Category: CrazyGuyOnABike

Camp Wood, TX to Kerrville, TX
Date: 01/27/2013
Distance traveled: 89.91 miles (1597.69 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/266899121

Up up and up.

On the way out of Camp Wood, this ‘ole boy hollers out at me, “You got some hills ahead!”

Yah, I know I said to myself. I’ve poured over the elevation profile. I’ve seen how hard this is going to be. But cartographers are lazy. The maps aren’t that detailed. And today I did a lot, a lot more elevation than I thought I would. I was thinking I’d do somewhere around 2,000-3,000ft of climbing. Boy was I wrong.

5,579 feet of climbing. Over 90 miles. I am spent.

Short notes from the day’s ride:

• The wind is still very windy. Luckily most of the day was cross and with the wind. Up in mountains it actually wasn’t too bad.
• I got chased by a dachshund on two wheels. The poor lil guy had his rear legs on rollers. He wasn’t very fast.
• I got up to 49mph!!!! These hills were steep!
• I climbed several hills at 2mph. These hills were steep!
• Lots of motorcycles out on these roads. Texas Highway 337 is one of the ‘three twisted sisters’ which are very popular motorcycle rides.
• Motorcycles = good food. I had a great burger at the motorcycle stop in Leakey, Texas. Best of the trip.
• Long, long day in the saddle – I was on the road for 12 hours. This was the first time where I stopped for both lunch and dinner while on the road.
• Riding at night was fun and peaceful as usual. I went 20-30 miles in the dark without a single car passing me on highway 39 into Kerrville. Got to enjoy the sounds of nature by myself out there – the birds, the bugs, the flowing water of the river I was following.
• Road conditions today were mixed. Luckily the worst roads were also the emptiest, so I could just ride right down the middle.
• There are some cool ranch houses out there – and some big ones, too! All lit up at night they look pretty cool.

Some pictures:

Rollers & chip seal.

Leakey Eagles – sounds gross!

Great burger & lunch stop with the motorcycle crowd.

Hill country indeed.

Valleys & hills.

I really liked this ranch gate design.

I’ve seen lots of ‘no trespassing’ signs. This is the first time I’ve seen a security camera on a fence. Also, wouldn’t it be pretty easy to disable it?

Up I go!

Raaaaawr!

Texas Hill Country Trail

Del Rio, TX to Camp Wood, TX
Date: 01/26/2013
Distance traveled: 81.44 miles (1507.78 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/266480083

“The rough surface causes noticeable increases in vibration and rolling resistance for bicyclists, and increased tire wear in all types of tires.” – Chip seal, Wikipedia

Not a pretty day.

I have found some sort of fun on the bike every day of this trip. This trip in the entirety has been fun. Sometimes there’s one awesome downhill that makes it worthwhile, or the challenge of the hills ahead, the joy of cruising down wide open highway, acquiring what Andy calls ‘smug points’ of accomplishing something really challenging, and certainly the people I’ve met along the way. There is generally something that makes me glad I got on the bike. Yesterday that something was really, really hard to find.

The wind has whipped up out here on the open Texas road and the clouds have moved in. I’m riding on rough chip seal highway that just vibrates the living crap out of me and my trusty stead. The noise of the wind and the ratta-tat-tat rattling of the bike beneath me was just grating on my last nerve. The 10-20 mph headwind that I was against for the first 30 miles of the ride just sucked my energy and my soul. I was riding through a moist cloud for a good part of the morning which made everything damp. And I think my body is just tired and wore out from some consecutive hard days of riding.

Music normally helps, so I pulled out the speaker around mile 25. And it did help. So I jammed along, moving 5-8 miles an hour where I would normally be going 12-15. Lots of frequent stopping. Lots of cussing at the wind. Out loud. With vigor.

Texas Ranch Road 334 – empty back country rolling hills.

After Brackettville the clouds broke through and my direction of travel changed so that I was now dealing with a crosswind and only an occasional headwind. This is where I got onto Texas Ranch Road 334. I stopped for lunch and my mood started to improve. But I wasn’t quite ready to enjoy the ride just yet.

334

I finally gave in to the fact that today was just going to be a slog somewhere around mile 40… somehow giving up made the day go better at that point. It’s slow. It’s hard. So what? You’ll get there eventually. And eventually I did. I entertained myself by stopping to take pictures of ranch gates. I kinda find them interesting how each ranch has their own brand and logo. I wish I would have taken pictures of more as I crossed Arizona and New Mexico to compare. I started to notice the foliage change – all of a sudden there were more trees and green things that weren’t cactuses. And it’s not because I’m at higher elevation, it’s because this is just more fertile land with more water available.

More rolling hills ahead!

So I pushed on, riding only two hours in the dark. The moonrise was absolutely beautiful. The road was pretty empty still so I felt safe. When I got to Camp Wood, I went to the 3 Sister’s RV camp site, chatted with Nancy (caretaker) and had a beer. I set up my tent in their pavilion and did my best to ignore the gusting wind. I didn’t sleep great, but it was sleep. And now I’m onto another day like the last… here’s to keeping it positive. J

 

Below are some random ranch gate pictures…

 

 

Langtry, TX to Del Rio, TX
Date: 01/25/2013
Distance traveled: 58.09 miles (1426.34 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/266363392

After a blissful, but short, night of sleep behind the Langtry Community Center I got up early and had packed up the bike by 9am. I rolled the short distance over to Langtry’s biggest attraction – the Judge Roy Bean Visitor’s Center (and restroom for weary cyclists).

The bar, pool hall, and courtroom of Judge Roy Bean.

The judge was quite the character – he was known as “the law west of the Pecos” river. Before his time it was said that “West of the Pecos there is no law; West of El Paso there is no God.” He was obsessed with Lilly Langtry of Jersey Island for whom he named the town of Langtry, and his saloon (the Jersey Lilly). He also apparently just did his ‘judging’ by shooting from the hip, ignoring the actual law and just dispensing justice however he saw fit. He was larger than life and it’s hard to separate fact from fiction, but it makes for good story telling.

I spent a fair bit of time at the visitor’s center – mostly because it was interesting, and partially to give my electronics a chance to charge since I’d been without power for a couple of days.

The wooden windmill in the cactus garden. The visitor center is also home to a very nice cactus garden which was fun to walk around.

When I finally did get on the bike, it was very slow going. Big headwinds. More rolling hills. By the time I had gone 30 miles I was already beat. I stopped for a very long lunch at J&J Holley’s Place in Comstock where I watched reruns of Rosanne with the owner, devoured a massive burger with fries, and did some blogging.

The Pecos River canyon.

I had planned to do a longer ride today, but I really just didn’t have long distance in me today – 60 miles was more than enough. When I rolled into Del Rio and saw that there was a hotel next to a Rudy’s BBQ I took that as my sign to call it quits for the day. It was time for my first BBQ of the trip. It was about time!

I had 3 sandwiches and I was still hungry! So good!