MTB – Austin’s Greenbelt

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I’ve came down to Austin a lot of times for a lot of years. But, I’ve never ridden MTB bikes here. That seems weird to me now, but I’m usually trying to escape cold Kansas winters when I make my way down South.

Anyway, yesterday, Robbie Robinette took me for a tour of the Austin’s Greenbelt. It was great. I used Robbie’s Superfly hardtail. The fit wasn’t perfect, but the bike still rode crazy good. I’m not too into the wide handlebar/no bar end thing yet, so my bike handling was pretty off most of the day.

I’m not sure how far we rode. I think around 30km. It was technical most of the day. Robbie has the trails down. He was riding stuff that would take me more than a few tries to clean. Since it has been raining here, we had to do a bunch of U-turns because the water was too deep to cross. I was totally lost most of the day.

I guess I’m most surprised that there is excellent MTB riding right in the center of town. It started a mile from Robbie’s front door. And once you get into the canyons, you don’t see any sign of civilization for a couple hours. Pretty unique.

Before the ride, I went to see Dr. Jill Thomson, of Austin Sports Therapy to get some of my “issues” looked at. She spent nearly an hour with me. Working mainly on my sartorius muscle on my left leg. But, other stuff too. It was mildly painful doing the Active Release stuff at the time. I thought I’d be super sore from it, but I feel better, I think. I’m pretty worked, in general, from riding over rocks for 3 hours yesterday though.

I’m going to just ride on the road for a few hours today to see where I’m at. It isn’t warm here. I don’t think it got to 40 yesterday. The weather is supposed to be nearly 50 today, but using the temperatures right now, I don’t think it is going to be close to that.

My view most of the day. Robbie was riding way more stuff than me.

Creeping over a water crossing, trying to keep my feet dry. They are pretty slick with algae.

There are lots of elavation changes here. Pretty great views some of the time.

Dr. Jill Thompson. She is very good at what she does.

Shoulder tape from yesterday.

And leg tape.


Ann and I went to dinner last night at The Grove Wine Bar. It is a great place. Here is a photo of sampler #6, Spanish Reds. Ann in the background.

2 thoughts on “MTB – Austin’s Greenbelt”

  1. chad smith

    the greenbelt has been rated as one of the best urban trails in the country. I wouldn’t know (b/c I haven’t ridden any other “urban trails”. but I do like the greenbelt. if you take the side trails, you’ll encounter some extremely technical (and fun) stuff. you’ll think you’re in the middle of nowhere and then suddenly you’ll find yourself right behind someone’s backyard fence, with a view that overlooks the city. pretty cool. we’re definitely spoiled here.

    what we lack, though (and what I miss about living in Boulder for a brief period) is long, sustained climbs, either on road or off-road. plenty of short little power-climbs but nothing more than about .6 miles.

    you need to go exploring some of the other trails like slinky, city park, walnut creek, and thumper.

    this site has great info: http://www.austinbike.com/index.asp

     

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