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.
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