Wow, we just got back from a quick trip to Houston, Texas to visit some family and I must say it turned out to be a really good biking trip as well. When I found out we were heading for Houston I shot an email to some biking buddies that live there in Houston hoping they would hook me up with a good mountain bike ride, they did not let me down. We got there early enough on Friday that we decided to get a quick bike ride in, so we headed over to Hersey Park and started out on the paved trail. We had planned on just riding the paved trail but as we went further on down the pavement the dirt trails that shot off to the side were calling and we had to answer. I had ridden these trails before called The Anthills but I had forgotten just how much fun they were and our quick little ride turned into a much longer ride. If you are ever in the Houston area you got to check out Hersey Park, they have some really nice paved trails as well as some really great mountain bike trails.

On Saturday we spent some time at Sun & Ski Sports where a friend works, before heading to Stephen F. Austin State Park to check out the bike trails. The trails in this park were well maintained and some of the trails ran right along the Brazos river. The trails there are pretty flat but have a good flow to them a good place to go and hammer. Our ride was much more relaxed and slow paced and believe it or not this is the trail where I came back with the most bumps and bruises. The trail looks like it would get really bad if it rained and would not drain well, there were a few places we came across that still had standing water, so we did what any respectful mountain biker would do, we turned around and went back the way we came. We got some pictures and video of the trail which I will upload to the site as soon as I can. After riding the trail we headed over to Bike Barn on Westheimer Rd. to visit with a good friend who was going to be leading our ride tomorrow.

Sunday we meet our Houston friends at Memorial Park. I was not to sure on how this ride would go because last time I rode this trail I was not really to happy with it because of so many people on the trail and I think also because I was not really sure where I was going. This time was a whole lot different with our good friends from Houston showing us the way, all we had to do was set back and enjoy the ride. The second good thing was we had almost the entire trail to ourselves, seems they were having an art show their in the park so we think that might have kept a lot of people away. Man this trail has some really fun stuff on it, lots of up and downs, drop offs, roots and other little technical stuff. I had the video camera with me this time so I got it all on tape mostly, and what can you say when you have a trail so close to a Starbucks that you can jump off the trail, ride to the coffee shop for a break and then get right back on the trail again. Needles to say we rode for about 3 hours out there and I had a great time. I want to thank the Houston folks for taking time out of their day to show us around the trail. Sunday night I was pretty wiped out and all I wanted to do was to set down and rest, but when your with the wife and her daughter, their is shopping to be done. We had a great time in Houston and I will try to get the pictures and and videos up on the website soon.