Story by Pam LeBlanc 
Photos by Sarah Beal 

Whether you prefer biking on a smooth surface or grinding on gravel, here are roads and rides for cyclists in the Bluebonnet area. 

Warm days and budding wildflowers always trigger the same response: My bicycle flexes its gears and spokes and practically points its way out the door.

In Central Texas, we have plenty of terrain to explore on two wheels.

Biking gets you outside and, if you stick with it, can improve your cardiovascular fitness and decrease stress levels. Springtime, before nature cranks up the furnace of summer, is the best time to get rolling. You just need to decide if you prefer spinning down paved streets or gravel roads.

If you like swift and smooth miles, you’ll probably prefer traditional road riding, on a built-for-speed bicycle with skinny tires. If you don’t mind bumpy, unimproved gravel roads, and care less about going fast, you might like gravel riding.

Road cyclists should note that there’s a new twist in the 2020 Texas MS 150 — a two-day, two- wheel fundraising spin May 2-3 through much of Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative’s service area. For the first time, cyclists can choose to start either from Austin or the Houston area. The routes merge in La Grange and end at Texas A&M University’s Kyle Field in College Station.

Some of the organized events double as recommended training rides for the MS 150, which began in Houston in 1985 and can draw 10,000 riders. (Find more information about the MS 150 below.)

If gravel’s more your speed, just remember that even though you’ll travel slower, you’ll work harder.

“Gravel is about 15 percent more strenuous mile for mile, just because the rolling resistance on uneven surface of gravel itself is not the same as asphalt,” says Brett Kinsey, head of Capital City Racing in Austin, which puts on organized bike rides around Central Texas. “A 35-mile gravel ride is going to feel a lot harder than 35 miles on pavement, and you’re probably going to stop and take more selfies with that donkey.”

Gravel riding — or “grinding,” as some call it — is growing in popularity. It appeals to those who want to get out of heavy, fast-moving traffic. Because vehicles don’t drive 65 mph on gravel roads, traffic moves more slowly and beginning cyclists may feel safer. Plus, it’s a different experience.

“It’s always going to be an adventure, because crazy things happen on gravel roads versus paved roads,” Kinsey says. You’ll likely see cattle, horses and the occasional deer.

One year, during Capital City Racing’s Come and Grind It ride near Gonzales, about 50 feral hogs ran along a fence line next to the cyclists. “You probably don’t see that on a highway,” Kinsey says.

Whether you decide to get in on the gravel craze, or tune up for the MS 150, we’ve scouted the area to find the best places to log some miles. Now’s the time to pump up your bike tires, fill a water bottle, grab your helmet and pick one of these routes to explore. 

Pam LeBlanc has written about fitness, adventure and recreation in Central Texas for decades. Her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, Texas Parks & Wildlife and Real Simple magazines, and the Austin American-Statesman.
 

WHAT’S THE DIFF?

You probably recognize the difference between a road bike — which is streamlined, lightweight and built for speed — and its beefier, more rugged cousin, the mountain bike. But where does a gravel bike fit in the picture?

Think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Gravel bikes are more durable than road bikes but not as thick-boned as a mountain bike. They have a more comfortable design, with a longer wheelbase and more standover height. That makes them ideal for the jolts and jars of rugged surfaces. You can even buy special seat posts and gel pads that go under the handlebar tape to reduce vibration.

All gravel bikes use disc brakes instead of rim brakes, which accommodate wider tires that smooth out the ride and provide better grip on uneven surfaces. (A standard road bike runs 23 mm tires, while gravel bikes use 40 to 45 mm tires.) Gravel bikes also come with more mounting points, so you can carry more water bottles or attach a rack.

Gravel bikes weigh a little more than road bikes. The average road bike tips the scales at 17 or 18 pounds, while gravel bikes come in between 19 and 22 pounds.

You can pay from $300 to nearly $2,000 for a good entry-level road bike. Gravel bikes start at about $500. The price increases as the quality of the bike’s components increases.

