Southwest Austin Hills

Ride Summary: Get ready for some steep (but short) climbs on some of Austin's best cycling roads. 

Distance: 23 miles

Elevation gain: 2376'

Roads: mostly smooth pavement, wide shoulder on Bee Cave, other roads have small or no shoulder but low traffic

Driver tolerance: Generally very good, I've never had anyone buzz me or shout at me in this area that I recall.
The bad: Don't do this at rush hour, Bee Cave Rd can get very congested and Redbud Trail gets some traffic from folks using it as a cut-through. 
The good: Lost Creek Blvd (so pretty), Redbud Trail, tree-sheltered Yaupon Valley (3 miles of bliss), a lot of very expensive houses.

Austin's annual Tour Das Hugel subjects riders to virtually all of the most infamously difficult hills in town in an odyssey that is over 110 miles and 12,000' feet of elevation. Yes, the hills are short--no climb is going to take you more than 10-15 minutes--but they're STEEP (up to 30% grade!!), they just keep coming and total a shocking amount of elevation gain. Ride 100 miles in Colorado and you're not likely to total 12,000 feet...

I can't claim to have completed it--I didn't know about it until I started seeing folks bragging on Strava last November--and it's safe to say I wouldn't have attempted it even if I had known. I'm just not there yet. But it's one of my goals for 2018 and so I've been practicing sections and have done the hills that are most frequently named as the worst (Jester, Beauford, and Smokey Valley/Ladera Norte are my picks).  

About to descend on Lost Creek (blind curve ahead)

This ride, which includes some of the hills off Bee Cave Rd, hits several of the hills on the first half of the ride (I didn't get to High Road today--see below). There are bigger hills but the hills on Lost Creek Blvd and Yaupon Valley can't be beat for beauty (in Austin, at least). Largely repaved in late 2017 (thank goodness, it was scored pavement before), is baby-soft, features a couple awesome descents with sweeping curves (careful!!) and there are three hills that to grind on. I like to turn off at Whitemarsh Walk and then go up the quite steep Falcon Ledge.

From there, you go to the verdant and decadent stuff around Redbud Trail, my favorite riding in the whole area. There are a lot of roads to explore back here and they all feature some good hills.

If you have some extra time, add the High Road to the Redbud trail section by taking a left at Caravan, a right on Terrace Mountain (bomb down), a left on Westlake and another left on the High Road. This is, in my opinion, the toughest hill on this side of town.

The other half of Das Hugel is more brutal but less scenic (it's just a lot more development and, for the most part, more cookie-cutter McMansions). I'll be chronicling that in the weeks ahead, before it gets too dang hot...

Enjoy the ride and stay safe!