COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: THERE’S STILL A MISSING LINK IN THE BAYOU BIKE CONNECTOR 
“It’s not complete if you are trying to take the MKT Trail from the Heights into downtown and beyond while staying off streets. The Bayou Greenways interactive map still shows a dotted line for the missing connection between the MKT Trail and the stretch of the trail at Stude Park. When completed, that tiny section will make a big difference.” [Gretchen Lindquist, commenting on Houston’s Bayou Biking Connector Is Now Complete] Image: Bayou Greenways 2020
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Tag: White Oak Bayou Trail
With the completion of the once-missing link shown above, the paths lining Buffalo Bayou are now fully connected to the Heights Hike and Bike Trail. Making use of the new route, you can now ride all the way from Shepherd to Heights Mercantile — provided rising floodwaters have not blocked the path. The photo at top, snapped from the southern section of the Main St. bridge, shows a new railing along the path in place of the temporary fencing that lined the edge last year. Travis and Milam streets are visible in the distance in the second photo. The elevated building to the right of the path is part of UHD’s campus.
The purple curve on the map below marks the location of the new connection, while the gray line running northwest indicates the Heights Hike and Bike Trail:
Watershed Moment
Over Thanksgiving weekend city workers opened a portion of the proposed hike-and-hike trail that will one day link downtown and Acres Homes.
Work began last October on this new section, one that heads west from the MKT hike-and-bike trail’s former official western terminus at Lawrence Park, under the N. Shepherd Dr. and N. Durham Dr. overpasses, and over White Oak Bayou, west to Cottage Grove and north towards an eventual link with the existing White Oak Bayou trail.
This link legitimizes a an unsanctioned though fairly popular “ninja route” long used by off-trail cyclists, who had been pedaling the gravel path from the park to a rickety, burned-out White Oak Bayou railway trestle known to as the “Bridge of Death,” seen below in a 2012 photo.
That’s been demolished and replaced with a sturdy span of of concrete and steel, complete with fancy, built-in insignia, and skyline and AIG building vistas.
Bike Path Breakthrough
From the street, this lightly landscaped property in Antoine Forest Estates appears a bit stark. The 1983 home’s greenery is out back, however, where a screen of trees at the lot line throws shade on a yard-sized pool and patio. The outback scenery’s all within view of the main living area’s floor-to-cathedral ceiling windows fireside. There’s another unobstructed view over in the master bathroom (at left), where the soaker tub’s picture window also shows off nature. In both directions. For even more natural surroundings, head to the westside trail of nearby White Oak Bayou.
