Bull Creek District Park (Austin, TX) – August 2020

 The Georgetown Running Club’s 2020 Summer Tour was scheduled to conclude on Labor Day, so I was trying to get in as many miles (and places) as I could.  I hadn’t fully explored all of Bull Creek, so it made sense to head back that way.  This time I figured I’d start at a different trail-head to experience a new portion of the trail.  As I was scoping out on Google Maps the other trail entrances, I noticed a marking which said “ancient tracks.”  It provided no other information, but I figured I’d start there (the entrance off of Lakewood Drive).

 Now I was picturing the dinosaur footprints like I’d found in Cedar Park in a river bed off of Parmer (north of 1431) back in 2009.  (Those tracks which now back up to housing development, and no longer reachable, by the way.)  I started off looking around for these tracks going through various trails close to the creek.  Some people I encountered didn’t even know there were such things here.  I soon figured it probably made my sense to walk the dry portions of the creek to see what I could find there.  I eventually did locate them, and they were wagon tracks, like what was over by the “round rock” where that city is named for.  Hardly “ancient” tracks, but still a nice historical find.  Pity there was no marker to provide any information.

 I loved the big rock near the tracks (which I thought looked like a turtle), and moss cliffs behind it.  From there, I just zig-zag along various portions of the trail heading “upstream” (towards the 360 bridge, and areas I’d been before).  There was a nice triangle or diamond-shaped rock out in the still water which I took a picture of.  Eventually, I made my way around to the other side of the creek to get another shot from the opposite view.

 Eventually I came back to my starting point, and worked my way over to a grassy area with what appeared to have a rock wall.  It caught my attention because it had steps.  Behind that was a naturally-formed area created by these rock slabs.  I could just picture some fantasy creatures living here.  The trails of Bull Creek District Park go all over the hillside with some nice elevation changes, and it pretty shady, so was a good place to go on a hot summer day.

 

Forest Bluff of East Brushy Creek (Round Rock, TX) – August 2020

 For this trip, as part of the Georgetown Running Club’s 2020 Summer Tour, I went over to a place near where I used to live.  Sure it wasn’t a new trail to me, but it had been a couple years since I’d been this way, so it felt new.  I didn’t recall seeing the Bigfoot crossing sign the last time I was out this way, and never recalled seeing any bipedal non-humans in previous years here.  I don’t know if this trail has a specific name.  There’s an access point at Joe B. Freeman Park (off of Forest Ridge Blvd), and another near the Forest Grove HOA Park.  There’s a neighborhood here called Forest Bluff, thus I always called the trail that way.

 The trail started out being tree-lined, so it provided a nice bit of shade as you went west following Brushy Creek.  When it gets near the access point for the Lake Forest HOA Park, the trail opens up and becomes less-shady.  To continue west on the trail you have to go along the bridge on Kenney Fort Blvd, and there it really opens up.  Eventually the trail takes you to the Play For All Abilities Park, which was off A.W. Grimes Blvd.  I crossed Grimes to take a picture of the how the trail continued west, and did a 180 and headed back the way I came.