Walnut Creek Park: Bike Ride of Death

Walnut Creek Park is an amazing park here in Austin and not too far from us. Tons of amazing trails and a creek. You can see all sorts of animals like cardinals, hawks (don't know what kind specifically), squirrels, big ol' fat fence lizards. Running and mountain biking there is incredible...as long as you don't kill yourself.

Don't turn here

I rode at WCP on Monday, but I forgot my helmet and gloves. No gloves is okay at first, but then you start sweating like a politician in church and now your grip is not as good as it was before. The helmet thing, don't really need that anyways...as long as I stay upright. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have taken some of the more difficult trails, but it was fun. Only close call was when I decided to make a right turn that ended at a cliff overlooking the creek. That's what I get for listening to the cardinal that was sitting there telling me to make the turn. Don't listen to the cardinals if you go to WCP. On Tuesday I loaded up again for a ride, but forgot my helmet again and I had just told Holly I wouldn't ride without my helmet again. History dictates at least 2 weeks must pass before I go back on my word.

Wednesday I finally remembered my helmet and gloves. Amazing how I turned into a professional mountain biker once I put my helmet on. I rode up to the "BMX Trail" which has some great loops, mounds for some decent jumps and some big ups and downs. It also has a real BMX track that is usually filled with real BMXers running the track. Well, yesterday when I passed it...the track was empty. So now I'm a professional BMXer. I start running the track on my mountain bike, it was gnarly! I only wiped out a few times. Gotta make sure I'm going full speed next time so I can make it up the next jump.

Bike meets tree, knee meets bike

I'm out here on my lunch break and at the opposite end of where I parked so I got to book it back to where I came from. The problem is now I'm wiped out from the BMX trail and I also get lost every time I ride here. I sort of know where to go, but it is always hit and miss for me to get where I actually want to go. There are some power lines that are close to where I park, but you have to be pretty close to them to see them through all the trees. As I get closer to the neighborhood I parked in, I'm trying to ride fast and I'm now on a trail I've never been on. I get to this pretty steep downhill and halfway through, picking up speed, there are a lot of roots and they are making a sort of stairway downhill. I have to keep my speed up to get over the roots and just hit a step down as I try to slow and go over the handlebars. I'm going faster than I really wanted to and then the trail makes a left turn. The brakes are not working as fast as I needed them to and I slam into some trees! It was so much fun! The bike just sort of wedged in between some trees

It's a lot more steep than it looks!

and didn't really take any damage. I was thrust forward, but my right leg took the brunt of the impact on the front fork. That was my first real wipe out...it was totally rad.

This new (to me) trail finally takes me back to the neighborhood I was in, but I'm nowhere near where I parked. Had to pull out google maps and find my way back to the truck. Super fun lunch time. This is the map of my ride at WCP, the top/right corner is where the BMX track is. The left/middle/top is where I started. The bottom left loop is where I popped out in the wrong place and had to ride around the neighborhood looking for my truck.