Having an overabundance of energy, I decided to take another walk at Pedernales Falls State Park even breaking my unwritten rule about hiking on weekends due to the number of other people that frequent the Parks. Not that I am a snob or anything like that but I prefer it to have the trails to myself whenever possible.

On the way over just as I reached the Park, a message flashed up on the console telling me that I only had enough gas to drive 50 miles. I thought about it as I arrived at the Park Office and decided that I should head back into Dripping Springs and fill up just in case the truck ran out of gas before making it back home and I did not want to wait around for AAA to come and help me in the dark. Besides, I knew I would be worrying about it and would not enjoy the walk. It took about 30 minutes to Dripping Springs and back this time with a full tank and an easy mind. By the time I reached the Valero station, the message was telling me I had 20 miles left. I wonder how accurate these things are or whether it fudges a bit and really there is 50 or more miles left in the tank. I sure did not want to find out.

I stopped back at the Park Office and paid the $2:00 entry fee and made my way to where I had already decided that I would start, at the Bird Blind Parking Area.  Instead of taking the Duckpond trail as I had a couple of days before, I was planning on taking the Horse trail on about a 4 mile loop. Of course, the horse trail is much longer than that and is one of several in this Park. The horse part of the trail I was on is around 12 miles, much more than I was ready to hike although I did hike 18 miles, some of it in the dark at this same Park a couple of years ago when I managed to get lost.

I parked in the Horse Corral area along with several other horse trailers. These riders had already completed their rides and had loaded their horses and were sitting around enjoying a light lunch and having all kinds of fun judging by their laughter. Ah, the beauty of great times and good companionship. I went through my usual routine of preparing for a hike before setting off following the horse trail. I met one lone horse and rider who did not want me to take her picture as her horse was a bit skittish and acting up. She asked me to talk to the horse to reassure it that I was no threat which of course, I obliged. Amazing isn’t it that this bloody great big animal that towered over me needed me to talk to it to calm it down. I used to ride a lot many years ago and had my own animals but I cannot remember them being as big as they seem to be nowadays.

We both moved on and the rest of the walk was uneventful. I eventually came out on the West side fence line of the Park, on the other end of the Duck Pond walk of a couple of days ago. I made my way following the fence line this time going in the opposite direction until I came to the turn off to the Horse Corral. Just before reaching it, another couple of horse and riders came up behind me and we exchanged greeting as we passed. They were quickly out of sight as everybody and everything walks faster than I do.

On the way back in, I was lucky enough to spot a Cardinal among the shredded Cedar on the ground. It was a case of point and hope as he was never very visible at any time. I got lucky.

I ended back at the truck and sat around for a while just enjoying the beautiful weather. The last two riders who had passed me were in the big field area just trotting and cantering their horses around and did not seem to be in any hurry to call it quits. I wanted to stop at the Bird Blind so that I could get a couple of pictures of the sign and of the snake warning for my earlier blog. All in all, I covered about four and a half miles of very enjoyable walking and taking some great pictures. With the exception of the picture below and the Cardinal, all of the stills are Panoramic’s made up of several pictures 

The drive home was uneventful now that I had a full tank of gas which is equal to around 725 miles of driving so I am good for a bit. I never normally allow the tank down below 150 miles and you can bet that I won’t in the future. Don’t like or need unnecessary worries. A quick stop at Starbucks in Dripping Springs on the way home and I was good to go…

Written 12/4/2018