Tonight the FWBA hosted a ride leaving from the Hulen & Bellaire drive Chipotle.  Basically everyone who rode who had a fwba jersey or t-shirt and rode the 20 miles  got a free burrito and chips & salsa or guac, with the Garmin-Chipotle team footing the bill.  There was also to be a drawing for a team G/C jersey.
 
The ride was at 6, so I hopped on the bike at 4:30 to ride the 20 miles down the trinity trail to the start.  Got there with about 25 minutes to spare and chatted with Pam Wright and Vernon.  We did the tour de slow to northside drive and back and had a bite to eat.  Robert, who had not seen me on the x-stream before, rode by me in the park and yelled "Nice Bike!"  .  Yes, Robert, it sure is!
 
It was also someone''s birthday so I got a nice piece with a ton of icing, and decided instead of calling Alexis to pick me up at Hulen I'd have her meet me at the new hope church, since I didn't have my lights with me to make it safely down the streets.
 
Got in 52 miles - pertty nice night's ride.

Hey Greg:  Good to see you even if only in passing.  Didn't recognize it was you until I was right by you.  Looked like you had a nice friendly group to keep you company.  Most of the group I was with was ahead of us, I was lagging behind looking for Brian who we'd misplaced somewhere.  Steve, the guy who was with me when we passed, is a DF racer guy, so we were burning up the pavement part of the way coming back, ~25 mph.  My group was coming in from conquering Burton Hill, which is the toughest hill I know of in Fort Worth.  Just a guess that it's about a 15% grade and about 1/3 mile long.  I've got one or maybe two gears left climbing it, and heart rate around 162 (170 max for me) so it's pretty close to my limit on a bent.

Quote from aikigreg on Jul 18^th, 2008, 12:39am:

 Burton Hill Road runs between Byers and White Settlement Road, Byers is at the top of the hill.  You can take the trail system from downtown to within 3 blocks of Burton Hill.  If you want to do several ascents (either for training or because you're a masochist - is there a difference??) turn right on Byers, then right at the light onto Roaring Springs (a really fun, long downhill), right at the second street you come to, Fursman, and 2 blocks to Burton Hill again.  Or you can stay straight on Roaring Springs to a QT station that's a good spot to get a drink, then turn right on White Settlement/Hwy 183 (bear right staying on White Settlement), and down to the next light that will be Burton Hill Rd.  By the way, I wouldn't recommend going DOWN Burton Hill.  Much too dangerous as there's a stop sign at the bottom and the traffic from the other direction doesn't have to stop and can turn left in front of you.
The street they're turning left on, Merrick, is another option for getting up the same hill, but it's VERY steep.  I've never tried it, but I'm about 95% certain I couldn't do it on a recumbent and would have a very difficult time on an upwrong.  At least one person I remember in High School days was killed trying to go down Merrick on a bike.  Several cars have lost control and ended up in somene's living room, hence all the walls you see along the street now.
The hill up to Tandy center is a lot shorter than Burton Hill, about the same grade I would guess.
If you want to meet me after work someday downtown I'd be glad to show you how to get out there.