My friend Don and I drove over to MacGregor Park, off of MLK Blvd and just South of University of Houston. We took the bikes down from the car and headed East. Note to everyone: MacGregor Park offers parking right by the trail. Also available are restrooms (presently clean porta-potties), water, and A B-Cycle station, so if you want to rent a bike, you certainly can. This portion of Brays Bayou Greenway Trail is fairly new; Google maps still show bare earth in many places. I wanted to see this first hand as the trail dips down under the Metro line and does a cloverleaf up and over the bayou to a beautiful entrance to University of Houston. By the way, right by the corner of UH is the fifth air pump/bike maintenance post that I have seen on Brays Trail. Air the tires before you go much farther. This is a great idea, and I imagine this is part of our tax dollars at work, but it, and the occasional water stations, sure make for a nicer ride.
We were curious, as several of my online maps, and the city's trail map, show several points on the trail, that go under road bridges, to be closed for construction. The suggested detour is over 3 miles long and takes one along Hwy 90a (Wayside) North of Gus Wortham Golf Course before you get a chance to get back to the trail. Now, I am a law abiding citizen (mostly) and I have been known to do what I am told, but as a Texan, if you don't want me to drive down a perfectly good road, you better dump a load of dirt in my way or dig a big hole, or both, or I am going right around all those "road closed" barriers, which I did.
The first signs, around Telephone Road were bypassed, with no adverse affects. There was no construction (on the way back I could see piles of dirt, etc on top of the bridge, so.....) and we sailed right along. This part of the bayou looks rather natural, not a lot of concrete embankments and a serious effort is being made to grow native grasses.
The second set of barriers was a different story. The Lawndale bridge over the bayou has been torn down and construction really is ongoing. Did that stop us? Nope. We took a short detour left, then crossed Lawndale, intending to follow it West and around the golf course, but we spotted a family going around the construction on the other side of the street, so we bumped over a little dirt and followed them back to the pathway. Not crowded (many people minded the signs, I guess) and we rode on to Mason Park. There are two bridges that will take you to the South side of the bayou and to Mason Park. This is an old city park (est 1929) and actually has something that resembles terrain! One of the bridges has a dedicated bike lane, the other is an architecturally interesting foot bridge. We biked to what is truly the end of the trail.. A railroad trestle stands in the way, but work is being done to rebuild the railroad and extend the trail several hundred feet to a final section of the trail that is pretty much not accessible at this time.
So, with just a little caution, you really can ride from Braeburn Glen Park off of Gessner (parking) all the way to Mason Park One more piece of the trail, and we really will be able to ride all the way to Buffalo Bayou! And, I read that work should start this year (sure it will) on the Brays trail Northwest of Bissonnet, on to Arthur Storey Park, and maybe, on to Hwy 6 (several parks along the way already).
This is a well maintained trail, a little bit of ups and downs (as a 67 year old fat boy, I need to learn how to effectively use these gears!) and the scenery is quite nice. I am pretty sure the bayou at this point is either brackish, or its salt water, as this ditch empties into the ship channel in about a mile, which would put this at sea level. I saw one spot marked as a place to launch a canoe.
Here, in the midst of a great urban area, and close to the super-busy ship channel, you can still see nature. Wildlife
No comments:
Post a Comment