Revisiting the Blue Bonnet Trail

On couple of occasions I had blogged about Blue Bonnet Trail in Plano. What is so great that it needs to be blogged about again? Plain and simple, I love cycling on this trail, it is great exercise and a wonderful way to get fitterr and slimmer. Apart from the exercise it provides, the trail offers a variety of scenes for the discerning/ observing eye. First off there is the soul soothing greenery.. though manicured.. occasional clumps of trees. The creeks that wind their way across the trail. Whenever I ride above the creeks the bridge feels different... yes I may be sounding ridiculous but the bicycle seems to glide smoother on the bridges than the rest of the trail.

Yesterday I took the racing bicycle for a spin on the Blue Bonnet trail and was surprised to see the number of people riding road bikes on the trail. It has been the opposite experience for me when I ride on the Univega road bicycle on this same trail. And yesterday I saw a couple laboring on a bright yellow tandem bike, riding really fast. And surprisingly there were lots of walkers all over the trail. There was one solitary rollerblader who was trudging along. His expertise didn't seem as good as the others I had come across on other trails, but he nevertheless was doing the full ten miles of the trail. I am waiting for the day when I will be able to do that.

Blue Bonnet Trail, Plano

Yesterday I went cycling on the Blue Bonnet Trail in Plano, Tx. The trail is within a mile from our apartment and hence very easily accessible. Before I go on to describe the 5-mile paved bicycle trail I'd like to say something about the planning that has gone behind creation of this trail. Blue Bonnet trail is the by-product of electricity. Yes the entire trail runs along high-voltage cables and electrical transformers. Town planning engineers/ architects have utilized this trail so efficiently made use of this trail to create a green space for the entertainment of all city folk.

Thinking back about my home town (Bangalore) in India I have seen similar large electrical cabling and transformers back home in India and these are usually converted into medians of main roads. Lack of space coupled with insensitive planning has led to these grotesque steel monsters being installed on roads close to homes. This is not only unsafe but also makes it very difficult to service in case of problems.

But I certainly am impressed by the thoughtfulness exhibited by the town planners of Plano who have created this unique space for sports, leisure and entertainment of the tax paying public.

Starting point/ trail head

Efficient land management between the electrical pillars

Wild flowers make the trail appear beautiful

Anyway coming to the train per se, Blue Bonnet Trail is 5-miles in length and starts at a stadium on Alma Road and ends rather abruptly at Preston Road. In my eye estimate the average width of the trail would range from 75 meters to 500 meters. The grass along the trail is neatly manicured and at places there are mounds of earth to give a landscaped effect. There are quaint bridges when a creek intersects the trail. The best part of the trail is the wild flowers, every season has its own variety of blooms giving an aesthetic feel to the trail. The trail is good for both the individual like myself who cycles for pleasure and love of bicycling and for the serious cyclist who trains for races.

Bridges across creeks make the trail more interesting

Creeks with water support aquatic life forms

PS. Lance Armstrong the 7-time Tour De France winner is a Texas Boy.

Training on Plano Trails

The past couple of days I have been training in the city of Plano, Tx. This city unlike Carrollton (where I live) has better maintained and longer bicycling trails. There are three trails which I frequent The Blue Bonnet Trail, Preston Ridge Trail and Chisolm Trail. Since I wanted to seriously train I didn't carry my camera, so you all will have to be content with word pictures.
Moreover today was perhaps a bad day for cycling because the wind was heavy and one direction of my cycling was a tough cookie... the harder I cycled the more resistant the wind became... so I guess I would have expended twice the amount of energy to do the same distance.

The Blue Bonnet Trail is a 5-mile long trail which passes through various residential neighborhoods and parks. This East-West trail is lined by large expanses of blue bonnet plants. It is a treat to the eye to watch these blue blossoms swaying in the wind as we whiz past on the trail. I kinda don't like this trail very much because this has too many street crossings and there is very little tree cover... actually no tree cover at all.

Then there is the Preston Ridge Trail... this is also a long trail which runs in the North-South direction and like the Blue Bonnet trail much of it is through residential communities and hence quite boring too. The one better feature of this trail is that this is wee bit hilly and one can experience climbs and down hills. The last mile of the trail, close the highway 121, is through a protected forest and has quite a bit of tree cover and a large artificial lake.

The last trail Chisolm Trail is my favorite, for two reasons, this a lots of tree cover, runs along a winding creek and has very few street crossings. Whenever a road has to be crossed the trail passes under the road via a cool bridge. There are beautiful lake views, forest areas, conservation buffer zones etc, along the trial. And of course I caught glimpses of urban wildlife... geese, ducks, cranes, egrets, and of course the ubiquitous cormorants and crows. Chisolm trail also passes along a large lake in an area known as Big Lake Park and a war memorial, known as Memorial Park. These attractions give a unique character to this trail and thus my favourite.

I enjoyed cycling 30 miles (50 km) today, took me 2 hrs 45 mins and hopefully I will do more tomorrow and the days to come.

Needless to say I am still looking for donations for my cause - Eradication of Multiple Sclerosis. Do visit my page and contribute generously to this needy cause.