The holidays were over and the new year had begun, and I needed an outdoor adventure.

Obviously, a camping trip was in order. I spent a few hours googling s24o trips, made a couple of gear runs, then loaded up my mountain bike with a good sleeping bag, hammock, and plenty of layers of clothes. Did I mention that the temperature was supposed to drop to 24 °F the night of our trip?

Zac and I met up at BuzzBrews in Deep Ellum (did you know they have a discount for anyone who rides their bike to the cafe?), downed some coffee, and set across town. We didn’t keep a GPS on, so I don’t have an exact record of our route, but it was something like this:

I know that we took a nice off road trip on the Trinity River Levee…

And at some point we crossed over to Oak Cliff via the beautiful Santa Fe Trestle Trail and saw the Trinity River rapids.

We even saw a few bits of interesting architecture and art on our way through Elmwood.

Eventually, we made it to our destination: Cedar Hill State Park at Joe Pool Lake.

The first thing we did was set up our hammocks and take a little nap.

Then, as the temperature dropped we got the fire rolling, and enjoyed a bit of the best cold weather medicine..whiskey.

The next morning I found that frost had worked its way into my bike shoes. So of course I did the most logical thing.. roasted my shoes over our morning fire.

A hearty breakfast of Zac’s secret oatmeal and some coffee was consumed… then we packed up to ride to our second destination: Big Cedar. I thought for sure my bike was going to tip backwards as I slowly peddled it up the steep hill. At the top, we unloaded our camping gear and hit the trails.

This was actually my first time to go mountain biking since college. I really enjoyed it… well, except for this part:

After spending a few hours at Big Cedar, neither of us were feeling up for the ride home, so we called in for support.

Next time, I think I’ll pack some of that tire goo, a compass…and warmer socks.

Thanks to The Pondering Cyclist for a few of the above photos.

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Eliot Landrum

Eliot Landrum has been riding bicycles of all shapes and sizes since he was a kid, and has found a new love of cycling in Dallas as an adult. Eliot shares the joy of safe cycling with others through the CyclingSavvy DFW bicycle traffic safety workshops and leading small social rides in East Dallas. You can find his photos and various geeky writings on his personal blog.

Latest posts by Eliot Landrum (see all)

• Santa Fe Trail to The Lot - May 29, 2013
• Biking with Xina Jones - May 21, 2013
• Riding the Santa Fe Trestle Trail - April 10, 2013

Tags: adventure, Big Cedar, camping, Joe Pool, Mountain Bike, s24o, Trinity River