeling a little tired, but still offered to show me the the hard-to-find trail. By the time we got to Thumper it was about noon and pretty hot. By the end of our ride it was really hot. And at the end of the ride Ralph was so nice to make me feel good as I am apparently now better adapted to the Texas heat. ;) Unfortunately we took hardly any pictures or videos. Ralph did take one video of me riding down a 3-ledge section but I haven’t seen it yet, so with luck maybe it turned out well.
This week I got in 2 short road rides.
Today I rode the very easy Dry Comal Creek mountain bike trail in New Braunfels. I cleaned every single section of the 2.2 mile trail in both directions (despite a few UPDs on a few rocky and rooty sections, I cleared it then on the 2nd or third try). So total of about 6 miles. For the most part it is narrow but smooth single track and only the approx. 6 dry creek crossing are semi-technical with roots and small rocks, but no drops, no ledges and no steep up/downhills. I rode with my wife who was on a mountain bike, so even though she waited for me it was a real workout trying to keep up with the bike on the 29" with 150s (I was sufficiently exhausted at the end of the ride). I would recommend the trail for beginning muni but it’s not so technical.
No riding this weekend for me, but hopefully next week I will get to either City Park again or Government Canyon. Or maybe the water level of Canyon Lake will go down enough to ride the Madrone Trail at Canyon (probably not until next weekend or later).
Madrone Trail finally open: awesome as expected
Too bad no one else showed up for the Austin ride on June 7th 
Today I finally rode the Madrone Trail at Canyon Lake. The park is technically still closed and the gate is closed so you can’t drive in. But the road in is at least 2 feet out of the water and at the end of the ride the Park Ranger was there and asked how the trails were, so had no problem that we rode.
Madrone Trail was really fun on the mUni! I rode about half to 2/3s of the trail, in total 7 miles. I was able to ride almost all downhill sections and many uphill sections. However, it was very humid today so I was exhausted and took too little water with me (stupidly I had another drink in my backpack that I didn’t find until the end of my ride). I again rode with my wife on the bike and totally exhausted myself trying to keep up in the humid heat. After I “ran out” of water I had to quit and ride the road back (but it’s fun being so challenged and exhausted).
I will be riding the Madrone Trail again this week (weather/rain permitting): 90% chance of rain for Tue/Wed
If anyone is in the area it would be great to ride!
I’m here just over a week more and fly to Oregon on June 23rd.
cool and dry ride with heavy rain and flooding all around
I had another great ride on the rocky and semi-technical Madrone Trail: I rode the parts I missed last time. Totally lucky among all the flooding: it rained 3 to 4 inches all around us but didn’t rain where we were until an hour after our ride: but it was nice and cool with a great breeze
We rode about 6 miles then went swimming in Canyon Lake and then I rode another half hour after it cooled down with the incoming storms. That was the best as I had much more energy as it wasn’t so hot and made most of the climbs (and all the downhills). Awesome ride
I’m definitely riding Madrone again before I fly out next Tuesday.
City Park Sunday orMonday morning?
I had a short ride at Dry Comal Creek in New Braunfels again: A little but muddy, but no rain.
I will probably ride Madrone again at least once between Friday and Sunday.
Then Sunday or Monday I will ride City Park in Austin again, preferable in the morning, around 8 or 9am, before it gets really hot. Anyone? I’ll probably ride Monday unless anyone will join, and then I could do Sunday instead.
Canyon Lake Sunday, City Park Monday morning
Only 2 days of Muni n Texas left for me! (I fly next to Oregon for 2 months in Oregon, Washington and BC)
Sunday ride at Madrone Trail at Canyon Lake. Although it rained today, shouldn’t be too muddy. Forecast calls for 20% scatter showers in the morning and then then up to 50% starting at 2pm. So riding from about 10am-1pm.
Monday morning I will ride City Park in Austin. As it looks like it’ll finally be hot again, I will try and ride early, start sometime before 10am. If anyone can ride before work, I would be willing to start early?
THANK YOU to Ralph (Panotaker): Last Texas ride until 2016 – then off to Oregon
Today was my last ride in Texas for this year. I think I was here for the rainiest 4 and a half weeks in the last 10 years. My wife was complaining that I had promised hot dry and sunny (as Texas usually is in June). Even so, I got in a lot of great rides.
City Park was wet today, but fortunately there was almost no mud. There were quite a few puddles so my shoes got soaked. It was really fun, but many of the short rocky downhills of City Park are still too challenging for me on the 29er. Nevertheless, I had a very enjoyable ride, and I have really noticed that my uphill trail climbing has really improved.
I big THANK YOU to Ralph (Panotaker) for the use of his unicycle! I hope you enjoy the bottles of Italian wine as much as I enjoyed the unicycle 
I should be back in July of 2016. Hopefully next time there will be less rain and I can ride with more local riders.
Now we’re off to the Pacific Northwest for 2 months and in particular 2 weeks of riding in Post Canyon near Hood River Oregon