Routes: Austin to Bastrop

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Last update: May 2002

MLK /  FM 969

Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Austin turns into FM 969 (a meandering country road), and this one road takes you 30 of the 32 miles or so to Bastrop from the center of Austin (MLK & Congress). After 30 miles you hit Highway 71, then ride another two miles on the shoulder of 71 to Bastrop.  Bastrop has a number of motels, and you can camp in Bastrop State Park, as I’ve done.

Most of MLK has bike lanes, then the first part of 969 has either marked shoulders or even a completely separate bike path for some miles, but eventually both disappear and the riding is dangerous.  Your best bet for avoiding traffic is to ride during on a weekday during working hours (8-5) while most folks are at work, or to ride at night (after 10pm, Sunday through Thursday), lit up like a Christmas tree, and getting off the road completely when vehicles approach from behind.  I've ridden this route several times (the last being in 2001), day and night, and I've actually felt safer at night, since the vehicle traffic is dramatically reduced, and with proper lighting I feel MORE visible—during the day it's very easy to blend in with the scenery. Just don't ride on Friday or Saturday night, when the drunks are out in full force.

Some riders may prefer Highway 71 instead, because it has a very wide paved shoulder (see below), with the tradeoff being that you have to ride right next to tons of super-fast traffic.  But since they don't have to dodge you since you have your own lane, you may feel safer.

This was my writeup in 2001 of what to expect.  I don’t know current conditions, although I do see from Google Maps that more of the route now has shoulders and some even has a completely separated bike path, but there are certainly lots of miles with neither.

• The first 10 miles or so has four lanes, usually no shoulder, lots of city traffic, and challenging hills.
• At about 10 miles three things happen almost at once: the road goes from four lanes to just two, the traffic decreases considerably, and the hills disappear.
• At about 11 miles there's a well-stocked convenience store along the road, in the middle of nowhere.
• At about 14 miles you hit the town of Webberville, which I think also has a convenience store.
• At about 18 miles there's a restaurant, Mexican, I think.
• At about 25 miles you cross the Colorado River. The bridge has a shoulder.
• At about 30 miles you hit Highway 71. T ake a left and it's just two miles to Bastrop.

Highway 71

Highway 71 is an alternative to 969. There's lots more traffic, but you have a nice, wide paved shoulder, so you have a lane all to yourself and traffic doesn't have to dodge you to avoid hitting you. An added bonus is that it's also much flatter. The shoulder doesn't begin until past the airport so you'll need to either brave shoulderless traffic until you get to the airport, or join 71 from some other road....

Fred Meredith writes:

One way to get to 71 without passing the front of the airport is to go around the back way: come in from McKinney Falls and cross 183 where the old Speedorama was and take a left toward Moya park. You can cross just south of the airport and end up on 71 where there is a shoulder. The shoulder is pretty much all the way to Bastrop. The cars are going faster, but they are further from you. That's the way I go, but then I live in Manchaca and I just take Slaughter to Knuckles Crossing and Thaxton and up to McKinney Falls parkway and on over.

Michael Cosper writes:

On 71 to Bastrop, the shoulders totally go away on the bridges and overpasses.  Good luck.

Mike Librik writes:

Fred Meredith's posting detailing how to reach US 71 while avoiding airport traffic got me to pull out my "The Roads of Texas" atlas to look over the suggestion. It revealed, interestingly, a denser network of small country roads, most paved, reaching from McKinney Falls out to south of Bastrop, all just south of US 71. Pearce Rd, Texas Hwy 21, Bastrop County 82, and Texas 304 all line up to take one into Bastrop.

Has anyone any experience on these roads? I imagine there are even fewer serviced than FM 969, but perhaps very little traffic. There a few oil fields out near Texas 21 (according to this very detailed Texas map), but I don't know how much truck traffic results from it.