30 Mile Bike and Bird Planning

As I mentioned in my post earlier this week, I'm going to enter the Bird Day Challenge, a competition for a fossil-free-reduced birdwatching big day. I have officially thrown in my hat for this competition.

The date was a no-brainer: the first weekend in April. This is historically one of the best days for birding on the Upper Texas Coast. This is also during the Bird-a-thon for the Houston Audubon, so I can do these two challenges concurrently, if I can find a teammate. Then all money raised will go towards the Houston Audubon Sanctuaries that I love so much, and that money raised will count for both competitions.

During my planning (and I do a lot of planning), I had originally thought of doing a 70-mile route, in order to clinch the title for longest distance, since there was already a guy in Oregon who was planning a 60 mile route from Salem to Junction City. I thought I might even be able to clinch the most species award if I started at Anahuac NWR (marshland birds), rode 29 miles down to High Island (fallout birds), then another 26 miles to Bolivar (shorebirds), then ending up a few miles further in Galveston, across the ferry (more shorebirds, but hotels for the night).

Then I got to thinking... if a 20-year old athlete, who has rode 550 miles between Los Angeles and San Francisco is only doing 55 miles, then what chance would I, a 26 (soon to be 27)-year old whose sole cycling experience is riding an 8 mile route round trip to work 2 days a week, have? Not to mention have a teammate with possibly no cycling experience go with me for the Houston Audubon Bird-a-thon?

So I changed my game plan. Now I plan to do 30 miles, all within the Houston I-610 Loop (so I can still wimp out and hop on a bus if I get too exhausted). I'm planning on hitting all of the major inner-loop hotspots, in order: Russ Pittman Park, Rice University, Hermann Park, University of Houston, Sam Houston Park, Buffalo Bayou Park, Memorial Park/Houston Arboretum, West 11th Street Park, and White Oak Bayou Park. I've made a crude map of the stops (the route isn't exact, it's just a general idea). Map

So there you have it. A full day of Urban birding by bicycle. Now I just need to wait until April :)