Pfluger City Park, Gilleland Creek, and Bohl’s Park (Pflugerville, TX) – June 2020

 It had rained hard this morning when I went out to head to another place as part of the Georgetown Running Club’s 2020 Summer Tour.  Now I’d been to Pfluger City Park before to do some 5k races (usually for Pflugerville Pets Alive), and I had geocached along Gilleland Creek before.  There’s a lot of territory for Pfluger City Park, and since it was overcast when I arrived (parking right off of Railroad Ave), I headed west to where the area would be very open (and no shade).  Gilleland Creek was swollen, so it spilled over the trail in a few places.  One of the bridges I went over was only an inch before the water went over that too.

 I followed the trail up to about Pfenning Lane, as by that time the cloud had cleared and the sun was beating down on me.  The trail continued on, and I noted that so I could come back another time to complete it.  Back at Pfluger City Park I took a picture of the veteran’s memorial, and then followed Gilleland Creek downstream.  The section of the trail which went under Railroad Ave was flooded, so I just walked across the road to pick the path back up.

 This section had some shade, and then went under the intersection of 685 and Pecan Street, which brought me technically to Bohl’s Park.  A short distance beyond that I got an amusing chuckle on an unfinished intersection.  That’s not uncommon as areas are developed.  But they generally don’t have a stop sign coming from the unfinished section.  One interesting bit was finding a historical sign about the bottling plant which existed there around the early 20^th Century.  Nice little find, but only visible from the trail, not the street were the passing motorist wouldn’t see it.

Trailhead Park (Austin, TX) – June 2020

 So to find new places to go for the Georgetown Running Club 2020 Summer Tour, I used Google Maps and started spiraling out from where I lived to see what parks I might’ve overlooked.  I came across Trailhead Park, which looked like it would be pretty good.  I’d just have to make a turn off of 620, go past a housing development, and the access point would be there on the left.  Not only did I recognize the neighborhood for taking a step-child over to a birthday party ten years ago, but I recognized the corner at 620 were my car’s engine blew up a decade before that.  Just a little bit of interesting context there.

 Trailhead Park looks like it’s a small sports park with a few pavilions, so chances are if you drove past it you’d overlook it.  One needs to go on the other side of the sports field to find where the actual trail begins.  While it starts paved, it switches to packed dirt and rock soon enough.  There’s some rock stairs and slopes as you go behind some houses and drop in elevation to reach the main part of the trail.  That main path follows a creek, which was mostly dry.  There’s also some sewer vents along the way, so you’ll notice a particular smell here and there (which also means not a lot of animals).

 There’s one or two small bridges over some side streams as you get deeper into the path.  The trail is shaped like a reversed “J” which starts to curve back when it comes upon a rock wall and a preserve.  The curve-back part goes up a steep hill with no shade, and deposits you at a neighborhood cul-de-sac.  I did the main portion of the trail on this trip, but I did notice a number of side trails, which I’ll come back and hit on later visits.

Lake Pflugerville (Pflugerville, TX) – June 2020

 I was first introduced to the walking trail around Lake Pflugerville in 2014, and it was the location I ran a number of charity 5k races (including the Thanksgiving Day Pflugerville Pfun Run which I did every year from 2015 up until the pandemic cancelled it).  I also walked this trail a number of times on the weekends when I lived in the area.  As the Georgetown Summer Tour began, I knew I would need to do a lap there.  It wasn’t a “new place” by any means, but one where I could get some nice pictures.  Face it, I was so onboard with taking pictures of nature things.

 It was a bright sunny day when I was there, with no clouds or wind, so the lake was calm.  The trail had been closed for a couple weeks when the pandemic started (which I’m sure thrilled the people who lived right next to it), but it was finally open again.  Of course, the beach area was still closed.  Not a lot of people were on the trail, so it was nice to enjoy the wide-open spaces.  And when I saw the cows huddled under a tree across the street, I knew I needed to stop someplace to get a hamburger after the stroll.

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.