Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Fall is an amazing time to go outside and play. The mild weather and remarkable scenery will draw many of us outdoors.

With so many people heading to state parks this fall, the question of etiquette arises. How should we act while exploring these wide open spaces?

Texas Parks and Wildlife has the answer. They have created seven basic guidelines to help you be polite in the outdoor setting. The guidelines are care, caution, courtesy, cleanliness, cooperation, conservation and common sense. These are the seven c’s of camping.

Care is a reminder to be considerate of others.

Caution encourages us to remember that camping can be dangerous. The right way is the safe way.

Courtesy is something that enhances the camping experience; respect the privacy of others and they will do the same.

Cleanliness reminds us to help keep parks and our campsites clean.

Cooperation asks us to work with rangers and follow state park rules.

Conservation calls for us to protect the outdoors for future generations, and common sense prevents accidents.

With these simple guidelines in mind, it’s easy to make a positive impact on state parks and fellow campers this fall.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas state parks have beautiful trails for mountain biking.

I was in west Texas, I’d say, a year ago and rode there. The formations there are like some surrealist painting, and it’s almost too beautiful to ride because you always want to be looking up instead of watching the trail.

Dan Oko, author of Texas Parks and Wildlife’s guide, Bike Texas, tells us about his favorite trails.

Well I call Austin home, so the trail that I ride most of all is the Barton Creek Greenbelt. It’s very challenging. At the far end of the ride from Zilker Park, you reach something called the Hill of Life, which is, I think, a rite of passage for every mountain biker in Texas is to get up that hill without stopping. The most beautiful place I have ridden in Texas is Palo Duro Canyon outside of Amarillo in the Panhandle.

Oko says there’s more to mountain biking than scenery.

I always think of the idea of the balance on the bike as the balance in your life, which is, once you get that sense of balance and the security as a mode of transportation balanced on the bike, then you can feel like everything else in your life can sort of follow that fluidity.

The Bike Texas guide highlights more than forty trails throughout the state, including road bike rides in parks. It’s available online; find a link at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

A Matter of Balance: Life & Bikes Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas state parks have beautiful trails for mountain biking.

I was in west Texas, I’d say, a year ago and rode there. The formations there are like some surrealist painting, and it’s almost too beautiful to ride because you always want to be looking up instead of watching the trail.

Dan Oko, author of Texas Parks and Wildlife’s guide, Bike Texas, tells us about his favorite trails.

Well I call Austin home, so the trail that I ride most of all is the Barton Creek Greenbelt. It’s very challenging. At the far end of the ride from Zilker Park, you reach something called the Hill of Life, which is, I think, a rite of passage for every mountain biker in Texas is to get up that hill without stopping. The most beautiful place I have ridden in Texas is Palo Duro Canyon outside of Amarillo in the Panhandle.

Oko says there’s more to mountain biking than scenery.

I always think of the idea of the balance on the bike as the balance in your life, which is, once you get that sense of balance and the security as a mode of transportation balanced on the bike, then you can feel like everything else in your life can sort of follow that fluidity.

The Bike Texas guide highlights more than forty trails throughout the state, including road bike rides in parks. It’s available online; find a link at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

A Matter of Balance: Life & Bikes Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Part of the appeal of mountain biking, is the untamed terrain, however, the rocky trails can be a little rough on your bike.

For a beginner, the main things to worry about is do you know how to change a flat? Because if you ride ten miles in and you’ve got to come ten miles back out, you want to have that tire or else its going to be a very long walk.

Dan Oko, author of the Texas Parks and Wildlife guide – Bike Texas, says there are three basic tools that mountain bikers want to pack when heading out for a ride, starting with an Allen Wrench.

They have tire levers which are designed to go underneath the tire so that you can get that inner tube out if you happen to puncture it. I would say those are the two and the third thing is to have a chain device in case you break your chain.

Oko encourages riders to take it a step further than just packing those basic tools

You should learn to use the tools before you have a problem on the trail because chances are trying to figure it out on the trail will be really difficult. I was up in Cedar Hills State Park, outside of Dallas a couple of years ago, and a couple of guys rode up the trail and about two minutes later – they came back out. One of the guys had broken his chain. They didn’t have a chain tool, I did. When I handed the chain tool to the fellow, he didn’t know what to do with it. I ended up fixing his chain.

According to Oko, most local bike shops are more than willing to teach riders who to make repairs.

For more information on bike trails in state parks across Texas, visit passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

On November 18th, the sky will start to fall over Texas.

The Leonid Meteor Shower is a shower that occurs every November.

Anita Cochran, the assistant director of the McDonald Observatory, explains this phenomenon.

It is, as a result of, the debris left over from the passage of the Comet Temple Tuttle which comes past the sun and past the earth every thirty-three years. In 2007, the earth’s orbit will intercept the orbit of the dust trail that was left when the comet passed the sun in 1932. These dust particles burning up in the earth’s atmosphere will create this year’s shower.

In 1833, the Leonid Meteor shower rained down thousands of meteors an hour. This caused some people to believe that these meteors signified the end of the world. This year, the shower won’t be as drastic.

There are times when we go through, and it’s approximately every thirty three years, when we see a huge storm because we go through the peak of it. We might see hundreds of meteors per hour. In this particular year, the peak of it will occur when it’s daytime in the United States and when people should go out and see it, which is the end of the night – they’ll only be seeing about ten meteors an hour.

Find a state park where you can see the Leonid Shower at passporttotexas.org (see below)

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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November 17, 2007 Lake Texana SP – Meteor Program – Learn about the Leonid Meteors and maybe get a glimpse of them, weather permitting, at the amphitheater. 7:30-9 p.m. (361) 782-5718.

November 18, 2007 Seminole Canyon SP&HS – Leonid Meteor Shower and Astronomy Program – Watch the Leonid meteor shower under the dark West Texas skies and see a free educational program about meteors. Program subject to cancellation due to cloudy or inclement weather. 6-9 p.m. (432) 292-4464.

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