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.