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| Gateway Park Trail Above Trinity River Cliff |
Yesterday I saw the Gateway Park mountain bike trail and thought it looked fun.
Easy and fun.
Well, it did turn out to be fun. But, easy? Not so much.
The Gateway Park mountain bike trail is a one-way single track. The trail starts off easy, twisting and turning through a dark woods. At times I felt like I was in a tunnel.
After several minutes of twisting and turning I exited the woods to a paved trail, following an arrow back to the mountain bike trail. Once more I was meandering a twisting and turning trail through a dark woods. I was liking it a lot.
And then, suddenly I found myself pedaling beside the Trinity River, with the river about 50 feet below, with the trail running along the edge of a cliff that drops to the river. This seemed treacherous to me.
My photo of this does not remotely capture what this cliff-side trail actually looked like.
I was still dealing with the surprise of finding myself pedaling at a cliff's edge, above a raging river, when suddenly I came to a steep drop off.
It has been a long time since I biked down a steep drop off.
Biking down the steep drop off went well, but, I was not prepared for the steep climb that followed. I almost made it to the top of the climb when I ran out of steam and had to jump off the bike. This type maneuver can go badly wrong. This time it did not.
That first steep up and down was followed by several more, some with twisting turns mixed in, and some off camber turns.
It was challenging.
Eventually the roller coaster section ended and I was back to more sedate trail, like I enjoyed at the start of tonight's ride.
All in all, I was quite impressed with the Gateway Park mountain bike trail.
Who makes these trails? And how do they make them? It seems to me to be quite the feat of engineering.
It would seem, judging by the fact that I only saw 4 other bikers tonight, that the D/FW mountain bike community has not discovered this trail. It took awhile for the River Legacy mountain bike trail to draw the crowds that now regularly fill the parking lot. In many ways, I thought the Gateway Park trail was funner than the River Legacy Park trail.
I will be back. But, not tomorrow. And probably not the day after tomorrow.
1 comment:
Good to see you back on the bike!
Gateway park is a pretty popular bike trail out here but I have noticed fewer riders at most of the trails lately. I think that is because the heat has really started to set in.
Stop by the site sometime at www.texasmountainbiketrails.com and say hi!
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