Thursday Ride 10-23-08

I was finally able to break free for a couple of hours and go for a ride yesterday afternoon. I rode to the Trinity Trails and crossed the river at the low water crossing near Bellaire Drive. Instead of heading north towards downtown where most of my rides have ended up lately, I headed south towards the southern end of the trail.

Other than the river itself there really isn't a whole lot to see between Bryant Irvin Road and US 183. There was a flock of cormorants sunning themselves in the river next to the Lockheed recreation area. I usually see these birds in the trees near the University Drive bridge.

I believe this cyclocross video was taken in the recreation area pictured above. The sand section looks pretty brutal. It's a pretty good video.

This is one of the more scenic views of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River south of I-20.

The foliage gets much thicker the further south you go.

This is the southern terminus of the Trinity Trails network. I was surprised to see this new section of trail being constructed.

There is about 1/4 mile of trail completed so far. It looks like they are going to connect this section of trail to the Benbrook YMCA which will allow safe easy family rides to Lake Benbrook.

This is where I turned around. There is a creek in the middle of the picture that is deceptively deep (about 6 feet straight down to the surface of the water) and just a little too wide for me to jump while carrying my bike.

I rode back north through Benbrook on one of the few marked bike lanes in all of the Fort Worth area.

I had crossed the river at this location about an hour earlier. I was surprised to see the trail blocked on my return trip. There is really no safe way to get back to the other side of the river from this point.


I ended up taking a left here at Bryant Irvin. I rode about 1/2 mile back north to the river. Traffic was very heavy and I felt really uncomfortable but there really weren't any other options. Traffic was moving at about 45 to 50 miles per hour. The lanes are fairly narrow leaving little room for cars to pass.

I made it back to the trail safely and finished my ride.

I'm planning to drive to one of the small towns west of Fort Worth sometime in the next few weeks and ride on some country roads. All of my rides have been in town and I'm ready for a change of pace.

Benbrook Lake

I wanted to get a ride in, preferably something with some hills. I ended up riding the roads around the west side of Benbrook Lake for the first time. Benbrook Lake is just southwest of Fort Worth. I used to run on the horse trails around the lake and remembered some steep hills. It was hot and muggy and unfortunately there was only one moderately challenging hill, but it was a nice change of pace from the city rides I've been doing lately.

This is the veiw looking back from the top of the only real climb of the day.

The guys from the RC club were flying today.