Ride report: July 18, 2015 Bastrop-Buescher-Bastrop Gravel Ride

[weisan]

I posted this on the Events thread, but in case anyone misses it...

Juan pal did the research and plotted the route we took.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/9293814

It totaled 43.3 miles with 1854 ft. of elevation gain. We started at Bastrop State Park over the Scenic Overlook, which is near the top of this map:
http://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/p...p4505_043l.pdf

We started rolling at 8:00 AM.

I would say at least 50% of the route was on dirt road and there was only one convenience store along the route at mile 28.7.

Captured from Juan's post:
http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpo...43&postcount=8

<<Thanks to Wei San's Garmin, we managed to not get lost! Our total distance on Saturday was 44 miles, I think about 1/2 of it on gravel.

Some thoughts about the ride: it was great to get away from traffic and take a relaxed pace. The condition of the gravel roads was all over the place, ranging from hard-pack small gravel, to a few sandy sections, to rutted roads with larger rocks. I was on my road bike with 28mm tires. I was surprised how well my bike handled these conditions, though next time I'd like to do a ride like this on wider tires and/or lower pressures.

The highlight of the ride for me was the final 11 miles, entering Buescher State Park and hooking up with Bastrop State Park on Park Road 1C--rolling terrain on smooth roads with shady sections.

All in all, a fantastic ride with Wei San's wonderful company. We were joined by three other friends, also great riding companions.
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The video is very jerky, be warned.


For those who don't want to get a headache watching the video...I managed to capture some stills from the video:

[weisan]

[guido]

Beautiful country! Thanks for sharing!