November Recap

Monthly Recap

Dec 7

This November recap will feature Austin Ridge Riders pretty heavily. I took part in three volunteer activities, tagged along for Cranksgiving planning, as well as a scouting ride at Mary Moore Searight park. There was also the Open Ride day and Family Funduro race at Flat Creek Crossing, and some fast pace urban/gravel rides.

I’ve updated the font on this site, so hopefully text is now easier to read. Let’s get to it…

Cranksgiving Planning

I had a chance to join Austin Ridge Riders for Cranksgiving planning on November 4th. Our ride consisted of finding the optimal route that is friendly for most riders, as well as a green option for beginners and families with kiddos. We took note of any signage requirements and looked for spots of trail that required maintenance. We were pleased to find that the park crew at Reimers has actually been doing a fair amount of maintenance on “Greenway”.

Cranksgiving is a traditionally a well-attended post-Thanksgiving club ride that includes food and prizes; however, the event has been postponed due to rain and will now take place on January 21, 2023.There are trail work locations set up along the pre-planned route; riders will get a raffle ticket for every lap of the route they complete, and additional tickets for every stop along the way to help at trail work stations.

We identified a few locations that were prime for building berms, filling rutted trail, and raising the trail bed in a particularly washed out location. Each spot will have a volunteer leading the work crew, and an assistant. There are also volunteers needed to help with food and drinks, as well as signage installation and removal.

Reimers Ranch is particularly beautiful, and January is a great time to ride here since there is minimal shade. Registration is still open! If you want to join the party, click here.

If you are interested in volunteering, please register via this link.

ARR Work Days

Austin Ridge Riders organized a few volunteer opportunites this month, starting with the “It’s my Park Day” trash cleanup event in the Little Walnut Creek Greenbelt. The second work day was a build day on BMX loop. Both events were well attended with at least 30 people!

A last minute work day was called on November 26th to build a new drop feature on Powerline Hill, called the Powerline Gulley Wall. This is an improvement over what had become a washed out, eroded section of trail, and added some amplitude to the existing natural drop. This was scheduled with minimal notice due to optimal conditions after the rain, yet we still had about a dozen folks moving material.

This feature has already become a huge hit - pun intended, with riders of all skill level finding it to be as forgiving or as exciting as they need it to be. It should be mentioned that the park rules still apply here and mixed use trail etiquette is a must. The new feature is located here.

Flat Creek Crossing Ranch

This year, Team Trail Party mixed up the schedule for the Texas Enduro Cup and moved the Family Funduro at Flat Creek Crossing Ranch to November. This was appreciated, as September is a brutal month to be pedaling your ass off.

FCCR is a killer venue, and unfortunately it is only open twice per year: once for the Funduro, and the other is an Open Ride day. This season, the open ride day took place a week before the race. A few riders from the race team came out to preview each stage, and have a bit of fun on Texas Two Step, which was looking primo for race weekend.

The race itself was amazing, with exceptional weather, although the dirt was a little slow in the morning thanks to rain the day before. You can read the full race recap here.

If you want to have an opportunity to ride at Flat Creek, be sure to follow the Trail Party instagram to know when the ranch is open.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MTBATX (@mtb_atx)

Crank N Drank and Gravel Miles

The weather was not kind to the trails in November. After months of wishing for rain it finally arrived and never stopped it seemed. As a result, Crank N Drank now has a new strategy going forward: just show up with your big bike, and if we can’t ride trail we will do an urban route. In the beginning of the month we got a chance to all ride the new jump line named “Tunnel Vision”, but then for three weeks in a row the crew were limited to gravel and asphalt. Unfortunately I missed one of these routes after my phone fell out of my pocket and I had to turn around to look for it.

The group finally decided it would be useful to have an official Crank N Drank instagram which will be handled by one of the regulars, so feel free to tag that account after the ride on Tuesday night. We will be in darkness for a few months now so lights are mandatory on these rides. You can keep up with Crank N Drank on the events page here.

Shutterbug

I’ve actually had a few people ask what I am using to take photos, and up until now it has been the iPhone 12. I love photography; my passion really took off in 2012 when I rented a Nikon D7000 and a 70-200 f2.8 tele for the United States Grand Prix. Since that race, and the years that followed, I always wanted to own my own gear vs renting. I finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago and bought a Sony A7III with the kit lens for now. I have a friend who is going to sell me his 70-200 F4. Straight away I started getting better shots both in terms of sharpness and composition, so you can expect that the quality of content here should increase a bit. I also have a SmugMug portfolio now so I can share rider photos easier. You can view those galleries here.