Leg 3A - Southeast Texas Loop

As I said in my "Data Dump" post, I'm working on a lot of different things right now... one of which is the concept of using my Trek 1500 Road Bike as my "touring bike" for the 1168 miles of Leg 3 from Santa Fe NM to Los Angeles / Hollywood / Malibu CA.

I'll go into the details of what I'm doing on "equipment change / upgrade" in another post.

What I'm planning right now is an 8-day / 392 miles of cycling / 45 miles of hiking "warm-up / equipment checkout / get back in road shape" Southeast Texas Leg 3A.

Here's a snapshot of the Excel worksheet for the 1st pass Plan for that route -

 

 

Here's what that route looks like on a map:

 

 

This plan allows me to address a lot of things with one trip:

• Get used to riding my road bike.
• Check out all the new equipment while I'm still "close to home" - this includes new tires, front and rear racks, panniers, video camera, tent, etc.
• Gets me back in "touring" shape - I really haven't been doing that much riding since I've been back in Lake Jackson and I need to get a few hundred miles under my belt in readiness for the 1168 miles of Leg 3 from Santa Fe NM to Los Angeles CA
• Need to go visit my Dad.... He lives in Beaumont and I haven't seen him in a while and I miss him....
• Would like to check out the Texas State Parks, National Park sites and City Parks in my area.... this takes care of 5 of them in one fell swoop -

1. Galveston State Park - Galveston Tx http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/galveston/
2. Village Creek State Park - Lumberton Tx http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/village_creek/
3. Big Thicket National Preserve - Kountze Tx http://www.nps.gov/bith/index.htm
4. Lake Livingston State Park - Livingston Tx http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/lake_livingston/
5. Lake Houston Park - New Caney Tx http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/lakehoustonpark.html

So there you have it.... a Southeast Texas Loop that you can do in 8 days that takes you through a beautiful section of Southeast Texas that includes:

• Views of the Gulf of Mexico
• Trips through the wetlands of the Gulf Coast
• Foray into the Piney Woods and one of the few truly untouched Wilderness Areas of America..... the Big Thicket of East Texas
• Lake side biking and hiking at Lake Livingston and Lake Houston

.... and finally, I'm not planning on staying in any motels on this 8-day trip.... it'll be camping out at parks all the way except for 1 night in Beaumont where I stay with my Dad.... which means I'm doing this trip on the cheap... my budget (not shown on the Excel snapshot) for this trip is $250 .... that includes the campsite fees.... $15 / day to eat on and some extra in there for miscellaneous.

 

Like I've said many times before..... Discovering America on 2 Wheels doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money or go far far away from home....

Sometimes it means you take advantage of what you already have and what is in your area.....

Stay tuned for more details....