Temperatures are finally starting to cool significantly for South Texas. This morning, it was 40 degrees when I went to ride OP Schnabel Park. I planned everything out. I had a long sleeved undershirt, thick socks, my regular riding shorts (as long as my upper body is warm, my legs don't bother me), and my new Pearl Izumi riding gloves.
When I arrived at the trail head, the sun was shining brilliantly. "I couldn't have picked a better day to ride", I thought to myself. After a quick stop at the men's room, I headed out for the trail. Despite all my preparations, I forgot to allow for two things - shade and wind chill.
Although I was wearing a long sleeve undershirt, tooling along at 6 or 7 mph creates a certain degree of wind chill and it was cutting through me! Crap! I was worried I might have to cut my ride short due to frozen extremities. Fortunately, my body soon warmed up and the cold was not a factor.
After the initial 2.5 mile loop I ride for warm up, I was ready to head down to the Leon Creek bottom for the main trails. I headed down the main trail and came to the portion I first tackled 3 weeks ago when I last rode OP. I negotiated that part with no problem and headed for another downhill that I like to ride.
As I approached the other downhill section, I noticed it had been bulldozed over and virtually decimated. The city of San Antonio is working on expanding our parks and walking trails. One of their current projects is building a series of cement walking paths along the bottom of Leon Creek from Bandera Road to connect with Baumgardner Park a couple of miles north of OP Schnabel.
Although I applaud the city for their efforts and desire to make San Antonio leaner, they are really screwing up the trails at OP. The series of trails was hard enough to navigate as it was; now it's worse. Just when I learned my way around, the trails will stop abruptly, interrupted by this concrete expanse of a walking trail. Then you have to search for where the trail picks up again to resume your ride.
Once everything is finished, I'm sure it will be great. If they wind up butchering much of the existing trail system, I just won't ride OP as often. It will be a shame if that happens. Until then, I'll do the best I can with what is still there.
I had a great workout this morning, riding over 13 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I worked out at the gym twice this week and it seemed to help my overall stamina during my ride today. I am really stoked about Thanksgiving Week, as I am on vacation and plan to ride several times that week. Not only that, but we will have a house full of guests for the holiday and we are both looking forward to that.
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