Someone with the very unusual name of ".." made a comment that led me to ..'s website, Texas Mountain Bike Trails.
Below is what .. had to say....
.. has left a new comment on your post "Tonight I Heartily Biked The Gateway Park Mountain Bike Trail":
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!
I stopped by the site, but I did not say hi. I'm shy about saying hi.
The Texas Mountain Bike Trails is a very good website. Lots of useful info.
I was a little surprised when I clicked on DFW Trails to see that Gateway Park was not on the list. The DORBA trail in Cedar Hills State Park is also not on the list.
At another location on the Texas Mountain Bike Trails website there is a list of the Top Ten Mountain Bike Websites. The DORBA website (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) is on that list of Top Ten Mountain Bike Websites, with .. saying, "The Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association is one of the biggest mountain bike clubs in the US and I am happy to call it my home club."
Being ..'s home club makes it a bit surprising that the club's namesake DORBA Trail in Cedar Hills State Park is not on the list of DFW Mountain Bike Trails.
I was surprised at how many of the listed DFW Mountain Bike Trails I've pedaled. Of the 15 trails on the list I've rolled wheels at Dinosaur Valley Sate Park, Erwin Park, Horseshoe Trail, L.B. Houston Nature Trail, Northshore Trail, River Legacy Park and Tyler State Park.
Tyler State Park is about 80 miles east of the east edge of the DFW Metroplex zone. I am appalled to think back on it and realize how far I used to drive to go mountain biking.
I drove east to Tyler State Park several times, with the first time being just a month after my Texas Exile began. I remember being totally amazed how much this hilly part of Texas reminded me of Western Washington. I remember verbalizing my surprise, at finding a real mountain bike trail, to a Tyler State Park biking Texan. He asked where I was located in Texas. I told him I lived in Haslet, north of Fort Worth. He then told me there were a lot of mountain bike trails in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. I thought this guy was nuts. I quickly learned he was not nuts.
When I moved to Texas I brought my mountain bike with me, but, I thought to myself, and mentioned to others, that my mountain biking days were over, now that I'm moving to a part of the planet with no mountains.
Tyler State Park is not the farthest I've driven to ride my bike since I've been in Texas. I drove down to Waco more than once to mountain bike the trails in Cameron Park.
At least twice I drove north, past a town called St. Jo, to a private mountain bike trail park, just south of the Red River and Oklahoma. I can not remember the name of this place. I do remember there were several miles of bumpy gravel road after I left pavement and arrived at my destination.
Texas Mountain Bike Trails is on Facebook.
Ha ha, well my name is Shawn and I'm not too sure why it has me showing up as "...". That's kind of funky.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the kind review of the site, I've worked hard to try and put some good & helpful information into it.
The reason Cedar Hill State Park and Gateway Park aren't listed (yet) is because I haven't ridden them yet. I try to give honest and personal reviews of each one.
Frankly I was impressed at how in depth your reflections of Gateway were, you did a much better job than I do of painting that picture of what it's really like.
Maybe we can ride together sometime, stay in touch and I hope to hear more stories of excellent MTB adventures.