Austin Area Mountain Bike Trail Map

[Jeff Barber]

We need your help creating a map of mountain bike trails in the Austin, TX area for display in local bike shops. A few things to keep in mind when selecting trails for the map:

1. The trails must be legal trails – no exceptions.
2. The map should include a variety of trails for all skill level riders – from families to hard core pros. We even like to include 1 or 2 greenway / paved paths if possible.
3. We’re limited to 15 trails per map so only the best trails should make the cut.
4. Depending on the availability of local trails we may need to include trails up to an hour’s drive from the city center (50 miles or so).

Once we’ve built the map we’ll mail a laminated color copy to everyone who is able to help via this forum. We’ll also be mailing a copy to each of the local bike shops in the area so let us know which shops to include!

Here’s the first pass, in no particular order. Let us know which trails to cut and which one’s we’ve left off and we’ll go from there…

McKinney Falls SP
Walnut Creek Trails
Barton Creek Greenbelt
Forest Ridge Preserve
Emma Long Motocross Park
Barton Creek Wilderness Park
Reimers Ranch
St. Ed’s
Mirador
Town Lake Hike & Bike
Hamilton Greenbelt
Brushy Creek
Goodwater Trail
Muleshoe Bend LCRA
Rocky Hill Ranch
Perdenales Falls Trails
Bluff Creek Ranch
Ringtail Ridge

[INTENSE]

"trek7k" wrote

We need your help creating a map of mountain bike trails in the Austin, TX area for display in local bike shops. A few things to keep in mind when selecting trails for the map:

1. The trails must be legal trails – no exceptions.
2. The map should include a variety of trails for all skill level riders – from families to hard core pros. We even like to include 1 or 2 greenway / paved paths if possible.
3. We’re limited to 15 trails per map so only the best trails should make the cut.
4. Depending on the availability of local trails we may need to include trails up to an hour’s drive from the city center (50 miles or so).

Once we’ve built the map we’ll mail a laminated color copy to everyone who is able to help via this forum. We’ll also be mailing a copy to each of the local bike shops in the area so let us know which shops to include!

Here’s the first pass, in no particular order. Let us know which trails to cut and which one’s we’ve left off and we’ll go from there…

McKinney Falls SP
Walnut Creek Trails
Barton Creek Greenbelt
Forest Ridge Preserve
Emma Long Motocross Park
Barton Creek Wilderness Park
Reimers Ranch
St. Ed’s
Mirador
Town Lake Hike & Bike
Hamilton Greenbelt
Brushy Creek
Goodwater Trail
Muleshoe Bend LCRA
Rocky Hill Ranch
Perdenales Falls Trails
Bluff Creek Ranch
Ringtail Ridge

FYI…
Forest Ridge – you will be arrested
Barton Creek Wilderness park ?????????? – not a legal access to the BCGB
mirador – you will be arrested
Hamilton Greenbelt – AKA Reimers
Ringtail ridge- not a legal access to the BCGB

[Jeff Barber]

Thanks INTENSE. All these trails are listed on singletracks already so I’ll be sure to update the trail descriptions as well. Here’s the updated list:

McKinney Falls SP
Walnut Creek Trails
Barton Creek Greenbelt
Emma Long Motocross Park
St. Ed’s
Town Lake Hike & Bike
Hamilton Greenbelt / Reimers Ranch
Brushy Creek
Goodwater Trail
Muleshoe Bend LCRA
Rocky Hill Ranch
Perdenales Falls Trails
Bluff Creek Ranch

Are there any others we missed in the Austin area?

[Pedigre]

Check here for all of the trails around Austin (barring any rinky dink local trails that aren’t worth really mentioning):

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& … 0a0a12&z=6

Maps that already exist can be accessed from our site:

mtb.pedigresplace.com (soon to be http://www.mountainbiketx.com)

Good luck,
Pedigre

[Skoofer]

"INTENSE" wrote

Ringtail ridge- not a legal access to the BCGB

just thought I should clear this up for you guys…Ringtail Ridge isn’t even in Austin. It’s a short little singletrack trail behind an apartment complex on Ranch Road 12. It is in fact legal and definitely not worth the drive from anywhere outside of the immediate San Marcos area and therefore not worthy of being a contender in my book. Hope this helps.

-mike-

[Pedigre]

"SkoOFeR" wrote

[quote="INTENSE":11uzq0gv]
Ringtail ridge- not a legal access to the BCGB

just thought I should clear this up for you guys…Ringtail Ridge isn’t even in Austin. It’s a short little singletrack trail behind an apartment complex on Ranch Road 12. It is in fact legal and definitely not worth the drive from anywhere outside of the immediate San Marcos area and therefore not worthy of being a contender in my book. Hope this helps.

-mike-[/quote:11uzq0gv]

a.k.a. Dakota Ranch?

