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.
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