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April 10 – 14, 2006
Tour Leaders: Ellen Chilikas and John (Lester) Campbell
Ellen and John will be leading an Intermediate 5-day ride in Texas Hill Country. Texas Hill country is famous for its spring flowers and the blue bonnets should be beautiful during this time of year. The trip will be based in Fredericksburg Texas which is about 900 miles from Denver (nearby Texas cities are Austin and San Antonio). Fredericksburg is about a 2 day drive from Denver and is a small town with German roots.
The riding will be at an intermediate level, will be on country roads (there are no bike paths in this neck of the woods) and will be very hilly (they don’t call this Texas Hill Country for nothing!). We are not planning to have a sag wagon since the rides are not long, all the rides are loops and the rides start either in or near Fredericksburg. The ride distances will be between 20-40 miles per day, with one day being 55 miles. We are including optional shorter daily rides and we will detail those on our tour maps. Detailed directions and high level maps will be provided. Here is the tentative ride itinerary:
Mon 4/10 Route:
Fredericksburg – Luckenbach – Fredericksburg
Start: Fredericksburg
Mileage: 37 miles with a 25 mile short option
Description: Rolling hills, some riding on busy roads, some narrow shoulders,
mostly lightly traveled roads, Luckenback is a charming town, some riding along
the river and through farm land, lots of cattle guard crossings.
Tues 4/11 Route:
Kerrville – Camp Verde – Center Point – Kerrville
Start: 25 miles from Fredericksburg
Mileage: 33 miles with a 15 mile short option
Description: Hilly with some challenging climbs, some traffic and narrow
shoulders, varied terrain – rivers and farms.
Wed 4/12 Route: LBJ
Parks – Stonewall – Cave Creek – Albert – LBJ Parks
Start: 15 miles east of Fredericksburg
Mileage: 37 miles with a 22 mile short option
Description: Some climbing, narrow shoulders, lightly traveled roads, ride
through the LBJ Ranch state park, some one lane roads, farms and ranches
Thur 4/13 Route:
Fredericksburg – Cherry Springs – Crabapple Community – Fredericksburg
Start: Fredericksburg
Mileage: 54 miles, could shorten to ~40 miles by doing an out and back to either
Cherry Springs or Crabapple Community
Description: Rolling hills with 3 challenging climbs, mostly quiet low traffic
roads, views of Enchanted Rock, ride through farm and ranch land, numerous
cattle guard crossings.
Fri 4/14 Route:
Willow City Loop
Start: 14 miles north of Fredericksburg
Mileage: 21 miles
Description: Rolling hills with some significant climbing, some narrow roads,
some busy roads with good shoulder, good wildflowers, many cattle guard
crossings.
In the event of bad weather or eye problems (i.e. - I just can’t “see” riding today), there are touristy things to do in the Fredericksburg area (state parks, museums, wineries, etc.). Also, San Antonio is about an hour away and that could be a fun day trip. While rides will be offered daily, people are free to do other things if they wish.
We will stay at one hotel for the entire trip – the Best Western in Fredericksburg. The hotel is within walking distance of downtown. We have reserved 10 double occupancy rooms. The room rate, without tax, is $75/night for Sunday 4/9 – Thursday 4/13 and $109/night on Friday 4/14. Refrigerators are available for an extra fee (you will need to make your own arrangements with the hotel for refrigerators). You will receive information about reserving hotel rooms once we have received your deposit and registration forms. Individuals will use their own credit cards to reserve the rooms. Any rooms not reserved by March 9th will be returned to the hotel. We have scheduled a short ride (~20 miles) on Friday in case people want to start heading home on Friday afternoon.
John and Ellen will help broker roommates. If you’d like a roommate let us know and we’ll do our best to get you matched up. If you have someone that you want to room with, let us know that when you send in your deposit, and we will make sure you get matched up.
To go on the trip, you must be a DBTC member. You can join the DBTC at www.dbtc.org - the cost is $25.00 for a one year membership. A $100 deposit will be collected for the trip. Checks should be made payable to John Campbell and should be sent to
John Campbell
6531 S. Logan Street
Centennial, Co. 80121
by March 1st. Along with your check, you will need to send in the liability waiver, medical form and registration form from the DBTC web site at Out of Town Tours. The $100 deposit will cover the costs for the map and directions, medical and emergency information to be affixed to your helmet, evening wine and cheese parties, a group dinner and other incidentals. Any extra funds will be used to fund a photo party back in Colorado after the trip is over. Your deposit will be refunded if you cancel out of the trip prior to March 1, 2006. We’ll also keep a waiting list if the trip fills up, and if we can fill your spot after March 1st. we will refund your deposit.
There will be a pre-trip get together to discuss the trip and answer any questions in the March timeframe.