Mountain Biking The EKG Section Of The River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail With A Bad Snake

This afternoon, whilst in the process of updating my Eyes on Texas River Legacy Park webpage, I was Googling for info, when I came upon a really good video of the EKG section of the River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail.

This video starts off with a group of bikers confronting a Copperhead snake which had sunk its fangs into one of the biker's tires and then went into defensive mode, blocking the trail.

I have attempted to bike the EKG section only once. It did not go well. The least of my woes was I got sort of lost.

If you have never experienced the outdoors in North Texas, and have never experienced what mountain bike riding is like, this video gives you a really good example of why I have myself a really fine time biking the trails of River Legacy Park. And other mountain bike trails in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Have I mentioned before that when I moved to Texas I thought I'd be giving up mountain biking? Since there are few mountains in Texas, this seemed sort of obvious to me.

Then, my first month in Texas I drove out to the Piney Woods Region, that being East Texas. I came upon Tyler State Park. Drove into the park not knowing it is known for its mountain bike trails. I biked the Tyler State Park trails and whilst commiserating with a local I mentioned my surprise at finding such trails. He then told me, to my shock, that there are really good mountain bike trails inside the Dallas/Fort Worth metro zone.

Within a week I found out that this was true.

I soon discovered the trails on Lake Grapevine, like the Horseshoe, Northshore and Knob Hills trails. Then I found the DORBA trails at Cedar Hills State Park. At that point in time no mountain bike trail existed in River Legacy Park or Gateway Park.

Eventually I mountain biked the trails at Dinosaur Valley State Park, getting totally lost more than once. The mountain bike trails at Cameron Park in Waco have worn me out a couple times.

But, now, in 2012, with gas costing nearly $4 a gallon, I have no reason to drive a long distance to pedal on a mountain bike trail. I have River Legacy Park and Gateway Park in the neighborhood.