The view from Riverside going down towards the river
As I hadn’t been out for a while, I asked my friend BJ if she wanted to take a walk over in her neighborhood, McKinney Roughs in Bastrop. She was game and we agreed to meet at 9:30 am at the main entrance.
We both showed up on time and after paying our $2:00 each for the luxury of spending quality time on the trail, set off along the trail leading to the river, aptly named Riverside. We stopped at the new bird watching shed that has recently been erected and chatted to a couple of people already there. The water to the water feature was turned off for some reason and that was one reason there were not many birds to watch.
We pushed on and LCRA has done such a good job of trimming the vegetation around the trails that it was difficult to recognize that in fact, we were on the right trail. We eventually came to a more recognizable part and headed down towards the river. I have either gotten a lot slower or BJ is walking faster. Whatever it was, it took us a while to adjust our paces. I tend to think that I have gotten a lot slower…
We passed a young family with a young child that were on their way back and chatted to them for a bit. Later on, we passed a couple of others all out enjoying the early morning sun and getting their exercise. The walk by the river was beautiful and I took some nice shots of the trails. Actually, the only shots I took were of the trails as we didn’t see anything else.
We made the turn back up Coyote which would bring us out to where we started in the Parking Lot. Altogether, we covered a little over four miles of very pleasant walking although the trail was a little rough underfoot at times.
Below is a short video of some of the trails.
Trails at McKinney Roughs 6-8-2018 from Francis Allcorn on Vimeo.
Written 6-8-2018
Wait, you can stop to talk to strangers without getting the cops called on you? Is that a Texas thing, or a generational difference?
On a more serious note, the photo at the top of this page makes the scenery look incredible.
Most people out on the trail will stop and talk and I usually ask them if I can take a picture. The Texas countryside around Austin is beautiful. Thank’s for the comment.
If you can actually talk to people on the trail then I’ll have to visit the Austin area one day. That sounds more welcoming than saying hello to someone on the trail and either receiving a hateful glare or being completely ignored.
My experience is that mostly, you can talk to people on the trails. Occasionally, you can tell someone is in a hurry so you don’t make the attempt. I’ve met some very nice people on my hikes. Good old Southern Cordiality.
I’ll have to visit the Austin area one day. Most of the people I lived with at the archaeology school were from Austin, and they were a lot of fun to be around: very pleasant and always smiling.
I have lived in Austin for more than 40 years and have always found the majority of the people to be a friendly and cheerful bunch. There are exceptions of course but they are few and far between. Thanks for the comment