Walnut Creek Trail (Austin, TX) – November 2020

 So I parked at Balcones District Park (located off of Amherst and Duval) and went east until I reached Mopac.  Google Maps showed a trail which seemed parallel the train tracks going north for a bit, so that was my target location.  After a short distance of walking next to tracks, I could see a trail veer off, so I followed it.  It was a nice woody game trail I was following, but there was no critters around.  After about fifteen minutes I found out why, because I stumbled upon a huge homeless camp.  Well, I spotted the blue of the tarps long before they saw me, and guessing by their demeanor, these were not the “friendly” variety.  Well, scratch that.  I did an about-face and quietly exited that area.

 Back at Mopac, I decided to head east along the Walnut Creek Trail, which I’d started some of the last time I was in this area.  I could see a couple of side trails which went north to the Edgecreek Condos and south to ACC Northridge, but I stayed on the main path.  I followed that until I went under Metric Blvd and came to Gracywoods Neighborhood Park.  Overall this was a nice walking area, and well-suited for bikes, but this was truly a metropolitan trail as there were signs of urban sprawl always nearby.  It was a good walk, and a decent place to go if you lived in the area, but it wasn’t the “outdoors” feel that I really liked.