This is about a bicycle ride around Laguna Atascosa, a shallow, freshwater lake that covers about 3,500 acres in the southwest side of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in Cameron County, Texas. This is not a difficult ride, but it is not for road bikes. On this overcast November 2023 Tuesday, winds gusted to more than twenty miles per hour.
I left the Visitor’s Center on my Surly Long Haul Trucker, which is well-suited for this type of cycling. I pedaled west on Lakeside Drive, a good caliche road, a mile and a half to Osprey Overlook, which offers a view of Laguna Atascosa. From there I went west on Gator Pond Trail, asphalt for about the first third of a mile.
The asphalt ends at Alligator Pond where there is a boardwalk overlooking the pond. There is often at least one alligator there and many wading birds, but not on this day. Alligator Pond is just a couple hundred feet from the shore of Laguna Atascosa.
From Alligator Pond the trail is dirt and caliche. It follows the shoreline of Laguna Atascosa through thornscrub for three quarters of a mile and then continues southwest and crosses coastal prairie. The trail or road is mostly good caliche but dirt and rutted in spots.
Five miles from the Visitor’s Center Alligator Trail intersects with FM 106, where a cyclist must ride the shoulder of the asphalt road west about a third of a mile to West Lake Trail, which runs in a northerly direction. Here the rider must lift his or her bike over a low gate to access the trail.
West Lake Trail runs about two miles along the drainage from Laguna Atascosa, across coastal prairie to the west side of the lake. It runs generally north another five miles to the northern-most end of the lake. The trail crosses wetland where there are usually many birds, prairie dotted with yuca, and over lomas thick with thornscrub. At the northern-most end of the lake, West Lake Trail continues north to Cayo Atascoso.
At this point of Laguna Atascosa, a bridge crosses a structure that allows water to flow from Cayo Atascoso to the lake. There Luttes Camp Trail begins and follows along the east side of the lake passing stands of mesquite and rolling, brushy areas with yuca rising above grasses and low brush. It runs about three miles to County Road.
I pedaled south on the caliche surface of County Road a bit over a mile to Lakeside Drive and then back to the Visitor’s Center. It’s about 18 miles round trip.
My ride continued east on Steve Thompson Wildlife Drive to Plover Point and a bit beyond, and back to the Visitor’s Center.
