The Second Erickson Software Bicycle Tour of The Woodlands

On Sunday morning July 20, 2003, Erickson Software sponsored a second Metric Half Century Bicycle Tour, which was held in The Woodlands, TX. This ride includes several road segments, so is best done fairly early on a Sunday morning when traffic is light.

If you want to go a full metric century, add either the first tour or the third tour. If you want a really cool mini-tool, well, you know what to do.

There's now an official tshirt!

Mystic Lake - taken from the bike trail near Research Forest and Cochran's Crossing

Route

If you see a WA in a route segment, it means that there is drinking water available during that segment. Most parks have water fountains. Segment with an RD are conducted on larger roads and not paths or quiet neighborhood streets.  Most roads have wide shoulders - comments will identify roads without shoulders.
  1. WA Starting at Bear Branch Recreation center, exit to Research Forest and turn left towards Gosling Road.
  2. Busy RD wide shoulder  At Gosling, turn left and ride along Gosling approximately 1/3 mile to New Trails Drive.
  3. Quiet RD Turn right on New Trails and follow it back to Research Forest. 
  4. Busy RD wide shoulder  Turn left on Research Forest, heading towards Grogans' Mill.
  5. At Grogan's Mill, turn right, and take the path south to Sawmill Road.
  6. Busy RD partial shoulder. Continue south on Grogan's Mill until you reach Sawdust Road. 
  7. Busy RD partial shoulder Turn right on Sawdust Road and follow it to Glen Loch Drive.
  8. Turn right on Glen Loch Drive.  This is a narrow street with a 25 mph speed limit.  You may want to ride on the narrow sidewalk on the left hand side, but be prepared to duck under a large number of low-hanging tree limbs.
  9. Turn right at South Panther Creek, and proceed across Woodlands Parkway to Woodrush.  South Panther Creek turns into East Panther Creek as you ride along.
  10. WA Turn left at Woodrush, and ride to West Panther Creek.  Water in Ridgewood Park.
  11. Turn left at West Panther Creek and cross Woodlands Parkway to Panther Creek Pines.
  12. Turn right on Panther Creek Pines and ride to Gosling Road.
  13. Turn right on Gosling Road, heading towards Lake Woodlands Drive.
  14. WA Turn left at Lake Woodlands and ride to Cochran's Crossing.  The water is in Shadowbend Park, across the road just past Shadowbend Road.
  15. Turn right at Cochran's Crossing and ride to Bay Branch Drive.
  16. Turn left at Bay Branch Drive and ride to Kuykendahl.
  17. Quiet RD Turn right at Kuykendahl and ride to Crownridge
  18. Turn left at Crownridge and ride to Research Forest.
  19. WA Turn right at Research Forest, following it as it turns into Branch Crossing.  Water is in a small park along Branch Crossing on the right just past Research Forest.
  20. Head south on Branch Crossing until you reach Woodlands Parkway.
  21. RD partial shoulder Turn left on Woodlands Parkway and follow it across Kuykendahl to Cochran's Crossing.
  22. Turn left on Cochran's Crossing to Golden Sage.
  23. Turn right on Golden Sage and follow it to Sylvan Forest.
  24. Turn right onto Sylvan Forest and follow it to Shadowbend.  The path ends a few houses before Shadowbend, but this is a very quiet street.
  25. Turn left on Shadowbend and ride to Lakeridge Drive.
  26. Turn left across the street onto the bike path just past Lakeridge Drive on Shadowbend.
  27. WA Ignore the 90 degree turnoffs from the bike trail and continue to Lake Woodlands.   Water in Shadowbend Park, at Lake Woodlands.
  28. Turn right on Lake Woodlands and ride to East Panther Creek.  You'll cross Shadowbend, Gosling Road, and West Panther Creek along the way.
  29. WA Turn left on East Panther Creek and ride to Mill Trace, at Clover Park.  Water in Meadowlake Park, corner of Lake Woodlands and East Panther Creek.
  30. Turn right across the street and follow the bike path thru the neighborhood to Gosling Road.
  31. Turn left on Gosling and ride a short distance to Research Forest.
  32. WA Turn left on Research Forest and ride back to Bear Branch Recreation Center.

The route map was assembled from a pastiche of images from Yahoo! Maps and the route drawn in by hand. It's most useful for general guidance - you won't be able to use it to follow the trail, but if you're confused about some segment and you're intimately familiar with the Woodlands it might be useful. Or if you want to bail half-way thru, you wimp, you can figure out where you might be able to do that.

Yeah Yeah

Note: Of course, the official name is "The Erickson Software Bicycle Tour" and the "of The Woodlands" part of the title of this page is merely descriptive.

Copyright (c) 2003 Kenton Erickson. All rights reserved.