I entered on Whitetail and walked at a steady pace. Luckily, most of the entire trail is in the shade and the few moments in the sun were bearable. When I came to the first pond, I walked as quietly as I could in order to catch a glimpse and maybe a picture of any Herons that might be there but I was out of luck. There were not very many flowers in bloom and I had to content myself with taking pictures of the many variations in the trails and later on in the hike, the different skylines I was able to see.
From Whitetail, I took Bobcat Ridge and finally to Pine Ridge which brought me back to where I had started. Pine Ridge is a very interesting trail. It starts on the high ground and there are wonderful views all around as you can see from the pictures. Then it starts to descend into the valley and in some places, the descent is on man made steps which in most cases have suffered severely from washout. When you reach the bottom, there is a plank bridge to get across the creek and then this trail winds its way upwards and towards the end, the ascent is also by the man made steps. You have to be careful as there is quite a drop off and the footing is not the best but it is well worth the challenge. Eventually, the trail comes out on top of a different ridge heading back to Whitetail and the parking lot.
I covered a little over 7 miles and was very surprised that I had been out there over 4 hours. As usual, I was soaked and had to change into some dry clothes before getting into the car and heading into Bastrop for my Starbucks reward. All in all, a very enjoyable few hours although disappointing as far as picture taking goes.
