Might be taking a bike on a short weekend trip to Austin and was looking at some roads on Strava. It looks like Barton Creek Blvd. is popular, but google street view shows some narrow sections with no shoulder. This has me thinking it's an early weekend morning type of road. Would any of you have an idea of a good cutoff time? Such as, don't even think about it after noon on Sat/Sun? Or maybe as early as 10 or 11?

I'll be staying with family on the South side of town, near Stassney and 35. Any other south side ride recommendations are appreciated. Looking for something in the 25-40 mile range and some climbing would be nice. Not because I enjoy it, but because I suck at it. I might even consider a group ride if there was a no drop one with all types. I'm a full on intermediate rider at the moment due to a really crappy 2015.

Barton Creek is relatively rural. I haven't had much difficulty most any time of day. Some of the connecting roads e.g. 2244/Bee Cave get busier if you don't avoid them.

One resource for group rides is the Bike Austin site: Bike Austin | Bike Austin promotes access, education, safety and enjoyment of cycling in Central Texas. A number of other groups including from local bike shops.

Mellow Johnny's Bike shop has rides. Also look at Austin Area Outdoor Events Calendar

Thanks for the suggestions and the handy websites. I'm mostly looking for a route I can ride from the house and back. Right now, I'm looking at hooking up to William Cannon to Southwest Pkwy to Barton Creek, then shooting over to 360 North to ride Spicewood Springs. And I guess I'll just turn around and do it again after that.

Any pointers on that suggested route?

I looked at Mellow Johnny's for the group ride options, but from what I can tell, the Saturday route is on a relatively boring road that I've already ridden before.

Ok, I actually just did the mileage on that route. It would be more than a metric century. I don't think I'll be able to swing that sort of time.

Contingency plan is out to Barton Creek and down bee Cave for a quick loop on River Hills Rd and Cuernavaca and back down to Barton Creek again. This would be about a 40+ mile ride.

https://bicycleaustin.info

Most things bike related in austin. Has a bicycle calendar, routes, and suggestions.

Also invaluable,
Austin Bike Map
https://austintexas.gov/sites/defaul...2_FULL_web.pdf

South austin around stassney is also nice riding.
Just take stassney west to Emerald Forest, bike route 31, and you can point north for miles (shoal creek parallel) or ramble south. Stay east for nice ride down s 1st and old san antonio road or woodhue to matthews and then southwest (can also pick up barton creek road on this route).

Thought I would follow up with the route I ended up taking. All of it was fine except for the section of William Cannon between Westgate and MoPac. Not really sure how to get around that, but I'll experiment next time.

All in all, the ride was great. I really suck right now (not much riding in 2015), so the hills destroyed me. I had to stop on the steep shot at the end of Barton Creek Blvd, the first time I've had to stop on a hill in years, and decided I should probably turn around there and head home. So I didn't end up doing the River Hills to Cuernavaca loop, but maybe next time.

https://www.strava.com/activities/471594571

lol, just realized you don't need my info