Author: grabercycling

Navasota to Double lakes campground (USFS) near Coldsprings, TX

Last night camping at the fire station was eventful to say the least. We had freight trains every 30 minutes blowing their horns. And an occasional emergency call alert for the fire dept. And a floodlight next to our tent. Regardless I still slept pretty well. Maybe I am getting used to this!

We decided to have breakfast at a restaurant in town before setting out. It was slightly cloudy but soon cleared and a pleasant 55 degree morning.

We again were cycling through rolling farmland on lightly traveled roads. Cattle would always watch us pass by. They are a curious lot. When we found a fairly large turtle trying to cross the road and I moved it to the side all of the cows came over to watch. Lol

La Grange, TX to Navasota, TX. 69 miles. 2575 ft

Around 8:30 we left our lovely RV Parkin a sunny day with light winds. Temps were in the 50s.

We had gone off route to get to La Grange so we tried using google maps bicycle to return to Round Hill. After about 4 miles on a country road that had warned us with a sign that said ‘No Outlet’ we found ourselves in front of a gate that we could not get past. Google maps fails again for bikes! We had to backtrack about a mile before continuing on a busy road that ended up being fine.

After that mishap the rest of the day went without incident through rolling country roads past cattle and ranches. We made it to the Novasota fire department where they allowed us to camp behind the station. They also let us use the showers and laundry!

Austin, TX to La Grange, TX. 77 miles. 2340 ft

The hotel breakfast was great and we set off by 8:30. It was a sunny, pleasant morning in the low 60s. We made our way past the Austin airport and soon after Craig had his first flat of the trip. While we were changing it two Texas Sheriffs stopped to make sure we were all right.

Soon we were on our way again and the next section of the route went on some park roads for about 15-20 miles through Bastrop and Buescher state parks. This part was very hilly. We had lunch at one of the picnic areas. It was very wooded and little traffic. Very nice!

As we entered La Grange we were sidetracked by the local Dairy Queen for some ice cream before We made it to our RV park to camp around 4:30. The park was right on the Colorado River. The one in Texas not the other more famous one in the Grand Canyon. Still it was a beautiful setting and a nice, quiet place.

Johnson city TX to Austin TX. 56 miles. 2600 ft

A strong NW wind was helpful today as we traveled eastward. We wrre still in Texas hill country so although there were no big climbs there were a lot of small ones that added up throughout the day. It was partly cloudy and cool. In the 60s.

We passed through the many winery’s and breweries of Fredericksburg. The houses/estates were very large and beautiful.

We entered Austin and began crossing a bridge over a small river far below. We decided to stop on the bridge and take a picture. While I was holding my bike my phone slipped out of my hand and fell 50 feet down to the ravine by the river. Fortunately I saw it land in a grassy area so I was pretty confident I could find it if I could get to it. While Craig waited above I went to the end of the bridge where I could descend down below and after fording a small steam was able to find it! No more pictures on bridges! Well with one hand at least lol

We couldn’t find a campground nearby so we used some more of my points to get a hotel room.

Ingram, TX to Johnson City, TX. 78 miles. 3000 ft

We took our time saying our goodbyes to Lewis and Linda. And also Kristal who flew back home today. It was nearly 10am when we finally rolled out.

We cycled along the Guadalupe River for a while marveling at the size of some of the estates. After we reached Kerrville we were on several lightly traveled county roads. The beautiful wildflowers were everywhere!

In Fredericksburg by 3pm and with only 35 miles so far we decided to go for Johnson city. Another 42 miles. It was hard work but we reached the campground by 6:30.

I began staking my tent and realized there was some dark clouds approaching. Craig checked the radar and said it didn’t look good. We had passed a best western up the road earlier so we quickly gathered everything up and rode to the hotel. We got a bit wet and 30 seconds after we reached the hotel lobby the skies opened up. It poured and even hailed a bit for the next hour before slowing enough for us to dash to our room.

Eclipse Day!

We had a nice breakfast at Lewis and Linda’s. At about 9:15 Craig’s friend, Eric and friend Deb, arrived after a multi day drive from the Detroit area. We all piled in their car for the 5 mile drive to the city park in Ingram. In the park is a roughly half scale replica of Stonehenge. This was where we would watch the eclipse along with hundreds of others.

The day started off very overcast but by the time we got to the park it was starting to have some openings in the clouds. Around 12:15 the moon began to start to obstruct the sun and we were able to see the process off and on during the whole eclipse. It kind of made you appreciate the visual you got every other minute when the clouds would part.

During totality it was really dark with the cloud cover making it even more so. Just an amazing experience! Afterwards we heading back to our house to hang out and see Eric and Deb off. We were treated to grilled burgers in the evening.

Lost Maples State park, TX. to Ingram, TX. 38 miles. 2000 ft

I may have spoke too soon about yesterday being the last hard day of climbing. While today was not a long day it had some tough sections.

We rolled/walked the first two miles along the trail to get out to the main raid and were welcomed with a steady 10% climb for the first mile. That got the blood flowing! It was a pretty, rolling ride with a decent headwind until we made our eastward turn 20 miles in.

That turn made the wind into a crosswind but the work was still not done with many ‘dips’ in the road while we followed the Guadalupe river. There were several large beautiful estates along the river.

Our day was finished with a short but difficult 12% climb to our warmshowers host place. Lewis is a former touring cyclist and had reserved the ‘cabana’ for the four of us. Lewis and his wife, Linda hosted five cyclists and five more guests( including Kristal and Janet) they are amazing!

Montell to Lost Maples state park. 51.5 miles. 3100 ft

This was probably our last hard day of climbing through Texas hill country. We had three hard long climbs. I was pretty cloudy most of the day.

The four of us, Craig, me, John, and Karl left Alice’s house by 8 and rode to the next town, camp hill, where we stopped at a Hispanic restaurant for breakfast. It was a buffet for $8.99! They had these delicious cinnamon rolls along with most of the other standard breakfast items. And fresh tortillas.

With our bellies full we started our climbing. We had some beautiful views. At the top of the last climb John decided to try for Ingram while the rest of us rode to the state park. It was very busy because of the eclipse but they had some primitive sites that we had to roll our bikes on a trail about 1.5 miles! But they were nice sites.

Amistad to Montell. 79 miles. 1600 ft climbing

An early morning start at 7:45am. Forecast was for SE winds to gradually build throughout the day so we wanted to get as many miles in before they got strong. We reached Del Rio (about 15 m) straight into the wind without too much problem.

However, Craig’s Achilles began to act up again. I pulled all day into the wind but I felt good so it was fine.

After Del Rio we turned a bit more east for another 30 miles and reached Bracketville. While there at the grocery store we ran into our fellow cyclist John who we met leaving San Diego the first day! He is staying at the same warmshowers host as us tonight. As is our other cyclist friend, Karl!

The afternoon was also hard work into the wind before we turning north the final ten miles with a tailwind.

Off day.

We went down to Del Rio to walk through the pretty city park. San Felipe springs. . We saw a lot of wildlife including turtles,waterfowl, a beaver, a water snake, and several kinds of fish.

After a picnic lunch we then went to the historic Val verde winery for some samples before walking the town square.

Our last destination was Lake Amistad. It is at a record low level so it took some work but the others climbed down to the water level and went for a cold swim. I watched from above.