A panorama view of the Roughs.

I met with my friend BJ at the McKinney Roughs main parking area which was totally full up with cars to the degree that we ended up in the overflow parking. Most unusual as generally there are just a few cars and lots of parking places. This was OK with us as it was also the start of the trails we were planning on hiking. Turns out there were two Teachers Seminars going on plus the summer camp for the kids. We wandered over to the Office to pay out $2:00 (special rate for us old fogy’s) and hit the trails.

The few flowers that we found on the walk.

We had planned to walk the long loop which included Coyote Road , Roadrunner and then Yaupon which would have brought us back where we started except that when we arrived at the trail that would have taken us to Roadrunner, it was still blocked off due to a major washout and there was no way through to continue along the trails we had originally chosen.

Walking along Riverside by the water.

We didn’t let this deter us and took the Riverside trail which followed the river for a couple of hundred yards before turning into one continuous up hill climb. The walk along the river was very nice and the view of the river as it flowed along was very soothing. I should mention that all of the trails had probably within the last day, been dressed and were all in great shape. Real easy walking in most places and the only difficult section was on the uphill climb away from the river where it was all loose pebble stones.

Some of the trails we walked on.

Riverside turned into Bobcat Ridge which brought us back directly into the Parking Lot that contained our cars. Altogether, we walked 5.5 miles and even though it had warmed up and the humidity was high, was definitely much cooler by starting earlier in the day. The new water bottles worked out just fine. I finished one and was halfway through the other when we arrived back at our starting point. Money well spent. Needless to say, I was totally soaked as I usually am requiring a change of clothes before driving into Bastrop to reward myself with a Latte. I tried to get the lady at the window to take an earlier Starbucks cup from this morning to re-cycle and she gave me some lame story about them not being able to take stuff back through. Probably not her fault as she was following her instructions but for a minute, it really teed me off. Oh well…

A panorama of the views in the distance…

As with all of these groups of pictures, if you click on anyone of them they will enlarge and you can view them by using the side arrows. Use the “Escape” key to get back to normal size.