Gravelthon 2015

This past Saturday the 7th of March I took part in an interesting ride. This was the Gravelthon gravel ride along the Trinity river levies near down town Dallas. This took place in conjunction with the All Out Trinity festival on the Continental bridge park and the Margret Hunt Hill bridge. We had a bunch of rain, ice, and snow for the two weeks before this ride. As a result the projected course of the ride had to be changed a couple of times. At the last minute the original course which was to be a loop on both sides of the river was changed. This was due to construction equipment driving on the levy roads and tearing them up due to the wet conditions.

The ride started about 10:15 am. I was a few minutes late getting to the ride start. So the group had started before me. The ride was not a race. The promoter billed it as an exploration ride. The point was to get people out and riding on the levies. Eventually there is supposed to be a bicycle trail running all the way to Fort Worth from Dallas along the Trinity river. The ride started out on some new paved bike trails that run underneath the Continental bridge and along both sides of the river down in the bottoms. From there most riders were going up on top of the levy and riding along the top. That is what I did. I rode down to where Westmoreland road crosses the Trinity. There was a rest stop set up there.

 From there I crossed the river again back to the west side using the construction bridge that is right under the Westmoreland bridge. Several other riders went along with me. I rode several miles in the direction of Grand Prairie on top of the western levy. I then went down and rode back to Westmoreland on a gravel road in the river bottoms. From there I crossed back over and returned the way I rode out to the Continental Bridge. It was a fun ride. I think if it is held again and the weather cooperates It will turn out to be a good event. I enjoyed it.

Here is a photo taken of me by Jan McNeil Lee on the way out.

And my bike was very muddy after the ride.