I Am Back In The Bike Saddle Again On Texas Trails

My New Bike

My K2 bike, that I bought in 2002, was stolen in October of 2010.

When my bike was stolen, after me being back biking for a very short time, after an over a year bike hiatus, I decided to give up on biking til I moved to a more bike friendly location.

Today I changed my mind and got a new bike.

Bike technology seems to have improved over the past decade. No longer do I have caliper brakes, I now have disc brakes.

The suspension seems a bit different than my former bike, but other than that, for the most part, it feels like I've not long been out of the saddle.

When I got the K2 bike a decade ago I had a few problems adjusting to it and getting it to feel right. This new bike feels right already.

Methinks I shall be having some fun pedaling to locations I've not seen for over a year. Pedaling by the Cowtown Wakepark perhaps. Or to the ends of the River Legacy Park trails.

Biking Veterans Park While Hot & Humid & Looking At A Bizarrely Wrong Arlington Barnett Shale Drilling Operation

Most of the parks I usually go to to hike or bike are underwater or seriously impacted by too much water, courtesy of that wet mess known as Hurricane Hermine.

I knew there was little chance Veterans Park in Arlington was very water impacted, except for possible mud.

Turns out, the mud had already dried and did not present a slippery problem.

The problem I did have at Veterans Park was as soon as I parked I saw a Barnett Shale drilling rig had re-appeared at the apartment complex across the street from Veterans Park.

I don't understand how this is allowed. I know Arlington plays by different rules than other more advanced areas, which is what earned Arlington the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of the World Award, but why is it that in Fort Worth a gas rig has to be at least 800 feet from where people reside, while in Arlington you can put one of those noisy rigs in someone's backyard within spitting distance of the apartment dweller's decks?

The rig was not making too much noise today. I pedaled as close as I could get to it and heard machinery, but not the usual squealing and metallic thumping noises.

The bike riding at Veterans Park was not too much fun. One thing is the humidity is out of control today. The other thing is I like to have a destination, like pedal to the end of the trail, then head back. Or a long roundtrip. Veterans Park's trail makes a short loop of about a mile. There is one spur off that loop that goes up a hill. The loop itself goes up a hill.

Going up and down hills, fast, was fun. But by mile 6 I was bored. And ready to check out how bad Village Creek is flooding. I saw the Village Creek Natural Historic Area parking lot was closed on my way to Veterans Park.

Washington #1 For Bikes, Texas #36

For two years in a row a group called the League of American Bicyclists has had the state I lived in previous to Texas, that being Washington, as the #1 Most Bike Friendly State.

Last year Texas was the 30th Most Bike Friendly State. But, unfortunately, this year Texas became less Bike Friendly, falling 6 spots to #36.

According to the LAB's website, "a Bicycle Friendly State promotes cycling through legislation, policies, programs, and by creating new places to ride, educating motorists and cyclists, and encouraging people to bike for transportation and recreation."

I guess I can see how it is that Washington is more bike friendly than Texas. Just comparing Seattle to Fort Worth for instance. Seattle has these things called sidewalks running along side virtually every street in the town. Fort Worth has some sidewalks, usually narrower than your average Texan, and a lot of dirt paths. Seattle and the county in which the town is located, that being King County, has quite a well-developed complex of biking trails.

Fort Worth and the county in which it is located, that being Tarrant County, has some paved biking trails, most of which run along the Trinity River.

Recently Fort Worth's city government announced a 30 year plan to expand Fort Worth's biking trails. When I read that I wondered why in the world it would take 30 years.

Currently, as far as I know, there is no 30 year plan, here in Fort Worth, to build sidewalks on the city's streets that currently lack them. I'm pretty sure if the League of American Sidewalk Walkers had a list ranking American City's Sidewalk Friendliness that Fort Worth would rank near, or at, the bottom.

Nearly Killed At Village Creek Crime Scene

I had too much to get done this morning. By the time I was able to escape it was past noon. I was going to go to River Legacy Park to ride the mountain bike trail, but that would have taken too long, so I went to my nearest pedaling place, that being Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

When I was at Village Creek a couple days ago I was not pleased to find myself biking over the remains of a window. Likely a break-in theft attempt looking for valuables, which you are warned not to leave in your vehicle because there have been problems previously.

