We left the city life behind and followed the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier route out of Austin. Most people that bike tour in the United States use these ACA routes because they make the route clear and list services. We chose to use their route in the South because it was so unfamiliar to us.
But being the people we are, we have deviated a bit from the true route. And in this section, we deviated a lot.
Whether it is for financial, weather, or personal reasons, travel in the way that makes sense to you.
So here goes a sample of the areas we went through in East Texas and some reasons why we did.
Bastrop
We know leaving a city always takes longer to navigate, so we took our time getting out of Austin and picked the historic town of Bastrop as our home for the night. We grabbed a beer at the local Bastrop Beer Company and then spent the night camping on an urban farm just outside of downtown.
Buescher State Park
It was only 17 miles to Buescher and our next camp spot, and this short mileage was intentional. One it gave us time to eat a very large breakfast at Maxine’s. And secondly, the 17 miles were large hills. Even Erik had to walk up one. Beautiful country though. And we had the campsite to ourselves and extra time to enjoy it.
Round Top
We went a little off route this day because we didn’t need to take a diversion to La Grange, so we trusted Google Maps today. And it totally worked out! Beautiful low traffic country roads, a quick visit into the antiquing capital of Texas (Round Top), and another Hipcamp tent spot out in the country.
Brenham
We chose a different route to travel again because we wanted to stop in Brenham, a super-charming town home to Blue Bell ice cream and the Cotton Gin Museum. Glad we went off route because we already want to go back. We ended up in Navasota that night, the end of section 4 of the Southern Tier.
Montgomery and Conroe
Large thunderstorms were forecasted for three days and there was also a tornado watch. We were supposed to camp near Lake Conroe but chose to stay indoors instead. Had a couple great encounters in this section, one with Tom, owner of the 105 Cafe who bought our breakfast and shared stories of the bike tourists he used to see in his home country of Albania. And we went to a local brewery called Southern Star and enjoyed the band TomFoolery who played country and southern classics.
Shepherd
We jumped back on the ACA route for a bit so we could head towards Shepherd to stay at the Shepherd Sanctuary, a special place that has been hosting bike tourists for years. The owners Peach and Connie take pride in helping cyclists and also in their curated junk collection. We had our own little cabin and use of their kitchen and shower. It is very eclectic, as a local told us before we arrived.
Silsbee
We decided to stick to the maps this day because we would be traveling through the Big Thicket “the biological crossroads of North America” and didn’t want to be on dirt roads in the middle of it. This day was our longest at 75 miles and we had at least 30 dogs chase after us. Quite the last full day in Texas.
We have biked five weeks and over 1100 miles across Texas. We have mostly stuck to the Southern Tier route in our travels in the Lone Star state but then we’ve also made our own way. We cycled through five ecosystems across the state and we both were really surprised by the hospitality and charm we encountered along the way.
We are in Louisiana now and are looking forward to immersing ourselves in Cajun culture and eating our way through the state. And we’ve already gone off course.
-Cortney