You might not need a new bike if you decide to ride gravel. An old mountain bike gathering dust in a garage can be outfitted with thinner tires for the area's gravel roads.

“I’m a big believer in don’t go buy a bunch of stuff you don’t need, and I love that with gravel you don’t have to have the latest and greatest to have fun,” Kinsey says.

IS IT SAFE TO BIKE ON COUNTRY ROADS?

Bicycling down a two-lane country road is entirely different than pedaling through an urban area.

Instead of rumbling city buses and drivers pulling in and out of shopping centers, you’ll more likely encounter a pasture of grazing cows and the occasional farm tractor. You’ll also find less cycling infrastructure and motorists less accustomed to mingling with two-wheeled vehicles.

Cyclist Brett Kinsey, director of Capital City Racing, offers tips for rural biking:

• Attach a red blinking light to the back of your bike, and use it even during daylight to make you more visible.
• Wear bright-colored clothing, such as a day-glow yellow cycling vest.
• Wave at motorists as you approach. “It humanizes you and captures their attention,” Kinsey says.
• Don’t weave. Set as straight a course as you can, so motorists can predict your moves. “Don’t get so distracted looking at cows that you swerve out into the road,” Kinsey says.
• Observe traffic laws. “If you can’t do it in a car, don’t do it on a bike,” Kinsey says. For example, be sure to stop at stop signs. It’s a safe practice, and motorists grow weary of cyclists blowing through intersections.
• Look for roads with less traffic. Avoid multi-lane highways like Texas 71, U.S. 290 or Texas 95. “Distracted driving due to texting has been a game changer
• for any athlete who wants to use public roads,” Kinsey says.
• Remember that country roads don’t have bike lanes. Pay attention and make eye contact with passing drivers.
• Consider switching to gravel riding. Generally, traffic moves more slowly on gravel roads in rural areas. Park roads are an option, but remember that drivers may be distracted by scenery.
• Pay attention to terrain, especially on gravel. You don’t want to hit a larger piece of gravel or a rut.
• Carry everything you need, including spare bike tubes, tools for quick repairs and a pump or CO2 cartridge to inflate a flat tire.
• Hydrate. Drinking a standard-size bike water bottle per hour is a good rule of thumb. Hydration packs worn on your back work, too.
• Bring snacks. “City riders get a little spoiled knowing there’s a convenience store at every intersection. On gravel you need to be self-sufficient,” Kinsey says.
• A hint: Pack enough food and drink for distance rides on rural roads, as corner stores are less common.

SAFETY TIPS

The Texas MS 150 offers these guidelines to bicycle safety:

• Don’t wear headphones or earbuds. (But do wear sunscreen.)
• Know and obey all traffic laws so motorists can predict where you’re heading.
• Obey all traffic signs and signals. Avoid following the leader through traffic signs and signals by checking to make sure it’s still a cyclist’s turn to cross the intersection.
• Ride in the right portion of the rightmost lane in the direction you are traveling. Leave at least 4 feet between your handlebars and parked cars, other hazards
• or riders.
• Ride no more than two abreast and do not impede traffic.
• Be verbal by communicating to let other riders know about hazards or your movements. Call out “on your left” before passing someone, “slowing” if riders in front of you are slowing down, and “stopping” if a rider ahead stops. “Car back” means a car is approaching from the rear. Alert riders to hazardous road conditions by calling out “gravel,” “pothole,” “sand” or “tracks” and pointing at the hazard.

A SAMPLING OF RIDES TO CONSIDER

Head for the Hills
TYPE OF RIDE: Organized, on paved roads DISTANCE: 22-, 40- or 66-mile circuits LOCATION: Brenham area
WHEN: 8 a.m.-3 p.m. March 28
COST: $35-$50 (early registration costs less) INFORMATION: head4hills.org

If hills and paved roads are your thing, consider the Head for the Hills Ride that starts in Bren- ham and unfurls through the rolling terrain of northeast Washington County.

