I am considering commuting from my home in Lost Creek (Bee Caves and 360) to 7700 W. Parmer Lane @ Anderson Mill Road (closer to 620 than MoPac). This is an 18.5 mile route. I am interested in a hybrid route that might include some Capital Metro riding. What is the safest route north? I will be commuting M-F, early morning to early evening hours.

Well, this aint pretty, but maybe you could find a few clues in here...


http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1122727


Anyway, that's how I would ride the entire route. Not sure exactly
what bus routes you might be able to take advantage of.

If you want a hybrid route, you could bike downtown to pick up one of
the NW routes to the Pavilion Park & Ride (near Jollyville & Oak
Knoll) to pick up Lane's route from there. (You don't have to
backtrack through Riata like Lane shows but you did say "safest".)

It's too bad there's no bus along 360!

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=803244

Now if you look closely you may notice two things about this specific
instance of this route:

(a) There is a long section where I double back on myself. This section is
also very steep.
(b) I don't end where I started.

So, err, yeah! Important lesson learned yesterday!

I knew from posts here that people had found an alternate route down to 360
at 2222 from 620 at 2222, without having to bike down the sketchy steep part
of 2222 itself. I knew the basic idea was to turn into River Place and take
Big View. I did this. If you do this, DO NOT miss the turn for Narrow
Ridge off of Big View, unless you're a glutton for hill punishment, and I
say this as someone who is generally a glutton for hill punishment. Big
View keeps going...and going...down...and down...all the while I'm thinking
to myself, okay, any second now I'm going to hit City Park Road. No. Big
View hits the lake. Narrow Ridge hits Westminster Glen and THAT hits City
Park Road. Big View is nice and all, but after 35 miles of dam loop I
wasn't as gung-ho as I usually am about climbing back out of there. Just
for the record, though, I made it without stopping until the top -- although
I must have looked pretty beat; at the corner of City Park Road where I sat
down to stretch, a big SUV pulled up and asked if I was okay, and then
actually offered me a lift =). I was fine after a minute of stretching
though.

As far as item (b), well, this was all happening around 6pm yesterday, and
if you were in town around that time you may know what comes next. Once I
made it to City Park Road, I had a nice view back in the direction of my
house, and what I saw over there was a big nasty black cloud, visibly
dumping rain on my part of town. I pulled into the parking lot at 2222 &
360 and called my wife -- who answered "hey, are you getting drenched by
this rain?" Ohhh, great. So, not knowing how big a drenching it was
(turned out it wasn't really that bad, but I've just recovered from a cold
and didn't want to risk it) and generally being worn out, with a climb up
Far West or Ladera Norte or Spicewood Springs ahead of me if I continued, I
bailed. She came and rescued me =). If I hadn't taken that detour down Big
View, I would probably have gotten the same total distance, with slightly
less climb, except ended up at home just in time to miss the downpour.
Rats.

One more thing, I want to add to what Ross said about construction on 71.
If anyone hasn't done the dam loop lately, the short section of 71 between
2244 and 620 (by the Backyard) got hit with the ugly/traffic/construction
stick sometime since the last time I was down there. I feel bad for the
Backyard, and I really feel bad for any group of cyclists trying to get over
to 620 from the Jack Brown at the corner of 2244. The Jersey barriers eat
up the shoulder and a good chunk of traffic lane, resulting in what must be
very tight quarters if the light changes at a bad time for you. I made it
without incident but I'll be avoiding that spot for a while.

Maybe this would work? I have only ridden the part
through Old Bee Caves, so someone else would have to
confirm the rest or you would have to drive it
beforehand. You would especially want to make sure
that there is a light at Fletcher and 71 and adequate
shoulder on that part of 71 and 290. This route would
be hilly.
-Kristen

620 through Lakeway
71 Left
2244 Left
Barton Creek Right
Turns into Travis Cook
Cross SW Pkwy
Old Bee Caves Left
Fletcher Right
71 Left
Silvermine Right
Scenic Brook Left
Oak Meadow Right
290 Right

• Westlake Dr
• Bee Caves Hills
• Oasis Bluff Dr
• 360 Hill
• McNeil Drive
• Comanche Tr
• Toro Canyon
• 2222 Hill
• Red Bud Trail
• Far West
• Bluegrass Dr
• Lost Creek Blvd
• Courtyard Dr
• Bullick Hollow
• Jester Blvd
• Beauford Dr
  

