Wow, where does the time go? It seems like July was just starting, now it’s gone. Well, we started out the month by putting in a second week of work at Ft. Boggy State Park near Centerville. We finished flagging the proposed new trail corridor, and said goodbye to our new friends Roy, Charlie and Retta, and Tilley. (Respectively the park superintendent, park hosts, and mascot—an almost domesticated wild turkey.) We also celebrated Independence Day by attending the parade and fireworks show in town, and the Subaru looked rather cute, not to mention out of place, parked next to all the big 4x4 trucks driven by the locals.

We took one day off on the 7th, then drove down to the Beaumont area to meet with Chuck Hunt from the National Park Service at the Big Thicket Nature Preserve. We got a tour of their beautiful new facilities, then rode a short section of the Big Sandy Creek trail. Unfortunately it had just rained and the trail didn’t have time to dry out before our ride, so we turned back and hiked another trail in the area that was made out of boardwalks. We also went into town to meet the local bike shop owners and had some very productive meetings with Eric at Bicycle Sports and Tom at Kickstand Bikes. The city of Beaumont has no bicycle trails or paths to speak of, much less sidewalks, and it’s challenging for cyclists to find safe places to ride. The shop owners are very community focused, and realize that bike paths will not only help them to sell more bikes to more users, but will also help to improve the health and safety of city residents.

We also had a great meeting with several directors in the regional Boy Scouts of America organization, and got to check out some property where they hope to develop mountain bike trails in the future. There is already a Scout camp on site with a swimming area, hiking paths, and some cycling trails which they hope to expand further out into the wooded areas. There’s some great potential there and we hope to teach a trail school in October so the scouts will build the trails sustainably.

We wrapped up the week by heading back to Houston and dropping off the Subaru before heading out for vacation in Susan’s car. Since we travel around and ride our bikes for work, we thought for vacation we’d do something a little different—like travel around and ride our bikes. ;-) We actually left the state though, and drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, riding at various places along the way. We did everything from a challenging climbing-intensive trail in north Georgia to Appalachian slick rock in North Carolina to a beautiful rails to trails conversion in Virginia called the Virginia Creeper Trail—highly recommended! We also visited with Susan’s family and played on Lake Chatuge, with a good amount of relaxation thrown in, too.

When we got back to Houston we went out to the Katy Flatland Century ride to put up a booth for the Texas Bicycle Coalition and visit with folks who attended that ride. We also worked in Houston the rest of that week, visiting bike shops and riding with local clubs to keep folks informed about our program and the services that we provide. Unfortunately, there was some pretty serious rain that week so we didn’t get to ride much and the trails were closed (as they should have been), but we still got some networking done that should help in the future.

Next up, we drive the Subie back to Frisco to meet up with our boss again, then we’ll teach a trail school in Sherman to a group that will be joining up with the Dallas Off-Road Bicycling Association (DORBA). Should be fun!