I biked 61 miles on Tuesday…yep.

I left at 9:20am and took 75N to 1696W until I hit Bedias some 28.5 miles later. I stopped at a church parking lot to eat lunch at 11:40am. I forgot one of my friends lived out there and she just happened to text me..so she picked me up and I hung out at her place for about an hour and a half. This probably saved me from passing out later on…

I started the return trip at 1:20pm riding south down 2620. I hit 30 and took it west until I made it back into Huntsville. The 20 miles I spent on 30 were hell..I was pretty hydrated but the heat was ripping me apart. With about 7 miles left I had to stop on the side of the road and lay down in the shade for a few minutes. I seriously considered hitching a ride back into town..but I already felt like shit and I knew I was going to feel like shit regardless so I just pushed through it.

I made it into town at 4pm and walked my bike about a half mile to the Sonic. I had a large apple juice slush and a large powerade slush…yummy. I had most of the symptoms of heat exhaustion and I was pretty confident I was going to black out. About 20 minutes later I managed to start on the 2 miles back to my apartment. It took me most of the next hour to make it there.

Lesson learned – don’t push yourself in this kind of heat. I’ve lived in Texas all my life so I’m no stranger to the heat, but biking 61 miles in it is something else. Regardless, good experience. I’ll start earlier next time!

Oh and as far as nutrition…I had a big breakfast in me before the ride. I took a GU after an hour of riding and ate lunch an hour and a half later. I had two snacks before I started the return ride. I downed another GU an hour and a half into the return ride. I had 20oz of electrolyte mix spread out over the entire ride and just under 4L of water. I’d say I did pretty good in this aspect.

The Sam Houston National Forest is all around the town that I live in. I’ve only seen little bits of it, mostly in Huntsville State Park and parts of the Lone Star Trail, so I want to get more familiar with it while I have a chance.

So I took the bike out there yesterday. I wasn’t planning to go more than 20-30 miles…but I got too into the exploring and ended up going way further west than I meant to. I ended up riding right at 40 miles. I rode on all sorts of surface…dirt, gravel, sand (unfortunately), pavement, a little bit of doubletrack..it was a nice variety.

I took FM1374 out of town and turned off on Ball Rd. Took Ball until it dead ended on some property..but there was a gated dirt road between the properties. I hopped the fence and rode it several miles into the middle of nothing and finally hit the bottom half of FM1374. I rode that west until Stubblefield Lake Rd and took that into the rec area. Ate lunch by the lake and rode southwest on FS216, then west on FS208. Took FS208 to FM1791 to TX30 and back into town. I made it just in time for Sonic happy hour!

I found all sorts of trails on the way down, but most branched off FS208. I found a couple atv trails, a bunch of multi-use non-atv trails, and 3 singletrack bike trails. I’m looking forward to checking them out.

It was freakin’ hot! I think it only hit 94 but the heat index was 100-101. I was out there for over 4 hours. The heat really started to get to me as I was riding TX30 back into town. Buuuut I made it.

Side note – so I still haven’t taken a bikepacking trip yet. I decided against going on Sunday mainly because it’s summer. I don’t mind going out for the day but I have no real desire to camp in this kind of weather. That being said, I will probably take mostly day trips until September/October.

With my bike in the shop and my foot still hurting, it’s been a pretty lame week. I’ve been able to run 3 times this week – 25 minutes, 35 minutes and 45 minutes – with only a little foot pain, so I’d say that’s pretty positive. Hopefully if I keep taking it easy I’ll be back to full speed in no time.

I should be getting my bike back on Saturday. That means I’ll be heading out Sunday (probably) for an overnighter somewhere in the Sam Houston National Forest. I will be taking the same route that I had planned in May, with a few minor adjustments here and there. I’ll get some gear pictures up before I head out.

I’m really excited to get my first bikepacking trip underway. Hell, my first solo trip too. It’s weird because I’ve never been a big fan of biking. The same thing happened with running, though. I hated it my entire life and then all of a sudden fell in love with it. I think the main draw of bikepacking for me is the amount of distance traveled for the amount of effort put forth. I’d bike over walk any day, especially with weight on my back.

When I first started this blog fastpacking seemed appealing. And then I realized I could do it on a bike.

With my foot leaving me unable to run, I’ve turned to biking over the past week. I haven’t biked consistently since I had a cast on my right ankle years and years ago. Truth be told, though, I’m really enjoying it.

My mom is a runner at heart, but knee problems have kept her away from the sport for several months now. Most of the events she participates in involve her road bike. Yesterday she asked me if I’d like to do a ride – Burn Your Buns 31-mile – in Conroe on July 4. I actually agreed.

This week I’ve been mostly on the road, but when I’m in Huntsville (I move into my new apartment on Friday!) I am usually on the trails in the state park. Surprisingly, I think I enjoy both equally. I like the adrenaline that I get on the trails, but enjoy the smooth riding of the roads.

We’ll see where it takes me. Look for a bikepacking trip within the next few weeks!

…is absolutely gorgeous. It’s a damn shame we only ended up staying for 2 days out of our planned 4.

We came in on Monday night and ate up in a little ghost town outside of the park and then headed into the Chisos Mountains Basin. We set up camp with 35mph wind gusts and some crazy lightning. Luckily it didn’t rain because my rain fly was on backwards. Next time I get a new tent I’ll set it up before I take it out.

We headed out on the Pinnacles Trail the next morning at around 10am and slowly made our way up and out of the basin, into the High Chisos. The views were spectacular, but climbing 2000′ over four miles with our packs was not. After making it to our first backcountry site in Boot Canyon, we lounged around for a bit and I managed to sneak some reading in. Out of nowhere, hail started coming down, causing us to scurry about to set up camp.

With our tents pitched and the sudden storm seemingly out of our hair, we tossed our food into the bear lockers and headed off towards Emory Peak. Two miles and 1000′ later, we hit the summit. At 7831′, Emory Peak is the second highest in Texas. It’s way higher up than I’ve ever been in my life and it’s a sight I won’t soon forget.

Another two mile hike, completely devoid of water and food, brought us back to camp. As I rounded the corner coming in, something seemed amiss. A few wrinkles lined the backside of my tent. Upon closer inspection, the big tent was collapsed and hanging by pieces.

Bears.

We did the one thing the ranger told us not to do – set up our tents and leave camp, regardless of whether or not there was food in them.

After much debate, Rob and I decided to make the hike down into the basin right then and there and camp in the car. Steve and Andrew wanted a hot meal and nothing to do with any more hiking that day. They elected to make the hike in the morning.

We set off at 8:45pm, about 20 minutes before dark. We made great time and made it to the lip of the basin, a good mile from our camp, as the forest darkened around us. Unfortunately, a lightning storm was moving over the basin, and fast.

I’d never seen anything like it before. It was the most beautiful and quite possibly the most frightening display of nature that I’ve ever had the pleasure and misfortune of witnessing. We managed to avoid becoming a lightning strike statistic and made it to the basin campground just over two hours after we started the hike. We were a little wet, but alive.

The other two came in the next morning and we exchanged our separate stories and headed out to see the Rio Grande before going home. With both of our tents damaged, there was no way we could stay out there with flash lightning storms rolling in every afternoon and evening.

It was an experience, to say the least. It wasn’t exactly what we were looking forward to, but we learned a few important lessons and I witnessed the beauty of nature firsthand, an image that I’ll likely hold close to my heart for the rest of my life. I only hope that others may be so lucky.