River Place “Little Fern” Trail (Austin, TX) – October 2020

I returned here the following weekend, but this time I drove to the bottom of the hill to start at the trail entrance by the fountain.  There was a small pavilion there were a lady was stopping people and charging them $10 to go on the trail.  I asked what the money was for, to which she responded it went to the HOA.  And when I asked if the HOA used that money towards maintenance of this public place, she had no idea.  Until I knew it wasn’t being used to line someone’s pockets (like most Austin HOA’s do), I wasn’t paying them shit.

Part of this I’d done last week, but I was going to the section I’d missed which was called the “Little Fern” trail.  Hey, I didn’t name it.  Because this was perpendicular to the main trail, it had hardly any elevation change.  For the most part this followed a stream, and there were rock walls to traverse.  It wasn’t as challenging as the main trail.  And I did see bunches of ferns, I guess the name made sense.

The trail concluded at a third entrance point.  I’d seen that earlier in the day, but it was hard to tell what it was.  That third entrance was between two houses in the neighborhood, and on a hill, so not a lot of parking in the vicinity.  That was a good place locals to come into the trail that way.

Once I was done with that, I did a bit of the main trail in order to fill out my day (and as long as my beverage lasted).  But I know that at some point in the future I need to start at the bottom portion and hike the main trail up so it’d all be downhill on the way out.

River Place Canyon Trail (Austin, TX) – September 2020

 This was one of the places I attempted to go while the GRC Summer Tour challenge was still going on, but when I attempted to park near the trailhead I was chased away by a police officer.  He commented the trail was only for residents of the nearby community.  Really, I didn’t see any signs which said that, nor was there anything like that online.  In fact, the city listed this as a public park which was open for all.  Since the community that it’s near is one of the “private fiefdom” HOA’s (which are so common in Austin), I’m sure that was being done to keep “deplorables” from visiting it.

 I ventured back towards the end of September, and on this day there were only a few people present.  No issues with parking nearby and walking on the trail.  There’s a sign at the entrance with a map to give you an idea of how the trail goes.  It has a length of 5.5 miles, and over 4000 steps because there’s an 800 foot elevation change.  To put that into perspective, 800 feet is over twice height of Statue of Liberty.

 Where I started the trail was primarily “downhill,” which meant it was going to be a bear on the way out.  The trail goes down, comes up a little, goes down even more, levels a bit, and then down again.  I was able to get a good view of the Hill Country when I was at the start of the trail, but soon most of that was obscured by trees.  Which is fine, because I like seeing trees.

 There’s a couple pictures of me looking down the stairs, but I don’t think it was really able to capture the elevation change.  This is a rugged and demanding trail because of the way it was designed.  It gave quite the workout, and was worth every step.  About a three-quarters of the way down there was a major (only) branch to the trail, which I figured I’d do on another trip.  I was heading for the conclusion of the main route on this trip.  Lots of good nature things to see also, including some nice hanging moss.

 The bottom of the trail is another entrance, this one by a pond (with a fountain) near the same road I started out on five miles uphill.  Knowing this was available, I’ll plan on parking here when I come back to check out the side trail.  Then came the task of hiking those same miles back on a mostly uphill journey.  I hadn’t needed to drink much of my water on the way down, but consumed a lot on the way up.  I was nearly done with the second bottle I carry with me as I emerged near where I parked.  This was a great find!  So I missed out on the points it would’ve earned me during the GRC Summer Tour challenge, but the experience of doing this was just as rewarding!

St. Edwards Park “West Side” (Austin, TX) – September 2020

 I came back to St. Edwards Park the next day so I could explore the trails on the west side of Bull Creek.  A good portion of the trails on this side are going uphill without a lot of tree cover.  I didn’t take as many pictures on this trip, because most of the trails look similar.  I stuck to the parameter, and eventually came down in elevation back to the creek bed.  Sure it would’ve been easy to cross, but I was trying to do all the paths on this side (not what I’d done yesterday).

 I ended up having to do a 180, and went back up the steep stepped path.  From the bottom, I took a picture looking up, but it doesn’t capture the angle of this nor the elevation change.  I would’ve been nice to have a shot of someone standing at the top for size reference, but I wasn’t gonna take someone’s picture without their knowledge.  At any rate, when I climbed back to the top, I took another picture looking down, and it still didn’t capture the angle.

 After taking various side trails, I ended back on the ledge again.  In addition to some great shots of the treetops, I also took a selfie which had the correct angle.  The one I’m actually smiling in you can see the edge of the ledge (near my hand) and part of the path on the lower section below.  I think by then I’d crisscrossed enough of the trails that I covered everything here.