~6.5 miles @ ~ 13 min/mi

The mountain bike courses have apt names: "Tangle of Trails" ... "Hill of Despair" ... "Severe Consequences" ... etc. It's the morning after my afternoon adventure (2010-07-19 - Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park) in northwest Austin. I'm back to get my revenge—or rather, to get befuddled in the labyrinth of mountain bike trails in Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park.

I park near the swimming pool and in spite of consulting my GPS keep looping around and finding myself repeating segments of the course. A pack of early-morning runners greets me, as do a pair of cyclists. After dead-ending on cliffs above the stream and revisiting the high-tension power line right-of-way, I unwittingly emerge on the northwest side of the park. Then it's a ramble along neighborhood sidewalks, punctuated by retreats from dead-end streets, abrupt stops at barbed-wire fences, and turnabouts at thickets of bramble bushes. Finally I follow the park boundary fence next to an elementary school and discover a proper entrance. The road leads me back to my starting point.

^z - 2010-08-05