So much so that a pole with security cameras were added some time ago. The sign on the security pole says...

SECURITY NOTICE
PARKING AREA
SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS
MAXIMUM ENFORCEMENT
OF ALL ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES

The first time I saw this it just seemed real silly to me. "Enforcement of all illegal activities?" What does that verbiage even mean? And am I supposed to believe that someone actually monitors these cameras? If so, I've mooned that person a time or two, as I quickly change from biking shorts to non-biking shorts. I guess mooning the security camera must not be an illegal activity requiring maximum enforcement.

As soon as I stepped out of my van I saw there'd been two more windows broken. From the position of the glass I could tell they were side windows on the side not facing the street. Since there is nothing of value in my van, I left the window open today.

I had several "incidents" while biking today. First off groundskeeping crews were all over the place, trucks were driving the trail. They can be hard to get around.

Coming to the first bridge/dam I could see 3 bikers on the other side. I knew that by the time I was on the other side, they'd be coming down the hill fast towards me. I met the first 2 females with no problem, but the male behind them was looking at his odometer and heading straight at me at high speed. I had no room to maneuver out of his way. I hollered, he looked up and swerved, narrowly avoiding a head on collision.

About a mile after nearly being killed in a head-on bike wreck there was a group of 2 moms with 5 little kids. I hollered "coming up on you." The moms got all frantic, yelling at the kids not to move. I slowed way down, then, just as I got right to them, a little boy, who had only been paying attention to a spider, suddenly backed up when the spider moved towards him. I had to slam on the brakes or I would have hit the little guy.

The next weird thing is they'd been mowing the sides of the trail. This leaves some grass residue, which would likely desiccate and blow away within 24 hours. But, rather than let that happen, a person stands on the bed of a pickup, while the driver drives as the bed stander holds a leaf blower and blows some of the grass off the pavement.

I thought, why waste gas doing such a thing? Not to mention the pollution, both noise and air, that those air blowers put out.

So, that was my bike ride today. I almost died and I almost killed a little kid and I was at a crime scene where there is maximum enforcement of all illegal activities. It's been a good day in Texas.

Confessions of a Texas Drug Addict

I've got me some major monkeys on my back. Real bad habits. I seem to regularly add a new bad habit.

My only drug addiction used to be coffee. Every morning. Laying on the floor, reading the morning paper and drinking coffee. And getting all perked up. Hence the addiction.

Years passed and the coffee addiction seemed to be all I needed to keep me perky.

And then I discovered endorphins. Endorphins are some sort of feel good chemical that gets released when you stress your body aerobically. After some experimenting with various methods of delivering the chemical, I found that hiking, biking and roller blading, for about an hour a day, were enough to keep me happy.

But, eventually, I realized I was addicted. If I don't get my fix, like today, I get edgy, I can't focus, I feel tired.

Like I did today. So, about 4 in the afternoon I took off to River Legacy Park to get my endorphin fix on the mountain bike trail. It was HOT. In the 90s. Felt good. First shirt off, biking, day of the year. You can see by the shadow of me taking a picture, above, that it is late in the day. The later afternoon light makes the green of the River Legacy woods look almost spooky. I liked it.

I pedaled a bit over 10 miles. I did the new section, once, that being the new section I mentioned yesterday, during my sad tale of a flat tire and a bobcat encounter. Today I was able to see that that new section's mile of twist and turns actually only gains you about 20 feet when it joins the existing trail. Yesterday I guessed 50 feet. It'll be a nice addition once it gets broken in.

I saw no wildlife, except for humans, today. No snakes, wild boars, bobcats, armadillos or squirrels.

I just realized I forgot to mention my other drug addiction. The post-coffee morning swim in cold water. I believe the jolt of the cold releases adrenalin, which in turn releases endorphins, which in turn causes me to start the day off feeling way better than just having that morning coffee perk going on.

I fear today may be a precursor for a VERY HOT SUMMER. I escaped Texas last summer during the only period that went over the 100 degree mark. Maybe I'll escape the heat again this summer. It just won't be in Tacoma. That's for sure.