It was a bit gloomy and spitting rain in the morning at Pedernales Falls, but we hiked 2 trails before heading out. We didn’t hike to the big falls as we did that last year, and it was quite a distance from the campground. We biked the almost 4 miles out of the park and were soon on our way. The route continued to be beautiful and relentlessly hilly to Johnson City. We made a quick detour to see Lyndon Johnson’s boyhood home. At this point we left the Southern Tier Route to head to Enchanted Rock State Park. We cycled up and down for 27 miles before finally finding a spot to stop for lunch-the parking lot of the volunteer fire department in Willow City. We had rehydrated vegetable soup in our thermos, and we needed those nutrients! We eventually found ourselves on a road, like so many we’d been on, with hills, cattle guards, and ranches. But after riding down a long hill, we came to a cattle guard crossing and a fence to the side that said “No Trespassing-Member Texas Cattle Association”. Yikes! We weren’t backtracking so we decided to forge ahead and hope the sign was for the land, not the road. Fortunately no ranchers came after us! When we got off that road, we were once again on a familiar road from our trip last year. We enjoyed reminiscing as we pedaled towards the park. When the reward for slowly climbing every hard hill was one stunning view after another, culminating in the spectacular view dominating the landscape of the enormous granite dome that is Enchanted Rock, we realized how wise Gandhi was when he said, “There is more to life than simply increasing it’s speed.” The road leading to the park is a giant downhill for about 3 miles. We didn’t go any slower than about 22 mph, and reached maximum speeds of about 37-38 mph. Exhilarating!!! We arrived at the park with just enough time to climb the dome to watch the sunset. It was a hard climb for sure and took about an hour but so worth it! Coming down in the dark was a bit more daunting and we were lucky to have remembered our lights. There are no trail markers on solid granite, so it’s easy to hike off course in the dark. Although this detour to Enchanted Rock added about 40 miles to our journey, it was every bit worth it! The enormous granite batholith is a sight to behold. Total cycling mileage: 58 Total hiking mileage: 10