Barton Creek Trail to Zilker Park (Austin, TX) – October 2020

 This was part three of my return to Barton Creek Trai, and I parked at the same place I did previously (the trail access point on 360 just east of Mopac).  The goal for this leg was to head all the way to Zilker Park, which I’d done the last time I was here (over a decade ago), and I wanted to see how much had changed.  Of course, the first thing was the lack of water.  That allowed me to cross some trails I hadn’t been able to do on the decade-ago visit.  Plus that allowed me to venture out into these areas which once had many feet of water covering them.  The climbing walls were something I don’t recall seeing before.  I wonder if the foliage was thick before so I couldn’t make them out clearly, or if I’d missed the parts of the trail these were on.

 The rock formations of the climbing walls were breath-taking, and I’m sure something studied by any geology student.  One would want to be able to use their X-ray vision to look at each of the layers to see what interesting fossils could be there.  And back long ago when I did do some rock climbing, these walls were way beyond my experience level.  Still, what a beautiful site.

 While I did pass some other access points which I vaguely recalled, once again the trail looked so different to me that I didn’t remember most of it.  It was like being on it for the first time.  The day was nice and sunny, and the bonus was since I was doing this in the middle of the week, I encountered few others on the trail (so my enjoyment of the outdoor space wasn’t being ruined by fucktards).

 About two-thirds of the way towards Zilker, the trail curves to the right.  That looked a little familiar to me, and I was surprised to see some water here.  It was still, and had a film on it, so not something you’d want to frolic in.  I remember how on the previous visit the trail deposited me out at the green vistas of Zilker Park.  Of course now the Zilker trail-head was surrounded by one of Austin’s many homeless camps.  At least the trail was clean and free of their garbage, which implied they didn’t come this way.

 Regardless, that was my turn-around spot, so I head back.  I explored a couple smaller side trails on the return trip.  Now there was a section of the trail which was marked with a danger sign, and provided an alternate route which went far around the area which was prone to rock falls.  Of course I went through, because it provided an additional sense of adventure.

 

Barton Creek Trail and the Violet Crown Trail (Austin, TX) – October 2020

 This was part two of my return to Barton Creek Trail.  I decided to park at the trail access point on 360 just east of Mopac (near the business park which has Gehan Homes and Thiel Dentistry).  Years ago when I did this trail, I parked here, went down to the Mopac bridge entrance, and then turned around and headed back the other direction (downstream), so I would cover all parts of the trail.  The plan this time was to do this again.  Heh, didn’t quite go that way.

 The area around the trail entrance was nicely manicured, and I don’t recall it being like this.  Also, it was in the middle of the week, so the trail was open and not monitored.  During the weekend you needed to jump through a shit-ton of hoops to be able to get some pass to allow you to have access.  Allegedly the cost goes towards trail maintenance, but it also means you have to plan your trip about two weeks in advance considering the bureaucratic nightmare this city is.

 Once on the trail, I went left (so I would be heading upstream), and it took me under 360.  Honestly, I didn’t remember this part of the trail, but there was graffiti, garbage, and other evidence of former homeless camps and/or drug gang activity.  It wasn’t that I felt unsafe, but it did spoil the beauty of the area.  And it kept me on alert.

 There were some nice rock walls I came along, which looked vaguely familiar.  I made good time over the rugged terrain, and there was actually a point where there was a safety chain present, because the trail was so narrow and slanted.  (I took a picture of it on the way back through.)  Now if you tumbled off the edge, it would be all of twenty feet through brush, so probably not something which would hurt too badly.  I saw one area where the creek curved, and it was bone dry like the other areas I saw.  I do remember that being filled, so I couldn’t reach the other side on my last visit (circa 2004).

 I came upon one section where there was a small trail to down to the dry creek bed, and a trail going off to the left (with a purple tag).  I didn’t think anything of it, because I just assumed this would take me to where I was heading.  Most things didn’t look familiar to me, so at the time I didn’t realize I’d gotten on to the Violet Crown Trail.  Violet Crown had been added long after I’d been there the last time.  Still thinking I was heading towards the Mopac bridge, straight ahead I went.

 The train crossed smaller creek beds, and there were sections of flat stone, which I was pretty sure I would’ve recalled from my previous trip.  I even saw a nice pile of rocks which someone had stacked.  I was doing good on my beverage, so no worries there, but I did not that seemed to be a lot longer than it should be.  I could still hear traffic, so it wasn’t like I was wandering into the wilds somewhere.  Soon I came to a fork.  I could go straight ahead, or left up a steep hill on a zig-zag trail.  I stuck with the more maintained trail, and went up the hill.

 Once I saw the backside of some buildings I knew I was in a different area, but had no idea where.  I then came to a trial entrance which had the Violet Crown name on it.  The entrance to this was off of 290, just east of where it crosses Mopac.  Fuck, not where I wanted to be, but a nice discovery.  With that noted, I went back the direction I came.  Once the Violet Crown Trail rejoined the Barton Creek Trail, that’s where I figured the “path down to the dry creek bed” was the way I should’ve gone.  With where I was on my water, I’d have sufficient to come back to where I parked, so I figured I did pretty good for today.  Still lots more to explore, and I had another day this week to come back.