The Rotary Club of Washington County hosts the annual group fundraising ride there — March 28 this year — but you can pedal its 22-, 40- or 66-mile circuits any time. All three routes start and finish at the Washington County Fairgrounds, 1305 East Blue Bell Road in Brenham.

The 22-miler takes cyclists past the Antique Rose Emporium north of Brenham, which should be in full bloom at ride time. The longest route goes all the way to the Washington-on- the-Brazos State Historic Site, where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed on March 2, 1836.

“All three routes are hilly,” says Roger Ross, facilitator of the organized ride, which benefits local charities, including Boys & Girls Clubs, Child Protective Services, the Brenham Heritage Museum and Miracle Farm. “The scenery is phenomenal. During the spring, the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes are out. It’s just a beautiful ride.”

Lexi’s Midnight Runners
TYPE OF RIDE: Organized, on paved and gravel roads; night DISTANCE: 21-, 31- or 51-mile circuits
LOCATION: Lexington
WHEN: Sunset-midnight July 11
COST: $30
INFORMATION: capitalcityracingtexas.com

Capital City Racing puts on a slate of mostly gravel rides in Central Texas, and this one unfolds after dark. All routes begin in Lexington in Lee County. Make sure you’ve got a good headlight and a blinking taillight before the organized ride on July 11. Or try the 21-, 31- or 51-mile routes on your own anytime.

On event day, rides will start an hour before sunset at the town square. Cyclists will follow roads through rural areas northwest of Lexington before returning to town. At the finish line, riders can find music, food and beer.

Bastrop Gravel Grinder
TYPE OF RIDE: Self-guided, paved and gravel DISTANCE: 35 miles
LOCATION: Bastrop State Park to Paige and back WHEN: Any time
COST: $5 state park entry fee INFORMATION: tinyurl.com/u46lcne

If you like to mix up your ride with a little bit of pavement and a little bit of gravel, try this easy-going loop. Park at Bastrop State Park, where you’ll find restrooms, campgrounds and a swimming pool. Head north on Park Road 1C, but instead of going toward Buescher State Park, take the left fork at County Road 146.

You’ll hit gravel in a few miles. Notice the sign on a pasture on the left, warning cyclists to not raise the ire of the resident stallion. Stop and check out Antioch Cemetery, where some of Bastrop’s earliest pioneers, including veterans of the Civil War, are buried.

Continue toward the town of Paige, past the pump jack and cows. Brace your abdominals for the last section because stretches of gravel in the “lollipop” (or loop) part of this route are rough as a washboard. You can shorten the ride 10 miles by parking at Antioch Cemetery and riding to Paige from there.

Download this story as it appeared in the Texas Co-op Power magazine »

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FIELD NOTES

A guide to the flora that flourishes in Central Texas

Texas plants, like Texas residents, generally come in two varieties: natives and transplants.

Despite our sweltering summers, Mother Nature has gifted us with more than enough native and adapted flowers, bushes and trees to keep our landscapes looking picture perfect.

Native plants, such as bluebonnets, were born here. They evolved to thrive in our heat, humidity, dry periods and sometimes unforgiving soils. The transplants — such as crape myrtle and shrimp plant — arrived from elsewhere, but got to Texas as fast as they could. Some of them have adapted so well and been here long enough that they’ve put down permanent Texas roots.  

In Texas, we know that one size does not fit all. In fact, the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative service area alone, at 3,800 square miles, is large enough to be in two of the state’s 10 “ecoregions,” as defined by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. In these regions, different soils and conditions accommodate different plants. Sun, shade, drainage and drought tolerance help determine where a particular plant will thrive.

Spring is the most popular time to get growing in Central Texas, although there is plenty to plant in the fall. To help you get started, we’ve compiled short profiles and expert tips about what grows best in the Bluebonnet area. 

“Have your soil sampled so you know what you’re starting with,” said Skip Richter, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agent. You can buy a test online or at a local garden center for about $15, he said. Then mail in your dirt and get a report back telling you the pH (acidity/alkalinity) of your soil, its salt and organic matter content, and whether your dirt is nutrient-heavy or in need of fertilizer. 

