Sunday Bike Ride to the Fort Worth Stockyards with Beer

I mentioned earlier that I thought I might pedal the Trinity Trail from Gateway Park to the Fort Worth Stockyards today. Mister Twister quickly requested that I thoroughly photo document this bike ride.

I always do what people ask me to do. So, I ended up taking over 60 photos. 20 of them I've used.

As you can see on the distance odometer part of my bike speedometer I pedaled 18.961 miles today. It was very windy. Pedaling into the wind I was lucky to go 10 mph. With the wind pushing me I easily sailed over 20 mph. That was fun.

I do have some very good news to report. I have never seen so many people biking and walking on this trail before. I tell you, Texans are getting in shape.

Just a little bit east of I-35 I saw something that made me realize I made a big mistake this weekend, actually two mistakes. I'll get to that when I get to that picture.


What you see above is one of the Trinity Falls. You see this soon after leaving Gateway Park via a long bridge. I'm at the west end of the bridge in the picture.

A closer look at this particular Trinity Falls. It can be a bit exciting crossing this when it's running a lot of water. It's very noisy and you get going quite fast heading down towards the dam, and then it's a sharp turn. If a brake broke, right then, you'd go flying into the falls. That would be unpleasant. I had this happen before, the brake breaking part, not the falls falling part, at Cedar Hills State Park. When the brake cable breaks, on a steep downhill, it is like you've had a booster shot which quickly causes a wreck.


There is what amounts to being a very small lake above Trinity Falls. There is a Kayak Club that has a storage garage here. I don't know if this Trinity River lake is bigger or smaller than the new Trinity River lake that may be built further upriver.

In Texas, when you get arrested for littering, you may be sent to a Correctional Facility, where on weekends you may be sent, via bus, to pick up litter on the banks of the Trinity River, like the inmates you see here.


Here you see a message, painted in orange, visible from Interstate 35 to southbound drivers, directing them to Mayfest.org. When I saw the Mayfest sign I instantly remembered that this weekend was the Main Streets Arts Festival and I'd totally forgotten about it. My Saturday plan had been to take the bus to the Rahr Brewery Tour and then go to downtown to the Arts Festival. It was real foggy on Saturday, as was my brain, apparently.

Also, just east of the I-35 bridge over the Trinity, is this little rest stop. Since I've last biked here a new trail to a park I did not realize existed, and signage, has been added. And even more important than that, the water faucet finally works. This oasis had been a cruel torture for at least 2 summers when I'd stop, empty of water, over 100 degrees, and the faucet not running water.

On both sides of the river there are these rocks embedded into the ground with big plaques like you see above. This one, among other things, tells you that once alligators swam here. The info on the plaques is very good. Like one near Marine Creek tells you that that is where a big Indian encampment was located, back in the days when Fort Worth was actually a fort, well, a camp. I believe these plaques must have been added way back over a half century ago when the levees were built. I think that because they are rather randomly located. Such as the one you see here, when I first saw it, there was no paved trail going by it, just a dirt horse path. Some of the plaques are not where there is a paved trail.

Here you see a couple of big birds trying to stop me from crossing one of the many dam/river barriers that the paved trails use to get from one side of the river to the other. Just prior to this I was harassed, harassed I tell you by several giant eagle looking birds. I'd just watched Hitchcock's The Birds, so those Big Eagles made me nervous. I quickly pedaled on instead of getting my camera out.

After the birds finally let me get on my way I was on the side of the river where Fort Worth's very minor league baseball field is located. So, I pedaled up to take a look. It has been greatly improved since it first appeared. Back then I made a webpage making fun of it. I did that because I was annoyed at yet on more iteration of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's green with envy verbiage. As in, I think it was in an editorial, it said something like Fort Worth is the envy of its league due to its stupendous ballpark. They play in a league with some towns as small as 12,000 population! And you brag about your little ballpark? That was just embarrassing.

The trail continues on over a bridge that crosses where the aforementioned Marine Creek runs into the Trinity River. I think this may be part of what will be destroyed if Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision ever gets clear. I went over the bridge on the way back from the Stockyards. On the way to the Stockyards I went off the paved trail to go in a back way.

And now you are looking at the aforementioned back way into the Stockyards. That is a railroad bridge. I believe the Tarantula Train goes over it on its way to Grapevine. I may be wrong.

That's a warning sign letting you know that these are real tracks and a real train uses them, that being the Tarantula Train. What you're looking at here is the Iron Horse Trail, this very well done walk through the history of Fort Worth and the surrounding area. It is kept up well, but I have never ever seen anyone but myself here. Nothing in the Stockyards directs you to it. That's a shame.

That is Saunders Park in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Just like the Iron Horse Trail, few people take a look at this. Marine Creek runs through here and it reminds me a bit of Venice. The creek runs right under where the iconic Fort Worth Stockyards sign is located. The Lonesome Dove Bistro is directly to the left in this picture. The Ruling Junta really should try and come up with a way to make better use of this park.

And now I'm on the Stockyard's main drag, looking at the aforementioned iconic sign. I don't think Fort Worth has any other iconic image type things. Not that I can think of.

I always think the longhorn crossing sign is amusing. There were a lot of people at the Stockyards today, just like there always are. Awhile back a friend from Washington was visiting, we were at the Stockyards and she commented that it's just like Reno. Huh? I asked. It was all the people wandering about drinking beer. A lot of places have no open container laws. Apparently Fort Worth, or at least parts of Fort Worth are Extra Wet. I saw a lot of people at the Stockyards today walking around with beer bottles. To me it totally fits the western theme.

That reminds me, The Amazing Race is on tonight. I've never done one of these maze type things. I guess I don't see the attraction of the attraction.

This reminds me, Prison Break starts up again tomorrow. I probably won't watch. I was surprised to see that the guard towers were still standing at the part of the Stockyard Ruins that were used by Prison Break to simulate a Panama prison.

And now I'm at the end of my bike ride, back in Gateway Park, looking at the #1 (according to Dog Fancy magazine) dog park in the U.S. We are so proud. But no city-wide celebration was held. There were a lot of people with a lot of yapping mutts there today. I had a herd of yappers yapping at me and chasing me the entire length of the fence.

So, fun bike ride, most people ever on the trail. Even a record breaking number of homeless bums, 4, under the bridge favored by that minority. Near the homeless shelter on the south side of I-30.