Monday, December 3, 2012

A Closed Fort Worth Road Almost Sent Me Over A Cliff In Gateway Park

Today, around noon, I exited my abode and headed towards Gateway Park to do me some mountain bike riding.

My route to the north entry to Gateway Park is driving west on Randol Mill Road. About a half mile past Oakland Boulevard my route on Randol  Mill Road was suddenly blocked with a barrier and a "Road Closed Ahead" sign.

The "Road Closed Ahead" sign seemed a bit stupid, due to the fact that the road was closed at the point where the sign sat, not at some amorphous distance "ahead".

Why was this "Road Closed Ahead" sign not stuck on the road by Oakland Boulevard? Thus saving me some unnecessary gas burning.

I turned around, headed back to Oakland Boulevard, headed south up the hill on Oakland, then got on the I-30 freeway to head west to the Beach Street exit.

Rather than take the Beach Street entry into Gateway Park I opted to see if I could get to the north entry, off Randol Mill, prior to more blockage forcing another turnaround. This worked, I was able to enter the park from the north entrance and I could see that something was being done to the bridge over the Trinity River, thus the closed road.

Eventually I was pedaling the mountain bike trail, where, on Saturday, I had been assaulted by benevolent Zombies. I got to the part of the trail that was sort of near Randol Mill Road. At that point I always follow the mountain bike trail directional trail, but today I opted to take a trail that heads northeast where the mountain bike trail heads south. I have always noticed this perfectly good looking trail, figured it was not for mountain bikers, but was instead for the use of the disc golfers.

Eventually I found myself looking directly at the closed Randol Mill Road bridge across the Trinity River, which you can see below.


My powers of observation are very limited. I was unable to ascertain what was being done to the bridge that caused its closure.

Since the trail I was pedaling seemed to be a perfectly fine mountain bike trail, I continued on, soon to find myself more horrified than I was on Saturday from my Zombie encounter.


At a turn in the trail I suddenly found myself facing the big red ribbon you see above. The big red ribbon served as a "STOP" warning. As in stop and make sure you want to continue. Because from that point on, for as far as I could see, the trail was right on the edge of the cliff drop off into the turtle infested Trinity River.

Yes, I saw dozens upon dozens of turtles when I looked over the cliff, with the turtles doing log jumping into the river when they detected my presence.

I opted to not continue on this treacherous section of trail, so I turned around and went the way I came.

All in all I had myself a fine bike ride today.

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