If you have alkaline soil, but are determined to plant acid-loving azaleas that grow well in states such as Georgia and Alabama, you might have to switch plans, said Lisa Blum, a master gardener in Burleson County. “I have a friend from Louisiana who wanted azaleas” in her garden, Blum said. “I recommended the ‘Encore’ azaleas because they were specifically developed to be less picky about their soil, and to do well in the heat.” 

Texas’ tough conditions don’t make it easy. On top of the weather, some plants come armed, like the razor-sharp fronds of sago palm or the piercing thorns of roses. Preparing soil could call for some hard labor, and bugs (mosquitoes, fire ants) will be after you or your plants (aphids, caterpillars).  Ready to roll up your sleeves?

WATERMELON: THE PRIDE OF LULING

Luling residents love their watermelons. They love eating them, growing them, and celebrating them.

Commercial watermelon production in Luling began in the 1930s and steadily in-creased until the 1980s, according to Wayne Morse, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agent for Caldwell County. “Early watermelon growers found the Luling area had the perfect soil and climate” to grow this West African native fruit, he said.

“It’s all about the soil,” added Skip Richter, another Texas A&M extension agent. “Watermelons like a well-drained, sandy-type soil.”

During the heyday of watermelon produc-tion in the Luling area — the 1950s to the 1980s — hundreds of acres produced the large, sweet fruit, with much of it exported to Canada, Morse said. Finding laborers to harvest the fruit became increasingly difficult, and watermelon-craving feral hogs cut into the yield. Although production has decreased, the fruit remains an important part of the city’s history and culture and is a favorite at farmers’ markets and roadside stands, according to Trey Bailey, executive director of the Luling Economic Development Corporation.

The annual Luling Watermelon Thump, which has been held at the end of every June since 1954, continues to draw about 30,000 revelers for food and entertainment. The four-day celebration is the site of the world-champion seed-spitting contest. Plus there's the parade, presided over by the Thump Queen, a high school junior who is elected by residents.

Best picks: Watermelons  to grow in Central Texas
• Black diamond (red flesh, sweet)
• Crimson sweet (crisp, fiberless)
• Charleston gray (juicy heirloom)
• Bush sugar baby (flavorful)
• Jubilee (crisp, flavorful)

FOR THE LOVE OF LOBLOLLY

Among the most revered plant life in Central Texas are the loblolly (Pinus taeda) pines of Bastrop County. These towering evergreens can reach 100 feet but typically top out at 50-80 feet tall with a trunk about 3 feet wide. They are fast growers, shooting up about 2 feet each year. They can live more than 150 years.

The “lost pines” of Bastrop are a testament to nature’s adaptability. The swatch was once part of a vast expanse of pine trees that covered much of the southeastern United States, including much of East Texas. As the Texas climate became drier over thousands of years, the territory of these pines shrank.

But Bastrop’s sandy and gravely soils, including a subsurface layer of water-preserving clay and plentiful aquifer-fed springs and seeps, allowed the trees to thrive. They gradually adapted to require 30 percent less rain than loblollies in East Texas and adjacent states. The Bastrop stand has become one-of-a-kind, genetically.

“The pines add a uniqueness to our area,” said Rachel Williams Bauer, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agent for Bastrop County. 

If you’d like to help build the loblolly population by adding a pine or two to your yard, it’s probably best to buy a young sapling from a local nursery center. A 15-gallon container with a 5-foot tree can make a nice addition to your landscape immediately and then grow into a true beauty. 

THE SWEET SMELL OF BRENHAM

Brenham's Antique Rose Emporium is a fragrant, lush 8-acre floral paradise that draws rose lovers from around Texas and beyond. 

Antique roses are typically grown in residential yards on rambling bushes or vines. In contrast, hybrid tea roses are grown commercially, perhaps for inclusion in this month’s Valentine's Day bouquets. 