[Skoofer]

yea, its behind dakota ranch but isn’t part of the apartments property. i’m not sure how they handle parking and wouldn’t want to give someone the impression they could park there if they could get towed…i know some complexes in san marcos can be really strict with that sort of thing.

[Jeff Barber]

Bump.

We’re still trying to put together a PDF map of the trails around Austin, TX. Here’s what we have so far, let us know if there are any we missed or if any of these should be removed:

McKinney Falls SP
Walnut Creek Trails
Barton Creek Greenbelt
Emma Long Motocross Park
St. Ed’s
Town Lake Hike & Bike
Hamilton Greenbelt / Reimers Ranch
Brushy Creek
Goodwater Trail
Muleshoe Bend LCRA
Rocky Hill Ranch
Perdenales Falls Trails
Bluff Creek Ranch

[Skoofer]

I’m not sure how far south the "Austin Area" is considered, but you should definitely include Madrone Trail out at Canyon Lake somewhere in your collection of trails. Also, Prospect Park & the Purgatory Green Space in San Marcos have really come a long way in the past year or two. These are linked together now and you can get maybe 9 or 10 miles in if you do the entire loop the correct way…which is still a little hazy at this time but it can be done.

You can contact The Hub <http> in San Marcos if you need directions or even a map of some of the trails (they have one on the wall but I don’t think they have copies to give out).

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you need any other info.

[Pedigre]

Just curious why the limit is 15 trails?

[Jeff Barber]

15 trails is the limit so we can fit them all on a single page

Here’s a sample:

[Pedigre]

looks nice…but limited 😕

[Jeff Barber]

Okay, we finally got our s#!t together for the Austin trail map. One question – Are the trails at Prospect Park 100% legit? Reading the description it was pretty vague but I understand you can connect to Purgatory Green Space for some beginner riding.

Let us know if the ratings and trail lengths look good and if we have the trailheads marked correctly on the map. We’ll make edits and finalize before printing and posting the PDFs on the site.

[Pedigre]

How did Town Lake [i:bszljcf8]and [/i:bszljcf8]Brushy Creek Regional Trail make the list? They are the least bit true mountain bike trails. I understand having something for everyone listed, but 2 trails in the Level 1 category? St. Edward’s Park is another one that seems to be taking up space for another more deserving Austin area trail.

I guess I’m of the mindset that if you are going to do something, do it completely. At 15 trails, you are roughtly covering a mere 60% of the trails available in the area (using Bluff Creek Ranch as the distance limit).

[Jeff Barber]

Thanks for the feedback Pedigre. Can you be more specific though – which great trails are missing? We definitely want to include the 15 best AND closest trails to Austin – kinda like a top 10 list (though our list is 50% better since it’s a top-15 list 😀 )

[Pedigre]

"trek7k" wrote

Thanks for the feedback Pedigre. Can you be more specific though – which great trails are missing? We definitely want to include the 15 best AND closest trails to Austin – kinda like a top 10 list (though our list is 50% better since it’s a top-15 list 😀 )

As I have only rode a handful of Austin’s trails, I doubt I would be a subject matter expert as far as what is [i:libvjywt]the [/i:libvjywt]best Austin/the Austin area has to offer. Even though this may be a conflict of interests in a sense, I can at least show you what your options are.

[Skoofer]

Trek-

Prospect Park & the Purgatory Green Space are most definitely legit trails. The city of San Marcos & other locals have been really developing this trail system over the last year or so. It’s hard to tell for sure from the map, but it appears the trail head is marked in roughly the correct location – it should be at the dead end of Prospect Road off Bishop.

Some other trails you might want to consider would be Pace Bend & Thumper. Pace Bends trails are relatively new and Thumper is a lesser known gem in Austin. I would recommend checking out AustinBike.com if you’re looking for specifics on either.

Hope this helps.

[Pedigre]

"SkoOFeR" wrote

Trek-

Some other trails you might want to consider would be Pace Bend & Thumper. Pace Bends trails are relatively new and Thumper is a lesser known gem in Austin.

[color=red:37hqx8il][i:37hqx8il]DO NOT LIST THUMPER!!![/i:37hqx8il][/color:37hqx8il]

Although legit, Thumper exisits only by an agreement with the neighborhood’s Home Owner’s Association. In other words, it is highly sensitive and those who actually care about protecting it agree that it’s publicity should be limited. For more information you can check the link SkoOFeR gave or MountainBikeTx.com – note that NEITHER provides directions.

[dimitrin]

I know this is an old post…but if you want to ride the good trails in Austin …you can’t. This is because they are on public land…and in Austin the public is not allowed on the majority of public land. It is held captive by a ‘selfservitory’ that only allows their private enjoyment. That is why you may get arrested.
It is criminal that the public was persuaded to purchase and set aside from development thousands of acres… with taxpayer monies, and then deny that very public any access.
…though the tide is turning…but only through education and awareness.

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