Yesterday before this lovely T-day meal I went around the lake again–once a week for two weeks in a row feels like progress at this point–and on the way back had to hit this trail that’s not really a trail, just an old rail line that hasn’t been converted back to light rail or bike path yet. It was a bit thick with stones for my Surly (single speed road bike but w/ thick tires), so I came home and returned with the Gary Fisher (single speed mt. bike). South it goes as far as the lake (and from the looks of satellite view even further). North it turns to constant rail ties pretty quickly, un-fun to the point of totally loosening up my saddle (which has never happened on even the gnarliest of local trails). All it would take would be to remove those ties to make a decent few miles of trail there, from the lake up to Royal/75. Of course there is already the Spring Trail, so it would be redundant. Still, I want to know which rail line it was that originally ran there, and the exploring kind of made me wonder if one could devise a (mostly) off-road century ride around Dallas, connecting established trails with unfinished former rail lines with BMX shortcuts with 4WD truck spots. The Trinity River fire roads could account for upwards of 50 miles by themselves. Then this morning this Rapha story was in my inbox and really inspired me to look into it. First I think I’ll look into any other such rides in other parts of the country.