The Antique Rose Emporium was founded in the mid1980s by horticulturist Mike Shoup as a “labor of love.” A chance encounter with a spectacular rose clambering with abandon over a chain-link fence led to the enterprise that has rescued dozens of old rose varieties,  giving them new life in Texas landscapes. 

Antique Rose Emporium
10000 FM 50, Brenham
(979) 836-5548
antiqueroseemporium.com

“These roses were mail-ordered by early Texas settlers to enhance their gardens,” Shoup said. The people who lovingly tended their plants and the homes the roses beautified are lost to time, but nature endures. “I was finding roses that were timetested survivors for a hundred years,” he said. “You have a plant that’s the best of natural selection.” 

The nursery and garden has 300-400 rose varieties for sale at any time, some originally imported to Texas. Others are Lone Star State natives. Many were first collected along roadsides or in cemeteries. “Cemeteries are fruitful hunting grounds for these old roses,” Shoup said. “They are micro-environments of what will do well in an area.” 

Shoup and the Emporium team develop their own cultivars — plants bred to shine in the Central Texas heat — while highlighting Shoup’s favorite qualities: personality and fragrance. “Old roses embellish the architecture of the home. They’re so endearing,” Shoup said. “And the fragrance. You can see the tears welling up when a customer smells a certain rose smell.” 

Many people are intimidated by growing roses, thinking they are fussy, Shoup said. “But they’re not. I want to dispel the myth that roses are difficult. They’re just not.” 

He encourages mixing roses in your landscape with other Texas natives. At the Emporium, for example, roses are paired with salvias and ornamental grasses. 

A visit to the Emporium can fill an afternoon. “I don’t mind people coming and just hanging out,” Shoup said. “That’s the spirit of a garden. That’s what a garden is for.”

Mike Shoup’s rose-growing tips

• Plant in early spring or late fall
• Plant into a mixture of existing soil and compost
• Don’t add synthetic fertilizer
• Add plenty of organic matter
• Mulch well around planting site

TEXAS ECOREGIONS

Texans like to boast about the glorious magnitude of our state, and one example is our whopping 10 ecoregions, as determined by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 

Ecoregions are areas defined by distinctive geography, and uniform sun and precipitation. There are variations in climate, topography and landscapes. The state has southern subtropical areas, where palms and citrus grow, and northern temperate areas where you might see fields of daisy-like coreopsis. Some regions can get as much as 56 inches of rain a year, while others are lucky to get eight. Like Texans, our lands are diverse, too. 

Plants that grow well in the high desert Big Bend region of West Texas — such as the spindly, spiny shrub ocotillo — likely won’t do well in Dime Box in Lee County. Most of Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative’s members are in the Post Oak Savanah region (also known as East Central Texas Plains), but much of Washington County and parts of western Caldwell County are in the Blackland Prairie region. Because these ecoregions are next to each other and have similar annual rainfall totals — around 30 inches — plenty of plants will do well in both.

Post Oak Savannah
The Post Oak Savannah region has an arid climate and dense, compact soil with a high clay content. The Post Oak Savannah is mostly gently rolling, wooded plain. The area was historically characterized by high grasses — such as little bluestem, Indiangrass and switchgrass — and wildflowers such as verbena, yarrow and winecup. Clumps of trees such as cedar elm, common persimmon, sugarberry and eastern red cedar punctuate the Post Oak Savannah. 



Parts of Bastrop County are in a separate, smaller ecosystem with an unusual, native expanse of loblolly pine. 
 
Blackland Prairie 

This area is known and named for its fertile dark clay soil. Full of nutrients, Blackland Prairie soil is known as some of the richest in the world. The dominant grass of this once tallgrass prairie is little bluestem, but big bluestem, Indiangrass, eastern gammagrass, switchgrass and side oats grama can also be found, according to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The Blacklands are largely prairieland, but a number of trees have found a home in this region, including pecan, black walnut, sycamore, bur (or burr) oak, cedar elm and Mexican plum. 

Download this story as it appeared in the Texas Co-op Power magazine »