White Rock Trail and Lake

What to do when it rains and the trails are too wet for riding. Well, if you need to get in a ride, like me, there are a couple of choices. First, the streets - too scary for me. Second, a straight line, paved trail which runs from north Dallas to White Rock Lake.

I started my ride from Valley View Park in Dallas. As you can see from the map below it is located on Hillcrest just north of I-635 (LBJ highway). I hit the trail at 7:30 and it was cold and windy. The temp was in the mid 40's and the wind was out of the north at 10 to 15 mph. The good news - it wasn't raining.

I am very familiar with the White Rock Creek Trail which starts in Valley View Park. I lived in Dallas not far from this park and in my jogging days I used to spend a large part of my Saturdays jogging there.

From Valley View it is slightly more than 7 miles to White Rock Lake. It is all paved concrete and is generally pretty well used. It is a multiuse trail and many joggers, bikers, and dog walkers will be your companions. Today the trail was pretty deserted due to the weather. I decided today  that I would ride around White Rock Lake twice before I headed back to the start so my total mileage was 38 miles. The link below is to the photos I took today.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28201157@N08/sets/72157625258333071/

The trail follows the White Rock Creek ( I think - anyway it is some body of water) which does empty into White Rock Lake. Some of the pics I took today show the creek and when it has recently rained there is a pretty good flow. There are also several pics of White Rock Lake and over the years the city of Dallas has done an excellent job of pretty - ing it up.

If you are from out of town and would like to rent a bike you are in luck. The Dallas Bike Works is very close to White Rock Lake and rents bike for $35.00 per day.

http://www.dallasbikeworks.com/  Follow the link to their Lawther location.

Worth a look if the trails are wet or you just want to get in some straight line time.

Later

Huntsville, Memorial Park, Somerville

Over a three day weekend I had the joy of visiting three different biking venues. I left for Houston early Friday morning and stopped by Huntsville State Park for a three hour ride on the trails. Now, to call the trails an off road experience would be accurate but to call them standard MTB trails would be a stretch. These trails are more along the lines of a pleasant ride through the forest. There are no technical issues, there are no adrenaline pumping ups or downs, and no water crossings. There are many wooden plank bridges, a few roots, and some sugar sand. See all photos of Huntsville:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28201157@N08/sets/72157625221865857/

I logged in about 20 miles but did cover some of the trails twice. The weather was sunny and the temperature was in the mid 70's so I was in no hurry to get into the hustle which is Houston.

Saturday morning I gave a presentation which was my reason for going to Houston. By mid afternoon I was able to go over to Memorial Park, in the middle of downtown, for a little true trail riding. If you visit Houston and you have a bike with you I strongly suggest you try it out. The trails, collectively called the Ho Chi Minh Trail, is a collection of many trails which wind through a forest of trees. The truth of the matter is, even though you are right down town you really can't see the skyscrapers which populate Houston. See all photos of Memorial Park:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28201157@N08/sets/72157625221881905/

I expected to see many bikers on the trails. As on Friday, it was sunny and the temperature was very mild. I was surprised to find that, even though I was in the third largest city in the U.S., there were not that many people on the trails. In fairness, the University of Texas was playing and probably the University of Houston, and it was the first day of hunting season so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

The trails are very well marked with different colors. I asked a biker as I was unloading my bike if the colors meant anything - red = most difficult, green = easiest, and he said they are all about the same. I think I rode all of them and I believe he is right. The only exception was the purple route. This is the trail which covers the perimeter and it did seem to be the easiest.

I saw all levels of riders. There were the master blaster go for broke guys and those who seemed to be there for the first time. I did notice that the trail manners were very good. People would call out "Rider" at the blind corners and would let you know how many people were behind you when passing. Finally, most of the trails are not single track - watch out for bikers coming right at you.

The trails do cover a wide variety of thrills. Gates, some sand, whoop -t -dos, an occasional creek crossing, tight turns, roots, you never know what to expect and at the same time watching for other riders can challenge your powers of observation. I must admit I did get lost once - somewhere on the blue trail and ended up on a trail which hadn't been used for some time and had several fallen trees blocking progress. I did eventually find my way out and it was all part of the adventure of a new trail (for me).

Bottom line - if in Houston "Go for it".

On Sunday I decided to go a little out of the way and stop by Lake Somerville Trailway. This trailway is part of the state park system in Texas, and , as a State Park Pass holder, it costs me nothing to visit the parks. I have visited two other trailways - Medicine Well and Ray Roberts - and without a doubt the Somerville trail is a poor third. For those of you who have read my other posts you know I enjoy almost all other kinds of biking as much as I enjoy MTB. The trailways give me a chance to do some "street" biking without playing in the traffic.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/28201157@N08/sets/72157625346606538/


The trailway at Somerville is a collection of sand, rocks (think rock road kind of rocks), packed dirt, and finally horse hoof tracks. It is very rough until you hit a patch of sand with very few challenges. I really don't expect trailways to offer challenges similar to MTB trails, but I do expect there to be some areas of interest or to allow me to do some serious straight line pedaling. Somerville provides neither.

Somerville is 13 miles one way so a complete trip is 26 miles. If you are interested in trailways I would recommend both Ray Roberts (20 miles round trip) or Medicine Wells (40 miles round trip) before Somerville. I will post a complete review of both the others when I get out there again. I am waiting on the resurfacing of Ray Roberts to be completed before I take an excursion out there. The rangers say it should be done later this month.

Bottom line for Somerville - save your energy.

Oak Cliff Preserve

In keeping with my recent theme of visiting trails for the first time, I just returned from Oak Cliff Preserve. The trail is interesting with many creek crossings. They also have interesting names for some of the features. In keeping with the south Dallas area there are more rocks here and some pretty technical rock features. Not to mention some of the rock face whoop-t-do's which will get your attention. Check out all the photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28201157@N08/sets/72157625304962432/

I did see more than a few bikers walking through this one. My first time down it was "pretty much clich tight and trust the bike will hold together" which it did and I survived.

I was there on a Saturday and it was pretty busy. I would guess the track is about 7 miles and it does have 6 loops which are clearly marked. There is also some open prarie space riding in some of the loops but not nearly as much as Erwin has.

All things considered, this is a fairly fun trail with several challenges. If you are in the area give it a try.

Later

GPS Coordinates - 32°42.851    96°51.915