Barton Creek Wilderness Park

Good technical riding with a couple of jumps.

If you know where to go, you can string an extremely techy and difficult ride together. Definitely expert territory in many areas. If you don't know where you're going, then you'll end up thinking these trails are just pretty good.

Good techy riding with a couple really good sized jumps and fun features. Need a little love but still a good time

All I can say is that these trails are awesome!!! Terrain varied from gravel to rocky to extremely rocky to rock drops to some rewarding switchbacks and elevation change ups.. There is some parts that the trail gets a little challenging so be prepared to hike and bike. Also keep in mind it's a friendly share the trail place. Overall, great trail and a hidden gem in Austin TX.

See http://www.mtbepicrides.com/2014/03/barton-creek-austin-texas.html for links and such

With a 34/15, I was geared great for much the river valley trails and made most of one of the big offshoot climbs, before the first underpass. The Hill of Life, was another story altogether, I be back with gears, cause one gear that makes that climb, maybe doable, would be painfully slow on some of the trails along the creek. There are lots of rock gardens and features to work your technical skills, a few would have benefited from a lower gear too! There are two entries on Single Tracks that kind of overlap, Barton Creek Greenbelt and Barton Creek Wilderness. From the topo maps they look like slightly different versions of the same trails. Distance and descriptions vary quite a bit though. My best take on that is that the Greenbelt encompasses the main trail along the creek and the Hill of Life and the Wilderness trails are the unmarked trails across the creek from the main trail head in Zilker park. A nice warm up would be to go east toward the river/lake, cross the first bridge and head west up to the road, around the construction and access the unmarked trails, just up the road a bit. Take them to the karin and go right across the creek, back to the main side. It looked like the trail may continue on the unmarked side, but I was uncomfortable riding through what looked like someones property, no signs, just a patio and a landscaped walkway. Even on the main side there are many offshoots, some come back to the trail, some dead end and others go back down into the creek. Some reviews on both entries mention the Hill of Life, but I do not think that you could get there in the 4 miles listed for the Wilderness, but the topo map includes it, but seems to miss the unmarked trails across the creek from the TH.

This is the first time since I started running the Knard/Blunt 35, that I got to descend big rocks and drops, maybe since Pisgah even! Now while I was not descending like a I was on a downhill rig, I felt in more control and I did not feel like I was going to be bounce of the bike, like at Farlow Gap! While not quite as intense and gnarly as Farlow, descending the Hill of Life and other sections of Barton were a good test.

I love the technical aspect of these trail and the first real climbing in quite a while. They can get pretty busy at peak times, so plan accordingly. Zilker park has a lot of other activities, such as canoe and kayak rentals, swimming holes, playground a kids train and a garden. Zilker also gets you access to the Town Lake bike path, which was even busier, due to its tame wide and flat crushed stone surface.

Ironically, at first these trails reminded me of other river valley riding that I did way back when in the Minnesota and Mississippi river valleys in Minnesota. Just throw in lots of rock gardens from my more recent home town trails in northern New Jersey and a couple big climbs. It was "ironic" cause part way along as I was about to take another dead end, a rider comes by and I tag along. His name was Tim and he also was borne and raised in Minnesota. He left when for texas when he was 21. Small world for sure.

The main trail is busy and not impressive, not technical, rocky, etc, its the unmarked side trails, Toys R Us, Sweet 16, Pump House, etc, that are amazing, technical and flowy.. you could ride over 50 miles, there are awesome trails everywhere, but they are very hard to find if you dont know where you are going

This trail gets a lot of traffic from bikers, hikers, runners, and people with dogs. The Hill of Life is a good downhill with several 2 ft drops onto loose rock, so be careful, a lot of single track here, but I did not see any good map and I did get turned around several times. You could spend all day out here. I wound up riding about 16 miles, but it could easily been 20+...The best part of the trail is it is so close to downtown Austin...so if you are staying in Austin...check it out and it is free.

The main trail is a fast downhill snaking through trees, but there are 2 cut outs from the main trail that wll take you into some serious techincal trail. Great 2 foot drops with some stairsteeped together. Roots, rocks, and a couple of tree trunks to hop. Watch out for the trail with the jock strap hanging from it. Big downhill that ends with a 3 1/2 foot rock step up min speed 18 to conquer.