Start on campus, head out to Shoal Creek, take a left up Far West, go down far West, take the first left after the 90 degree turn at the bottom, make a right on one of those "____wood" roads, until you find yourself on 2222. A safer alternate is to take the road away from 2222 until it hits 360, then left on 360 and back out to 2222. Right on 2222, right on Jester, up at least 3 times. on the last descent, turn left on 2222, then right on City Park. Climb to the top, then turn around, and turn right on Courtyard. go up, and keep going until you hit 360, left on 360 and take your preference back to Ladera Norte. 3 options. I recommend going back to the bottom, taking Cat Springs to Smokey Valley, and up from there. Right back onto Ladera all the way to the top, then right at the T. Ride along (well, recover...) and turn right on Greystone. From there you can use a variety of methods to get back to Far West (Mesa is a straight shot), from Far West, you can head home, or if you want more pain, continue down Mesa until you get to Cat Mountain? I'm not sure on the next part, so you can ride Mesa to 2222, or this way is safer. Right on Cat Mountain, ride for a while until you get to a stop sign before a "No Outlet" sign. Turn left. Right on Mt. Bonnell, then continue until you hit 2222, then take a right, followed by a quick left back onto Mt. Bonnell. Climb Bonnell, then continue on, following the road, left at the T, then right on this other road with a nice painted bike lanethat goes down then up a hill (you can see it. I don't know street names, so I recommend getting lost until you know the route, or I show up. Either way is fun.) Right on Scenic, and follow that bad boy. You'll hit Lake Austin I think, then take a right on Redbud. After riding on redbud, you'll see a left turn and some thick traffic mid-way up a hill. Take it. It'll spit you out at town lake. Ride home, lick your wounds. I just made up this killer hill route and haven't tried it out yet as one, but have done them as seperate routes. Each one is about 30 from campus, so I'm guessing it'll put you at about 50 miles of pain. I'll try this sometime next week. Feel free to post a time, and I'll try to make it, just be mindful of t rafficky hours.

Best climb I've found recently is in River Place off 2222. You can make a big loop out of it - take River Place Blvd down the big hill and all the way around until it T's into Big View. Turn right and go down the hill until it flattens out at the pool, then turn around and start climbing. Stay on Big View all the way until it intersects River Place Blvd (not where you turned right, but the second intersection where Big View T's into River Place). You can also turn right onto Narrow Ridge and then left onto Westminter Glen and climb up to City Park road.

The Dam Loop usually starts behind the bike shop ( 360 Cycleworks (http://360cycleworks.com) ) in what I think is West Lake Village shopping center - just south of "the bridge" on 360. Ride is nominally clockwise. Route is approximately 30-something miles. Route approximation is 360 -> Bee Caves -> 71 -> 620 -> 2222 -> 360.

620->Neighborhoods->Jollyville->360->BeeCaves->71->620 Home

Picadilly -> Grand Avenue -> Wells Port Dr -> Wells Branch -> Thermal -> Metric -> Gracy Farms -> Duval -> Jollyville -> Great Hills Trail -> 360 -> bla bla bla bla

What some of us do is take the "Tumbleweed Hill by-pass":

North on 620
Turn right onto Four Points (after HEB)
Turn right onto River Place
Turn Left onto Big View
Turn Left onto Narrow Ridge
Turn Left onto Westminster Glen
Turn left onto City Park*
Turn right onto 2222**

* Newly surfaced road, traffic not TOO fast or heavy. Narrow shoulder for about two miles then, on the long desect, take your lane but watch for sharp turn to left at the bottom of hill. :eek:

** wide shoulder, low stress. :cool:

From 360 Cycleworks - warmup on 360 north to jolleyville and back, then cut up through neighboorhoods to Far West (2X), Ladera Norte(2X), exit neighboorhood at 2222, then take a right on 2222 to Bell Mountain (2X)...then proceed to jester, beauford, down jester to city park road, up city park rd to westminster Glen, to big view, up river place, down river place, up back side of riverplace/big view winding back to city park rd....and on into the shop again via courtyard.