El Camino Real Tour Update - October 27, 2005

San Marcos to Manor via East Austin
Very nice day today. With our favorite SAG (Supply and Gear – Clemmie says to explain my acronyms) driver Mikail at the helm, we started on the edge of San Marcos by collecting a sample of the Blanco River at a very nice low water crossing. I had originally looked at routing us directly north from San Marcos up Post Road through Kyle and Buda before cutting east over to our next reference point, McKinney Falls State Park on Onion Creek, about six miles southeast of downtown Austin.

Looking at the map, I found a better route east of I-35 that avoided the traffic in the rapidly expanding development around Buda and Kyle. It seemed more faithful to the trek of the Spanish from the springs at San Marcos to McKinney Falls. Ramon apparently crossed Onion Creek a mile or two above the falls but Alacon, two years later, talks about the falls in his journal. Scouting it several weeks ago confirmed it as the better route.

The route we took was a great combination of county roads with a lot of jogs. They include (in order from San Marcos) Uhland Road across the Blanco, Harris Hill Road (160), CR 158, Heidenreich Lane, Dairy Road and Cotton Gin Road, Goforth Road, Williamson Road, Turnersville Road, Fm 1625 from Creedmoor, and Colton Springs Bluff Road past Pilot Nob (our extinct volcano on the edge of Austin) to McKinney Falls Drive. Hilly but not bad – overall great panoramas of the area.

We went through some housing areas but most of the new development – the really thick stuff - could be see across the rolling Blackland Prairie to our east. Traffic was light and generally friendly. Weather was perfect. We had lunch on the Upper McKinney Falls, close to where Alacon must have stopped.

After that, we worked our way into Austin via Montopolis and Grove to Guerrero Park, and then took the crushed-granite surfaced Colorado River Greenbelt to the dam at Pleasant Valley Road that creates Town Lake in downtown Austin. I have seen as many as a dozen deer on the Colorado Greenbelt on past morning rides (three miles from downtown.) No deer today at 1:30 pm.

The dam is Longhorn Dam, named so because this is where the Chisholm Cattle Trail crossed the Colorado River on a limestone ledge that is still visible below the dam when the flow is low. The Colorado was considered the easiest of all the major river crossings of the Chisholm Trail.

Ramon and Alacon apparently crossed about four more miles downstream near the US 183 bridge. The bad new is that the crossing is not currently suitable for bicycles because of the configuration and heavy traffic. The good news is that in about five years a new bridge will be built and the old truss bridge used for the southbound traffic will be decommissioned and used as a bike/ped bridge. The other good news is that federal funds have been acquired to convert some of the old rail right-of-ways running up the east side of Austin to hike and bike trails all the way to Manor. These routes are very close to if not on the routes the Spanish used after crossing the River.

We paused at the dam – another water collection event and pictures – and then Frank and I worked our way through East Austin via 5th Street, Tillery Street, Oak Springs, Old Webberville Road, US 183 (for two miles on the shoulder) and then Loyola Lane, which has just been rebuilt with great bike lanes.

Decker Lane, two lanes each direction – no shoulders - was a hassle with lots of people getting off work at 4:00 pm. Some buzzing us. I’ve been on that road before in the afternoon and never had that problem.

But Frank and I soon pulled into Manor, living to ride another day. There was Mikail, waiting to take me and Frank home. Overall a very good day. But rush hour in the evening in a congested area is just never much fun. Start early and quit early if you can.

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