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Up one level2006/07/17
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New Feature: Friday Bike Trail Blogging
Well, I figured I'd try a new thing on the blog and try to add something regular so I came up with Friday Bike Trail Blogging. Every Friday, I'll post some pictures of some of the more untraveled and hidden places on the various Austin bike trails that I'm privileged to commute to work on.
My aim is to try and show some of the reasons why some of us love this city. The greenbelt trail system seems to be pretty overlooked by most who live here as it requires people to actually get out of their cars and walk out in the heat a bit. Compared to Dallas where, for the most part, the "nature trail" system downtown is basically White Rock Lake and the associated paved "trails," Austin's greenbelt is truly a rarity in urban, downtown areas. There are some really great nature areas on the trail system but I figured I would start with one of the smaller and possibly, most overlooked and maligned areas on the trail. It's a tiny bit of nature dead-smack in the middle of downtown Austin and one that I've seen quite a bit of wildlife running around.
Since I mentioned this area in my previous post, I figured the kickoff entry would be this quick look north up Waller Creek just under the 8th Street Bridge (right next to the Stubb's outdoor stage). Sorry that I only took this one snap but I was running late getting out of work and I had other places to get to (you can see my parking garage in the upper right of the photo) but in the next installment, I'll take some more detailed and (hopefully) artistic photos. This is a nice little area for assorted wildlife as I've seen both Great Blue Herons as well as, I think, their white morphs hanging out in the small pool fishing for the various shad above the small breakwater as well as turtles and various snakes. This area is just downstream from the old Reddy Ice brownsite that is now the new home of the Red River Flats development. For those that have read some of my development screeds, you'll know that I'm a big fan of the Red River Flats development as it seems to be the only "worker affordable" development being built downtown (with rents starting at $1400/mo). This is also part of the area that some on the City Council (Brewster McCracken and his ilk) are wanting to teardown and put in an Austin clone of San Antonio's Riverwalk (do these guys have any original ideas or do they only talk to Trammell Crow?).
Anyway, next week I'll have some more photos from a different area on the bike trail.
- Category(s)
- Austin
- Livability
- Bike Blogging
- Photos
2006/07/28
Friday (Well, Saturday...) Bike Trail Blogging Week #2
Photo album from this week is located here.
Well, I apologize that I didn't have a chance to do a "position" blog entry this week or get this up on time. It's been a long couple of weeks personally but things seem to be getting back to normal so I had some time to take a few snaps of a couple more of my favorite places on some of Austin's bike trails. Unfortunately, part of the problems of the last few weeks has been an intermittent Road Runner connection and so while the connection is up, I'm working on the blog. I guess I could always go to some coffee shop somewhere...
Anyhoo, the first picture is a follow-up from last week's post. On Friday morning, there was one of the Great Blue Herons hanging out in the area that I took a photo of last week (most of the Herons I've seen seem to hang out in this one little area and just north next to the Waller Creek building). This guy started out in the creek but when I tried to move in to get a closer shot, he flew up into the tree. I guess it would help to have a decent camera with a good telephoto lens (this camera is just a barebones 2Mpixel Kodak).
This week, I decided to highlight 2 areas: a small single-track trail in the middle of Pease Park and a bend of Bull Creek directly underneath MoPac.
These next few shots are the single-track trail that runs next to the main trail through Pease park. These shots are facing north and Lamar is about 1000ft to the right of the pictures. The camera really doesn't do the grade of the trail much justice but when the trail is wet, the limestone "boulders" become quite slick and can be a bit of a challenge going up (somebody recently blocked off the left side of the trail where it was a bit more challenging). There's a frisbee golf hole just south of where this trail pops out.
The rest of the photos are from Bull Creek directly under the MoPac bridges. From the satellite map, this area looks pretty small an unimpressive but it's quite pretty and serene once you get underneath the roadways. From the bottom of the creek to the roadway, it's probably about 80 or so feet. When you're driving on MoPac, it really just doesn't seem like you're that high up but it's a fair distance down. This part of the trail has a few pedestrian bridges that cross roughly at 5th and 1st streets. Again, this camera really doesn't show the scale of the surrounding hills and how straight up they seem to go. There's a few limestone outcrops that would be ok for some bouldering.
Sorry for the lateness of the post. Hopefully, we'll have the Internet connection figured out and back to normal for an on-time post next week.
- Category(s)
- Austin
- Livability
- Bike Blogging
- Photos
2006/08/05
Saturday Bike Trail Blogging Week #3
This week's photo album is located here
Well, I've decided to change the Friday feature to Saturday as it's now been 2 straight weeks that I haven't been able to leave work, take pictures, upload and annotate and then put the blog entry out. I didn't get out of work last night until 7:30pm or so and add the 35 minute bike ride and pictures, I didn't get home until almost 9pm. But I still took some pictures of another not-as-used area on the trail system so I hope they still give you a feeling what the trails are like.
This week I highlighted part of the Barton Creek Greenbelt but one that isn't used as much as some of the other areas. It's kinda separated from the rest of the trail system as it has a point of crossing across Barton Creek but usually, there's water in the creek so you have to get wet to get on that side if you come from the main BCG trail. The only other "official" entrance is off Homedale Dr. just behind Barton Creek Elementary (there are a few other trailheads on St. Mark's Church property). From the "official" trailhead, it goes up quite steeply over some loose limestone rocks and it can be a fair challenge getting started up the trail. The trail actually splits right behind the trail signs, one going west the other going north. If you head down the north trail, you will eventually wind up at Barton Creek (I highlighted that part of the trail in pictures 15 - 25). Yesterday, though, I went west to try and catch a few pictures of the setting Sun so I hit the parts of the trail that might offer a view first.
