A Castle, cemetery, deer, cows and a wrong turn!

[Aggie_Ama]

Yesterday DH and I set out to do a 52 mile ride through the Texas Hill Country. The day was crisp and the roads so quiet. We started in the small town of Bertram (pop. 1100) and headed down the back roads to Burnet. All that seemed to be out there was ranches, fields and cows.

Along the way we rode under a cute little railroad bridge. The thing was so low I think some pickups couldn't fit under it! After we passed through Burnet we turned onto Park Road 4. The road leads you out of Burnet toward Longhorn Cavern State park. Along this road we saw the craziest thing- a pet deer!! A dog (bloodhound?) started running down the fenceline barking at us, followed by a white tail deer with a collar! The deer was acting like a dog, it ran the fence line and stopped at the corner.

We continued over rolling hills mixed with a few steep hills right past the Falkenstein Castle. Some people just decided to build a castle in the middle of the Texas Hill Country. I learned of this castle planning my wedding a little over four years ago, but I never imagined how breathtaking it would be. It looked like it had been dropped straight out of a fairy tale.

We got to fly down a steep downhill with several switchbacks, perfectly fitting of an area with a castle. At the bottom of the hill was Hoover's Valley Cemetery, which is a state historical site. The marked graves date back to 1850 and the site is still in use. This is where we missed our turn, but we didn't know it yet.

We kept rolling over one hill after another and eventually saw Inks Lake. It was gorgeous, the only thing I could think was how lucky I am to live in central Texas. Along the lake we saw several white tail deer. One buck sat patiently on the side of the road until we rode by. I kept thinking he would run out in front of us.

At this point we were still happy as could be and had no clue we were off course. We figured out we were off course when we hit Hwy 29 and it said "Burnet- 9 miles". Uh-oh, it was supposed to be 2 miles to our turn IN Burnet. What was worse, the 9 miles was all up hill on a highway with a narrow shoulder. I was having trouble staying on my bike and anxious to cover those 9 miles. It took about an hour to climb to Burnet!! We finally made it to Burnet, my nerves were shot and I was beginning to wonder if we would make it back to Bertram by dark. I tried and tried to press on, ate a Luna bar and kept pushing. Before Hwy 29 we had been averaging 16 mph, but I couldn't get there after that.

I was so relieved to see the Betram water tower appear in the distance at 6:20. We ended up making to back to the car at 6:45- 15 minutes to dark! Our total distance ended up being 58.7 miles and an average speed of 13.7 (thanks to Hwy 29). It was a gorgeous, challenging ride and I plan to do it again but we won't make the wrong turn!