Austin Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail and riding in the City.

May 4, 2011, Cottonwood Creek RV Park, Dripping Springs, Tx.
Today the weather cooperated and we had time to fit into our busy schedules another trip to Austin (lol). This time to ride our bikes on the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail (TLHBT). 
I took the hitch off the front of our fifth wheel and put it on the back of the Jeep to load the bikes. Yesterday I made sure we had all our gear together so we could get an early start...early for us! We got on the road about 9:40. We've had unusual weather and it was in the upper 40's overnight but warming to the mid 70's.  Excellent weather for a bike ride.
We drove the 30 plus miles to Austin and then parked in Zilker Park.  Once again, under the Mopac (Tx Hwy 1).  As you may recall we visited Zilker Park to check it out on April 26th, 2011. 
Today we took off riding the bikes on the South side of Lady Bird Lake on the TLHBT heading east.

We started down the hard packed dirt trail.

The trail was very busy with pedestrians and joggers but I managed to get some photos without folks in them. Skinny tire bikes would find the sandy sections a bit sketchy.

Joyce at one of many scenic vistas along the trail.

Austin Skyline across Lady Bird Lake.

We discovered several of these pianos throughout the trails.

We never learned the significance of the pianos. Some were actually playable.

Barton Springs Pool

 Barton Springs Pool is a section of the lake/river that is fenced off for swimming.

One of several bridges.

Lotsa folks were out on the water.

Stevie Ray Vaughn Memorial on the trail.

Skyline from Pfluger Pedestrian/ Bike Bridge.

Lamar Blvd. Bridge

Pfluger Bridge

Another piano in the courtyard of the bridge catwalk.

The original Whole Foods Market?

Bike route map and parking.

Lance Armstrong Bikeway.

Joyce traveling down the Lance Armstrong Bikeway.

We rode into downtown for lunch on Music Row (6th Street). We ate at an overpriced little pub and had just an average meal. Afterwords we rode to Mellow Johnny's again in search of the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. The staff was kind enough to give us directions. Once on the bikeway we headed in the direction of the Jeep and ended up back on the TLHBT on the north side of Lady Bird Lake and followed that to Mopac which took us back to our Jeep.

We had a great time and couldn't have planned for better weather. Austin is such a bike friendly city. It has several bike lanes throughout the city and although we rode on many of the down town streets it didn't feel risky. We wished we had more time but we had to get back to Maggie and Rico.