Gaines Creek Park and Gaines Creek Greenbelt (Austin, TX) – December 2020

 As I had time-off from work which I needed to burn, I was spending my time exploring new places (things which I could’ve/should’ve visited during the time of the Georgetown Running Club 2020 Summer Tour).  Because I’d hit many areas in my region, and started looking at other ones on the south side of the city that would be relatively easy to get to (and have decent parking).  These two places were pretty close to each other, so I figured I could hit them both within the same day.

 Gaines Creek Park is a small municipal park located in southwest Austin.  As it’s bordered by some parkways and neighborhoods, the time is limited, and probably serves more as a wildlife habitat.  There’s a single access point, but the trail splits off in three directions (left, right, and straight-ahead).  No matter which way you went, you’d end up doubling back to one of the others.  These were trails between trees, without a lot of variation beyond that.  For the local residents a good place for a quiet easy walk.  It didn’t take long for me to have covered all the paths.

 A short drive nearby was the Gaines Creek Greenbelt.  That had the potential to be more extensive, but even Google Maps couldn’t tell me what the boundaries were or what the trails were (as it could with most other places I went to).  There was some minor elevation change along the trail, but the vast majority of it was pretty similar to what I saw at Gaines Creek Park (so not really worth taking pictures of).  Parts of this look like it had been designed and/or used by off-road bikes too.  I’d follow a path until it became unclear, backtrack to a turn-off I hadn’t done yet, and repeat.

 One branch I followed brought me to a surprising area.  I saw some non-nature colors in the distance, and the path was taking towards it.  I discovered a labyrinth which someone had built, with many different dream-catchers and ribbons hanging from the trees.  I also liked how there was a stone mound with a statue of Ganesh on it.  My curiosity was very piqued as I wonder who built this, when, and how often it was used.  After marveling for a period of time (and walking the labyrinth), I did venture farther down the path.  I came behind a neighborhood and there was a woman standing with her dog in her fenced yard.  I announced my presence and inquired about the labyrinth.  The woman said she’d lived in the house for a decade, and the labyrinth had been there as long as she could remember.  While she had no information about who built it or used it, it was still nice to have that tidbit that it’d been there for a bit.  Sometimes you do need to take that path you’ve never been on before, because you don’t know what you’ll find.