Day 28: Kerrville, TX to Leakey, TX

Daily Miles: 60.3 Total Miles: 1507

Not the first thing you want to see in the morning

As I turned on to today's route, I saw a sign welcoming me to the Texas Hill Country Trail. I would follow the trail the entire day, and let me tell you, they were not playing around when they named this area. The day started out pretty flat leaving Kerrville towards Ingram. I was riding in the road because the shoulder was in an awful pre-paving state, when I saw a lady had pulled over and was flagging me down. I stopped to talk, and she insisted on giving me a ride about 2 miles up the road to Ingram because a cyclist had recently been killed while riding on that road.

Riding along the Guadelupe River

I thanked her but told her I had come too far to skip ahead 2 miles, but promised her that I would ride on the terrible shoulder until I got to County Road 37. She was a super nice lady and also a cyclist, so I spent a good 10 minutes chatting with her and getting the scoop on today's ride. She told me that there would be a TON of climbing, but that it was really beautiful and she turned out to be completely right. She also told me about the exotic animal ranches I've been seeing. Apparently all animals that are native to Texas have a season, but exotics can be hunted year round.

You may even be able to hunt dinosaurs here

This has created a huge industry for people who want to trophy hunt, and are able to pay enormous sums for, really crazy animals. To each his own. After telling her bye I headed off down the shoulder and before I knew it had turned on to a completely empty 37. There was a tiny bit of climbing up to Hunt, 12 miles into the day, and the last town I would pass before Leakey (pronounced "lake-y"). I stopped in to the only store in town to use the restroom and there met a couple who are cycling from LA to New York. They were really nice, and definitely intense.

Pecan orchards along the route

Today they were riding 100+ miles and had already knocked out 40 by the time I saw them 12 miles into my ride. They told me that the road from Hunt to Vanderpool was "basically flat with a few small up and downs" and then from Vanderpool to Leakey I would have some huge climbs followed by a huge climb out of Leakey tomorrow. Excellent, I thought as I wished them good luck and headed out. Now, I don't know if these two were crazy, boldfaced liars, confused because they had just ridden 40 miles downhill, or had previously biked straight up and out of the Grand Canyon, and considered that a "fairly challenging hill", because THE ROAD WAS NOT FLAT.

Riding through the Frio Canyon

The total elevation change was well over 600' from Hunt to the turn-off for Vanderpool, often up incredibly steep grades and also included big downhills to cross over the Guadelupe River, only to have to climb back up again. I was exhausted and drenched with sweat by the time I made it to the turn off 32 miles into the day. I will say though that I thoroughly enjoyed today's ride. The hills are challenging (and sometimes enough is enough), but the scenery today was beautiful.

The open road

I loved riding by the Guadelupe (although by the 85th crossing I was a little over it), and even riding by the ranches was cool. I just kept my head down and did my best to look nothing like a blackbuck antelope, hoping that no exotic trophy hunter would shoot my bike out from under me.Fortunately, by the time I made it up all those hills, I was sufficiently scared of what constituted "some big hills outside Vanderpool", so I had Mary scope out an alternate route and she came back with excellent news.

Our pretty riverfront cabin

Instead of following the ACA route and turning down 187, I stayed straight on 37, endured some more good sized climbs, and then ran into 83 South for the last 19 miles into Leakey. In the end I ended up cutting 5 miles off the ACA route and enjoyed a nice wide shoulder the entire ride on 83. I also enjoyed a crazy descent into the Frio Canyon valley, dropping nearly 1000' over the last 15 miles of the day. Unfortunately, first thing tomorrow I will be climbing back out of this canyon, but thems the breaks. Now Mary and I are enjoying a beautiful cabin right on the Rio Frio and we're getting ready to head out for dinner in this tiny, motorcyclist-friendly town. Tomorrow I continue on the Texas Hill Country Trail, but I will finally be riding out of hill country, nearing the Mexican border, and preparing myself for empty, lonely West Texas.