Overall, I would rate these trails as good for novices but there are some tricky (and fun) areas. You can pretty much cover the whole upper trail system in 30 mins to an hour (It's pretty small but there's some nice native scrub areas in it) and if you cross the creek to the main BCG trail, you could easily go all day.
- Category(s)
- Austin
- Livability
- Bike Blogging
- Photos
2006/12/15
Friday Fog Pictures - Town Lake
It was a gorgeous and ethereal morning when I woke up so I took a few pictures on the way to work as the grayness was inspiring. It was a wet, muddy, grainy and tiring ride this morning (still haven't recovered completely from the cold of last week) but I just love days like this. I'm not the greatest of photographers but there should be enough in the pictures to get an idea of what the fog was like. I was kind of upset on how the first picture turned out as when I got on the bridge, there was nobody in front of me and it made for a very surreal view. But by the time I had pulled out the camera from the backpack, people had caught up and passed me as well as the oncoming walkers started materializing. Better luck next time, I suppose!
The second picture caught my eye when I looked back from on top of the hill and saw that great, lonely tree framed by the urban, beat-up columns. That along with the "tunnel" of the columns leading to the bridge looked like it would make a good picture.
The last picture I put up because I was so surprised at how many colors were actually in the shot. Just standing there taking the picture, it seemed fairly bleak. Once I pulled the shot and balanced the levels in The Gimp, I was struck at the reds, greens and browns that I didn't see this morning. Anyway, Austin in the foggy morning at Town Lake can be a real pretty place (until you hit Red River heading north and you're back in traffic again... ).
And as always, all the content on the site falls under the Creative Commons licensing contained in the footers of all the pages so feel free to do whatever you like with the pictures if you're so inclined!
Added: 12/30/06 - Added a black and white rendering of the top photograph as someone requested it on an "art" site. Figured I'd put it up in this post as well in case anyone wanted it. Not doing too badly in the downloading department on that site, I might say (over 1000 downloads on the 3 sites I uploaded it to).
- Category(s)
- Austin
- Livability
- Photos
Re:Friday Fog Pictures - Town Lake
These are quite beautiful I love the first one especially. Yesterday's fog made for an interesting drive for me.
2007/03/09
How Not To Care For A Jaguar and Other Things...
Well, long time, no post. I've been busy doing all sorts of things from vacationing for a few weeks to doing some guest writing on other blogs to failing my Red Hat Certified Engineer exam (although, I came in with the 60% that take the exam and fail it on the first attempt. But I did manage to pass the Red Hat Certified Technician with flying colors) to doing lots of research for a series of blog posts on the loss of the Culture Class here in Austin (ala David Neiwert but with nowhere near the talent level) . I'll probably blog about those a bit more in the coming days.
But what I wanted to post tonight was some pictures of a Jaguar that I passed biking on the way to work today. As a proud Jaguar owner myself, it pains me to see a nice little XJ being treated this way. I'm really hoping the owner is out-of-town and will clean the car appropriately once they get back. Otherwise, this is just a crime. They're just such great cars it's a pity that someone may not cherish it as much as it deserves.
Anyway, I apologize for the long break from posting and I promise to start getting back in the swing of things again!
- Category(s)
- Informational
- Opinion
- Photos
9.11.2006!
The Best Olbermann Special Comment Yet
Well, it's not a Austin blogger post without a gratuitous Dallas slam... BTW, I'm sitting in my office in downtown Dallas after commuting by bike from my home (8 miles) on the Dallas MUTs (I've never, ever, heard them called 'nature trails').
Hehe, well, I lived in Dallas for 17 years and did *a lot* of bicycle commuting / riding back in the early to mid 90's (for the most part, I rode from Turtle Creek / McKinney Ave <-> Coit and Arapaho 6 days a week for nearly 5 years). I was nothing but a roadie at the time, looking down on those poor schmucks who were mountain biking (that's one thing I really didn't like about Dallas; too much emphasis on "what you had" and not on "how you rode," but that might have changed since then (I've been in Austin for the last 11yrs but it's even pretty clique-ish here)). At the time, I was averaging nearly 200 miles a week in commuting / training (I was living the dream of qualifying for the Atlanta games in '96... :) and most of that on the busy Dallas streets (primarily Oak Lawn / Preston) and the training was primarily with the guys from Richardson Bike Mart and a few times with the Chili's pro team around White Rock and out on the northern Plano roads.
I really didn't ride mountain bikes back then and I would agree with you that they really aren't "nature trails" but they were some of the few "trails" that were separated from traffic which made it safer for the cyclists. I'm not slamming Dallas; just comparing what I saw there to what is available down here. There are some truly great trails here in "downtown" Austin and even better trails scattered throughout the city and outlying areas.
Currently, here in Austin, there's been a lot of debate about how we Austinites would like our city to develop with the crushing growth that has been happening. A lot of us would like to keep the greenspaces and trails as we feel that they are a defining characteristic of this city. Otherwise, Austin really does run the risk of becoming a city much like Dallas or Houston (car friendly and a lot of sprawl). If a Starbuck's drive-thru at a strip mall is my cup of tea, I would certainly move to Plano/Dallas as it's already there. I don't need Austin to follow that path. That's not what I love about this city. In fact, it's the relative lack of those "amenities" that I like (but don't get me wrong; there's a Starbuck's about 2 miles from where I sit typing this... Next to a pool hall of all places... :)
And take heart in knowing this isn't your typical Austin blogger Dallas slam. I've got 17 years of experience to base it on! Thanks for leaving your comment!