Seventeen of us left on the 630 mile trip to Ft. Davis September 3 -- seven in a rented van pulling the LBC trailer loaded with most of the bikes and the others in their own vehicles. There had been an unusual amount of rain this summer and everything was pretty and green.

Most of us hiked about 4-1/2 hours from the state park to the old Fort the first day we were there, rode the 75 mile loop the second, and took a short ride to Marfa the third, then came home September 7.

The hike was fun, but it would have been smarter to do that last instead of first because it used different muscles (particularly on the downhill stretch) and several of us learned that our knees weren't in as good a shape as we had thought.

Some of the pictures from the trip are below:

Hiking

At our B&B prior to riding the loop We started at Ft. Davis, not at the Prude Ranch as shown At the first rest stop

Along the way Cottonwood Tree Approaching Bear Mountain

Downtown Marfa at noon on Saturday, September 6 After a long gradual climb, the remaining 12 miles from Bloys’ Camp to Ft. Davis is a welcome gradual downhill