I just had to get out and exercise so I chose to take a short walk at McKinney Roughs. I figured that the paths would have dried up after the last time I was there as it had been several days. I chose a route that I knew would not be muddy except maybe in one place close to the river.

I arrived around 10:00 am with the weather still cool. There were only a few cars in the lot for a Saturday and I would have expected more especially now that the weather is beginning to cool down at least, comparatively speaking. Believe me, ten degrees cooler is a lot in Texas.

I went through my usual preparations, boots, walking poles, hat, water and set off taking Riverside which I knew to be a long wide open trail which as the name suggests, leads down to the river. The top portion of this trail is pretty level before it turns and takes a fairly steep downhill grade towards the river. While the upper trail is very easy walking underfoot, the downhill part is made up of loose stones that tend to roll under your feet making for tricky walking. At one point, a female runner and her dog passed me and it didn’t appear that either of them had any problems with their footing. Oh to be young again… I also met another couple each with a dog as they walked towards me on Riverside. They were heading back in and when I asked them, replied they had had a very good walk.

 

There is still a major trail washout where Riverside joins with Bluestein but it is still possible to take Cypress which also goes  close by the river. I took the walking trail which is kind of narrow and not too well used as there is now a much wider trail that leads to the River. As I was taking pictures, a whole group of horses and riders came down the wider trail and we exchanged greetings as they walked their horses into the river and then down stream for a little bit. The riders were all ladies. I took a few pictures of them before moving on. I could hear them for several minutes as they were obviously enjoying themselves. Not sure about the horses though…

I followed Cyprus with the intention of crossing over onto Pine Ridge and then to Bobcat Ridge. Somewhere, at the intersection, I took the wrong trail and ended up following the dreaded Pine Ridge Trail which would take me up and down many steps built into the trail. I purposely had tried to avoid this part but through my own stupidity, ended up taking it anyway. Oh well, at least I got much more of a workout climbing up and down those dreaded steps.

I had the opportunity to take a closer look at the Zip Lining Project that is currently ongoing in the Park. It looks to me that there will be several towers and several different lines and not all are interconnected. It will be interesting to see the finished product. Not sure if I will be brave enough to try it unless it is a quick way to get from one trail to another.

I managed to find a surprising number of flowers that are still in bloom compared to the last time I was here. Maybe that last shower had something to do with it.

I continued along Pine Ridge which is actually a nice walk as long as you are not climbing steps until I connected with Bobcat Ridge which I knew would pass close to the Parking Lot where my car was parked. All in all, it was a very enjoyable walk, much better than the last time when I had 20 pounds of mud on each boot. Below are pictures of the trails and other interesting things that I observed on this trip.

I covered almost six miles and as I usually do when I am at the Roughs, finished the day with a quick drive into Bastrop for a Grande Latte to help me while away the time as I listened to Stephen King’s  “The Talisman” on the long trip home.

The panorama at the top is made up of five different pictures. As with all of these groups, if you click  on any one of them, they will enlarge and you can move along by using the side arrows. Use the “Escape” button to return to normal.