Forgot your password?
2006/07/17
Document Actions
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
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!