I was reading my e-mails as I usually do first thing in the morning. There are normally anywhere between 100 and 150 every day mostly blog related. It usually takes a good hour to go through them all. I glanced at the weather link on my computer and saw that the day was supposed to get in the 70’s and would be sunny and the hiking itch suddenly was beginning to get to me. I thought about it for about 10 seconds and told myself that a good hike was just what I should do after the inactivity of the past couple of weeks due mainly to the wet weather.

That was all I needed in the way of encouragement so I went through my usual preparations, water, apple’s, camera, sunscreen and a change of clothes and loaded up the car. First though, I emailed my walking buddy to see if she wanted to join me apologizing for the last minute arrangements and received a phone call back from her saying that she had a party she had to go to even though hiking would have been her first choice.

I drove to McKinney Roughs and entered through the main entrance. There were only a couple of cars in the lot and one couple and their dog were just heading out as I went through my usual preparations, boots, suntan lotion, camera belt, backpack, water bottle and hat. Grabbing my walking sticks I headed towards the office to sign in and pay my $2.00. On the way, I walked past the flower garden they have planted that attract so many butterflies and took a couple of pictures of them. Butterflies are frustrating camera subjects as they either fly off just when you are ready to take the picture or have their wings closed and waiting  for the right moment just as they open them can sometimes take a while and they always choose to settle on the flower furthermost away from you.

I decided that I would walk Coyote Road going down and Riverside coming back up. In retrospect, I should have done that in reverse as Riverside is one big uphill climb and would have been much easier going down. I hit Coyote Road and the very first thing I noticed was the myriad of footprints and red flag markers along the trail. The footprints both human and horse were beginning to dry and made for very difficult walking and quite hazardous as it was real easy to turn an ankle on the very rough terrain. I plodded on taking great care where I stepped which slowed me down even slower than I normally walk but as it was turning out to be a hot day and very pleasant to walk in, I was not really complaining. I passed a couple of places where the horse riders can rest their animals and take a rest themselves. It’s great to see how LCRA as the park owners try to cultivate an active interest with the people that use their parks.

I passed a clump of very small flowers and on the way coming back, there were still a lot of the little yellow daisies on the level part of Riverside. The trees are beginning to turn very brown and many have already shed their leaves. Everything has a decidedly winter look to it with more browns than greens as you will see by the video. Still, it was great to get out after the past two weeks of relative inactivity. I had the trails to myself and didn’t see any other hikers. I guess the people in the parking lot ahead of me took different trails than me.

Enjoy the video.

McKinney Roughs Slideshow 12-13-2016 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.