March 4th – March 8th Fredericksburg TX to Leakey TX

DAY 5: Friday 4th March 2022 – Fredericksburg TX to Kerrville TX
Distance: 45km
Elevation gain: 380m
Accomodation: Kerrville-Schreiner Park Campground

We decided to take a more direct route today along TX16 to avoid the back roads and hopefully a lot of extra hills. The cycling was not particularly pleasant with a lot of traffic and a cold blustery wind, but a generally decent shoulder to cycle on made it OK. The campground was huge, and on top of a hill (they always seem to be) but we arrived in good time. A quick 4km round trip to Dollar General for supplies and we were all set.

DAY 6: Saturday 5th March 2022 – Kerrville TX to TX39 highway (Guadulope River Valley)
Distance: 43km
Elevation gain: 310m
Accomodation: Wild camp along TX39

Leaving the campground, we found a cycleway for the first 7km along the Guadelupe River towards downtown Kerrville which gave us the easiest and most pleasant cycling of the trip so far. Aĺl good things come to an end though and we soon ended up on busy roads out of town. A guy stopped us and offered to buy us breakfast, but we politely declined as we had already had a slow start – a very nice offer though, we must have looked hungry. The road gradually became quieter passing through Hunt and with some lovely views of the scenic Guadelupe River. There were lots of nice spots down by the river, but as always seems to be the case in the US, they were privately owned and adorned with multiple ‘no tresspassing’ signs. There were no accomodation options at all, so we decided to look for a wild camping spot, soon finding a good place above the road hidden by some trees – the only downside was a 5km round trip to the nearest river crossing to filter some water to see us through the night. There was pretty much no traffic on the road after dark, so we had a very quiet overnight camp spot with no problems.

A grey morning, but easy cycling along the River Trail

DAY 7: Sunday 6th March 2022 – TX39 highway (Guadulope River Valley) to Vanderpool TX
Distance: 44km
Elevation gain: 440m
Accomodation: Lost Maples RV Park (cabin)

We woke up in our camp spot to find a very damp and dreary morning – weather more like the Peak District moors than Texas. Packing up in this weather is no fun and everything got slightly damp and dirty but we eventually got back on the road. Cycling wasn’t particularly pleasant today with wind, drizzle and lots of short up and down hills. It all became a bit of a slog, but we had a couple of slightly damp coffee stops (one at an actual picnic site!) Towards the end of the day, there was a change in scenery and a long downhill into the next river valley towards our campground. We had planned to camp, but the availability of a cabin was too good to miss.

Long descent to the Sabinal River valley

The only shop of the day, at our campground

Accomodation tonight was a step up from last night

The view from our cabin (and some sunshine at last)

DAY 8: Monday 7th March 2022 – Vanderpool TX to Leakey TX
Distance: 25km
Elevation gain: 500m
Accomodation: The Historic Leakey Inn

The landscape was noticibly different today with a very steep and long climb out of the valley, although it was much more scenic than the rolling hills that we have had so far. We were finally rewarded with a long descent into the Frio river valley and the town of Leakey. It was a short day, but another big hill beteeen here and Camp Wood can wait until later. Leakey was a very pleasant little town and we got a discounted rate in nice motel opposite a Family Dollar for supplies (Beer and pizza mostly) so all is good with the world.

DAY 9: Tuesday 8th March 2022 – Rest day in Leakey TX
Distance: 0
Elevation gain: 0
Accomodation: The Historic Leakey Inn

Waking up this morning we made a unanimous decision that it was time for a rest day – we really are becoming the worlds slowest cycle tourists. This was encouraged by our calculation that we only need to average 45km per day to reach San Diego in time for our flight home.