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Biking “Dead Roads”

Last time, we hiked our newly found “Dead Road”… today we decided to bike it to where another road is suppose to intersect with it and lead to a small pond. We hoped to check out the pond and maybe find a new place to primitive camp out in the middle of the national forest.

We figured biking to it to check it out would be a lot faster and on bikes we could go a lot farther than on foot…

We road along the trail, past the bridges we had hiked by last time. It wasn’t to long before we realized this road was not as well maintained as we had thought, it was surely not very “bike friendly.” There were large stones in the road to cover wash out areas, there were cut off saplings leaving behind stobs, and there were plenty of roots littering the road. You don’t take much notice of these things when you are walking but on a bike bouncing your behind on all the obstacles in the road… well, you notice that real quick!

We road along contemplating different ideas of what caused the rocks to be so heavy in this area. There are several rock pits around where people had dug rock from forming mineral ponds like the legendary “Blue Hole”. We discussed why the springs like the cold springs of nearby Boykin Springs were so abundant in the area. We wonder is there is volcanic activity deep in the earth somewhere in our area. All great questions that will be answer with a bit of research once we return home!

Finally we arrived to where the roads were suppose to intersect. It was barely visible anymore. Trees had grown up so thick that you would have to walk single file and sideways down the road to hike it, and you can just forget biking it! We decided to go ahead and turn back having reached around 2.5 miles one way (I started my Map My Hike app a bit late.)

As we rode back, I once again bounced along the rocky road when all of a sudden I heard, “Spff… spff… spff” Oh No!!! My tire tube had popped on one of those jagged rocks… now I have to walk.

Thankfully, we were only a mile away from where we parked, it could have been worse. Surely I can walk a mile. We stopped to rest for a few minutes before we started our mile hike back with bikes in tow. Some of us were pretty tired already, the idea of walking back was pretty disheartening!  80+ degrees on a humid Texas spring day can really take it’s toll on a person.

We took time to rest and enjoy the serene stillness of the creeks while the kids “scaled” the walls down to the water and explored the area.

They wandered along the creek a bit when they came back excited they found a spring dripping out of the bank that was “ice cold”.

Anna had to get an empty bottle and gather some water so she could “purify it later and drink it”… I smelled it and ugh, it was sulfur water! I advised her against drinking it! But I bet we could have fun looking at it under the microscope when we get home! So we put it in our pack for further investigation!

Rested up for our mile hike back to the truck I told the kids to ride ahead but stay together as hubby decided to walk his bike along side of my disabled bike. I did not realize just how cumbersome walking a bike would be! We were pretty tired from riding but walking trying to balance the silly bike was a chore in itself! I swapped from left side to walking on the right then back again. It was all a big pain but we made it back to the road. Thankfully the boys came jogging back the last couple hundred feet after they loaded their bikes and rolled ours on up and into the truck.

I think I will stick to road cycling with my old bike once I get it repaired and leave the hiking trails to hiking!

Educational aspects of this activity:

Life Skills: Changing a bike tire tube

Life Skills: Be prepare for bike repairs on the trail

Science: Springs Underground & More about springs!

Physical Education: Biking burns calories

~Becky

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