Park offers biking adventure
Rugged terrain, challenge perfect for weekend trip.
Ever eager to do battle with dirt, tree roots and rocks over the long holiday weekend, my husband and I lashed our mountain bikes to the pickup truck and headed north to Waco. Yes, Waco. Even though we’ve got Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park and the Barton Creek Greenbelt and an assortment of other savory places to mountain bike here in Austin, I wanted some new scenery. I’d visited Cameron Park on my bike once, about ffve years ago, and Chris had never seen the place.
The park has more than 20 miles of trails spread across 416 acres of heavily wooded, hilly terrain along the Bosque and Brazos rivers. This time of year, when the leaves are tinged yellow, orange and red, it’s like pedaling through a leafy sunset.
When I was here before, a trio of park rangers led me through the tangle of trails, which are multi-directional and multi-use.
We didn’t have a guide this time, but consulted a map and headed out From Austin, take Interstate 35 North. Exit at University Parks Drive in Waco and take a left under the highway, heading west. The road leads directly to Cameron Park. Information: 254-7508080; open daily; free. on a trail that skirts the Bosque River. To our left, a limestone clifi rose above us. Our biking legs fully engaged, we eventually dove into the woods, where we grunted our way up the ridge. From there, we dipped and rolled, careened and swooped like a couple of kids on a roller coaster.
Like ski runs at a Colorado mountain resort, the mostly single-track trails are marked according to diflculty level — green for easiest, blue for more diflcult and black for advanced. They’re all named, too, just like runs at a ski resort: Buzzard, Vortex, Shyst, Act of Faith ...
We pumped up inclines, soaked up the view of the placid green river far below, clattered across wooden bridges and rolled slowly down stretches so steep I was tempted to dismount and slide down on my rear end.
Come to think of it, I did hop ofi and walk through a lot of the gnarly stufi.
But some of it I conquered. Like Root Canal, where I had to get ofi and push my way up a couple of sketchy patches, but turned around at the top and whooped and hollered all the way to the bottom.
This secret stash of terrain is worth the hour and a half drive from Austin. We found a little of everything, from rocks to roots to bamboo thickets where a panda bear would look right at home.
It’s a popular site for races of all kinds. The Texas Mountain Bike Race series has staged events here; adventure races, trail running races, ultra running events and fun runs happen here regularly. the session with Sly with some stretching and yoga. “Thank you, and I’ll see you at 9 a.m. Thursday,” she tells her long-distance client.
Sly will be back. She knows she has no excuse for missing.