When traveling, I apply the three B's (bikes, breakfast and a bakery) to gauge my locale. I love having places to ride my bike; breakfast is a good barometer for a community's cuisine scene; and I'm a sucker for baked confections (cookies, brownies and cakes). Through my exhaustive research on towns with good bakeries, I've discovered this common thread: They are darn nice places with happy folks to boot.

And speaking of boots, Weatherford (population 36,251) is known for its Western heritage. Located 30 miles west of Fort Worth, things get more “cowtown” in Weatherford. It is the “Cutting Horse Capital of the World.” But there's a whole different kind of riding that Weatherford has to offer. It requires a saddle, but it's a wee bit smaller than the equine kind.

Weatherford is home to one the best mountain bike trails in North Texas. Quanah Hill is a seven-mile singletrack masterpiece near Lake Weatherford. It's a 50-minute drive from my house, so it's one of my regular rides. My wife, Allison, has never ridden Quanah Hill, and I've heard that downtown Weatherford is flush with some exceptional eateries, so we hatch a plan to spend a long weekend in Weatherford and search for those final two B's in my trifecta.

Thursday night, I fly solo as I dock our Airstream trailer at River Valley RV Resort near Lipan. Allison is driving in with our two hound dogs Friday afternoon. The lush, emerald-green RV park has spacious pull-through spots and direct access to the Brazos River. Quaint and quiet, the River Valley is a mere 20 minutes from Weatherford. It will serve as our weekend base camp, and it's the launch point for Sunday's grand adventure, something I didn't expect in Parker County. No saddle required.

Biking the Hill

Friday morning, I pull into the parking lot for the Quanah Hill trailhead, which is spacious with all the amenities: a trail map, a bathroom and a clearly marked trail entrance (bikes enter one end and hikers the other). It's 100 percent free, thanks to the Weatherford Mountain Bike Club. The main loop is named 1886 and features four additional trails that branch off of it to circumnavigate the entire 100-acre property.

A great trail is just like a well-written song, and Quanah Hill has all the beats. It starts with a nice, ethereal flow through a meadow, climbs into the oaks and cedars, and undulates, rolls and drops through rock features. As you near the end, you see the asphalt of West Lake Drive and you think — you're done. But you still have a crescendo as you ascend again before dropping into a great flow, and bam, you're back in the parking lot. Play it again, Sam, or … let's go have breakfast.

I head downtown to the courthouse square to assess my options. Weatherford's courthouse is ornate and grand. The architectural style is French Empire with a limestone façade and a contrasting red roof. Its center tower watches over a busy confluence of U.S. Highway 180 and FM 51. The restaurants and retail spots along the square are laid out in four protected segments north and south of the courthouse. They all feel like their own quiet little neighborhoods with walkways and trees.

I sit down for breakfast at Whistle Hill's Cafe on the southwest corner of the square and order The Standard: two eggs over easy, crispy hash browns, two strips of bacon and one biscuit with a little bowl of gravy. The spot is a hit, and Weatherford has already achieved the two B status: breakfast and bikes. Check! I take a quick spin around the square, and I'm a bit north of the courthouse when I see it. Hometown Bakery! Its sweet treats beckon, but in an unusual act of restraint, I decide to wait until tomorrow. Allison's coming, and we'll saunter and discover the bakery together.

I take the meandering drive back to River Valley RV Resort and plop down in the Airstream to plan the logistics for Sunday's grand finale. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has leased paddling and fishing access spots with Fuller's Folly River Ranch and Sandy Bottoms River Company on the Brazos River, upstream from Lake Granbury. It's a five-mile float from our RV park to Sandy Bottoms. The river access points require 24-hour advance notice, so I call and make arrangements to park Allison's Jeep at Sandy Bottoms. We'll float down the river and shuttle our stand-up paddleboards back in the Jeep.

After Allison joins me, we close out Friday night at Fire Oak Grill on the northeast side of the square. The hostess seats us in a cozy booth underneath a pressed tin ceiling, and we enjoy our meal cooked to perfection.

Lake and Bake

This was supposed to be Allison's inaugural ride at Quanah Hill, but it poured last night, and the trail is too muddy to ride. We make alternative plans to hit some of Weatherford's green spaces.

On our way to Lake Weatherford, we stop at Mama Veras, a food trailer with burritos, tacos and totchos (tater tot nachos). We opt for the Bacon Con Chile Burrito. The trailer chefs make a sauce with bacon, tomato, onion and jalapeño and pour that over eggs, tots, beans and cheese and wrap it all up in a tidy tortilla. Bellies full of bacon and burritos, we drive to the north side of the lake and walk our dogs along The Boardwalk at Lake Weatherford. It is 4,313 feet long, making it the longest floating boardwalk in the country. The city has a master plan to build a paved bike path that circumnavigates the lake.

I've been thinking about Hometown Bakery all morning. We grab a coffee at Ironworks on the southwest side of the square and chill in one of downtown's “parklets,” a deck area with bench seats, planters of fresh flowers and strings of Edison lights overhead. The strong Americano coffee I'm drinking has me primed for something sweet. On our way to the bakery, we stop at a funky little vintage clothing store called The Haps. I buy a couple patches of rock bands from my youth (I guess AC/DC and Van Halen qualify as vintage). We walk into Hometown Bakery, and the delectable frenzy begins. I purchase four mocha brownies, a pumpkin muffin and two brookies (half brownie, half chocolate chip). Yep, this will do. My third B is achieved, and Weatherford is my new favorite town in Texas.

Weatherford does have a sweet reputation. Parker County and Weatherford are the “Peach Capital of Texas.” The annual Parker County Peach Festival is held every July and draws thousands of visitors downtown.

Before dinner we stop for a stroll at Chandor Gardens, one of Weatherford's must-see green spaces. Englishman and renowned portrait artist Douglas Chandor started building a 3.5-acre oasis on this caliche hill in 1936. He utilized brick from nearby Thurber, old soda bottles and marbles to create a whimsical space with eight water features surrounded by lush flora and ornate nooks inspired by Chinese architecture. Be sure to take a stroll on the enchanting nature trail.

Dinner is at Zeno's on the Square, a classic Italian eatery. My suggestion: Order Zeno's Famous Pasta Wheel. It is fresh egg pasta tossed in a flame-warmed (this happens at your table) parmesan cheese wheel, the size of a small car tire. It's fresh and creamy pasta perfection.

Floating the Brazos

Allison and I plop our stand-up paddleboards into the lazily flowing Brazos River and enter the hidden world between two shores. We're floating the tail end of the John Graves Scenic Riverway. Each side of the river is shrouded with trees along steep embankments. The only signs of the modern world are mangled barbed-wire fences on the crest of the embankments, or the occasional car tire that appears underneath our boards like a ghost ship.

The river is shallow, but our boards allow us to float channels without dragging our board's fins. We thread the needle between two sandbars and approach the cliff faces of Milliken Bluff on river left. The river bends to the right, and we enter a long stretch with deep water. We pass a large sandbar on river right and see people for the first time in over an hour. They've started a campfire for a Sunday retreat on the river. We bid them a good morning and they toast us with their camp coffee.

Sandy Bottoms River Company has placed a Texas Parks and Wildlife sign on their beach, and I'm glad they did because it's impossible to distinguish property boundaries when you're secluded on the river. We pull out along a pristine stretch of beach after a pleasant two-hour paddle along a river I thought I knew. I had no idea this adventure was right in my backyard. It is the perfect end to a food-fueled adventure weekend in Weatherford and Parker County.

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