Spicewood Valley Trail – Primrose Path (Austin, TX) – June 2020

 As part of the Georgetown Running Club’s 2020 Summer Tour challenge, just to be able to “mark this one off my list,” I went over to my old neighborhood for a trail which I knew was there.  I’d explored this one when I’d lived in the area, so it made a good reason to come back over and do it again.  Of course when I lived in the vicinity I’d walk to the bottom of the hill where Scotland Well intersected with Spicewood Springs and enter the trail there.  Only once before had I worked my way through the neighborhood and entered off of Primrose Path, which is why I’m referring this to by the street name now.  On Google Maps it calls this “Spicewood Valley Trail,” but as you can by the sign the trail was also “Upper Bull Creek” (or part thereof).

 Starting at Primrose Path, the majority of the trail descends, so that’s why I parked there so I’d get a good workout on the way back.  The funky rock with the hole in the middle was still there from when I was first on the trail a couple years ago, although the road sign placed by the local scout troop was new to me.

 I turned back once I reached Scotland Well and came back the way I come, but went a little farther upstream.  There was a short additional part which took me to a nice rock face which would be good to sit and soak up the sun (as someone was doing when I got there).  I tried to take a picture to get a sense of the high up the rocks were, but it was hard to get the angle correct.  Beyond this area I’d have to climb up about twelve feet of rock face which would bring me to an open field, so that was a good place to call this hike complete.

Upper Bull Creek Greenbelt (Austin, TX) – June 2020

Here’s where I was guilty of not paying attention to my surroundings.  I’ve been driving down 360 pretty frequently since I first arrived in the area in 2002.  And many times I would come down Spicewood Springs Road to reach 360 as part of my morning commute.  I saw there was another road near that intersection, and a huge area of trees, but it never registered that it was a place where I could hike.  As I said, I was guilty of not paying attention.

 

Because of the challenge of the Georgetown Running Club Summer Tour, I started using Google Maps to find parks and trails that I hadn’t been on before.  (Thank you, Bill, for making that part of the challenge.)  Yeah, I kicked myself a bit when I noticed the number of ones which were relatively close to me … and had been close for years.  Places I could’ve been going for years, especially during my “lean times” when I was always looking for free shit to do.  Well, finding them late was better than not finding them at all.

 

I went down the Old Spicewood Springs Road, which took me under 360, and then to the other side.  There wasn’t a lot of parking in the area.  I was able to walk briefly on the Inga VanNynatten Memorial Trail nearby, but I spent the majority of this time on the “Upper” portion of the Bull Creek Trail.  At one point, I followed the road back down to another spur of the trail and explored that portion.  I didn’t get all of this done obviously, but I knew there were other access points on the trail downstream I could try later.

Berry Springs Park (Georgetown, TX) – May 2020

 This was my last hike of the Memorial Day weekend, which the beginning of the Georgetown Running Club Summer Tour, thus I felt an appropriate location was in order.  Berry Springs Park was where the monthly Vern’s No Frills 5k took place for something like thirty years (and I only discovered it for the last four).  When we’d do the Vern’s events, we had a specific route we’d run, but the organizer (Bill) always commented there were “miles of other available trails.”  Well, I saw that as a challenge to go on parts I hadn’t been on before.

 

I started on the course we’d do for Vern’s (to do it again for “old times sake”) and then went an explored some of the side areas.  I went as far as my beverage lasted me, so I didn’t explore all of the area, but I think I did pretty good.  There was still more to do here, and that would require another trip.  But I got out and enjoyed it, and that was the important thing.

Rattan Creek Park (Austin, TX) – May 2020

 As I looked for more places to hike as part of the Georgetown Running Club Summer Tour, I recalled a nearby park which I’d taken a few afternoon walks previously.  Now I hadn’t known of a place called “Rattan Creek” until a couple years earlier when I discovered too late there was a 5k race held there.  I thought what a bummer, as the park was nice and close to do a run, so I went and investigated it.  And when I arrived I realized I’d been at this place before.  Many, many times before.

 

About a decade earlier I actually lived a couple blocks from one of secondary access points off the street called Marimba Trail.  On the weekends I’d take Stoop over here, enter via the access point, and walk the parameter keeping the fence next to us.  There was a street which intersected part of the park (Tamayo Drive) which we’d cross, and continued to follow the fence line.  We did that every weekend for a year, and I confess that I never paid much attention to the actual trail which was there.  And once I’d moved away from the vicinity, I’d forgotten all about it.

 

So now it had become a “close by” place to go when I didn’t want to walk around the neighborhood or to drive to a place where I could walk unmolested by traffic.

Brushy Creek Trail (Cedar Park, TX) – May 2020

 With the lock-down as the result of the pandemic, any of the races which had been planned by the Georgetown Running Club had been cancelled.  But the GRC organizers (mainly Bill, I believe) came up with the idea of the GRC Summer Tour.  As I noted in my “Five Years Running” blog, this was a challenge starting on Memorial Day weekend going through Labor Day weekend.  The idea was to get outside to parks and other “natural areas” to enjoy those spaces.  On the Facebook page for GRC, we’d upload the pictures we took of the places we went, so all could share the experience.  In addition to taking pictures of where you visited, it was fun to take selfies at those places.

 

The first area I went was one of my old stand-by hiking locations, Brushy Creek.  For me, it was easy to shoot up Parmer Lane to reach the access point at the “Lake Park.”  The majority of the pictures here (the water falls and the gorge) were taken close to Twin Lake YMCA Camp.  The other shots were from random sections of the main trail area.  This was a good place to start the Summer Tour.  I figured I could reasonably hit a different park each day of the weekend.