Man Bike Wild - "Mission Possible"

One week later from my accomplishment I have decided to slide a slow Thursday morning into a docu recreation of my mission to Zilker. Let me begin by saying that it feels great to achieve goals, whether it be life changing ones or silly ones such as trying to get from Southwest Parkway in Austin to beautiful Zilker Park via bike. They say the 3rd time is the charm and I can't argue. What was my reason/blame for my first failure? It was water and if you know me, you know I love water. I love to drink it, swim in it and watch it fall from the sky. However, on my first trek, water became an obstacle. To reach my goal, I needed to cross the river, now known, I would have needed to cross the river back and forth multiple times. Well, thing about Texas is its nice and green - but dry. Doesn't rain too often, but when it does it falls in sheets. Who would have known that the river would dry up and the bike trails went right across the white river rocks. I thought the trail on google maps was just drawn half-ass when I saw how it zig and zagged through the river.


So now, this is a short story of a man, his bike, in the near-wild, traveling 10.13 miles in around 2.5 hours to accomplish a silly, yet meaningful goal of reaching a destination. Sit back and enjoy my short distraction from your normally scheduled day.

I'm a visual person so lets start with a map. The bottom part is where we live, the top is where Summer works. (This was a one-way bike trip, perhaps next time will be round trip but after 10 mountain miles, its nice to throw your bike in a jeep, which is parked in a ramp and go enjoy a tasty sandwich for lunch).  Plus, now Summer knows she could be even greener and bike to work. ;)

For those reading this on a computer with Google Earth installed, you can view a fly by of this trek. I only recommend this if you have time to kill as it takes a few minutes and may not be as interesting as it is to me.



I feel like I could end the blog right here, cat's out of the bag, I made it to Zilker! yay. I won't cut it short though for those looking to fill a little more time so let's do a little slide show starting from where I entered the trail.

As you can see from above, the water on the right would have been quite difficult to cross.

This swing rope would be even more dangerous right now...

These comparison photos may get old for those you havn't been to the spot but its crazy how empty a river can get.

Here's a gift for that turtle loving couple because with humans out of the picture, the turtles come to play.

More comparisons.


A once filled hole is now empty.

Ok, enough with the comparison photos and on with the bike ride. =)

 It's hard to capture the fun of biking through dried river bends and woods in words but here are some photos to go along.

 I believe this is a beavers dam.

 This was a nice bridge.

 No idea yet what GUS FRUH is but a quick google search claims its just part of the trail and has its own park name to it.

 I was very very excited to see this sign, as I was on my way to the park!

 On the way I found someones phone, which was still on but service was turned off. That means they know they lost it and its only been a day or two. I was a good citizen and called the guys number and he came and got his phone later.

 The bottom of a river/stream is an interesting sight to see.

 Right at the end of the trail, it started to rain, the clouds looked worse in person but you can see a building in the bottom right which meant I was close to my goal anyways.

Yay! I made it.

Well there you have it, what's my ending dr. philosophy message? Don't give up, keep trying and its not about the destination, it's about the journey. haha oh such cheese, but it was a very fun couple hour bike ride, and since it was November it wasn't too hot. Many people were out hiking or walking dogs and it was fun to bike and zig zag between one side of the river to the other. Now I know that it's possible to bike when the water is low I will have to do this ride more often. Man Bike Wild- signing off - Mission Accomplished.