Jack and I Walked!

Jack had asked me to think about a trail I might like to hike while they were at Pedernales Falls State Park with us. I had thought that one day we’d do a pretty substantial hike.

But Jack is a walker, he makes me seem like a slacker. So Tuesday afternoon, once they were set up, he suggested a quick hike.

Sharon took us out past the entrance, to the Madrone Trail and we proceeded to hike back towards camp, first on the Madrone Trail and then on the Juniper Ridge Trail.

This is rough country but the trails were not bad.

There were a couple of lookouts,

and some interesting formations.

When we were on the other side of this valley I had looked across and wondered if we would climb up here. Well we took a long loop and eventually got here, but through the junipers, so it never seemed like that long a climb.

But it was getting late, so we ended up cutting up to the park road and having Bud come and pick us up at the overlook by park headquarters.

We had walked almost six and a half miles.

This morning we decided to go down to the falls and hike back from there. Bud drove us down, Sharon came along and walked down to the overlook. Bud walked further, down the steps to the riverbed.

When you walk out on these rocks you can see where the river goes. It cuts through this channel,

continues down this chute,

and exits into the Cypress Pool.

Bud went back and Jack and I scrambled upstream…

making our way through the boulders.

This looks deceptively flat. Just beyond those rocks is a 20 foot drop off where the river has carved a channel.

Not far from here we found another set of stairs that took us right back up to the overlook where we’d started. Then we found the trail to actually start our hike back!

We went west along the river…

until we came to a large pool.

From here the trail cut up the bank…

and eventually came to a broad trail straight south along the park boundary. We then walked out a maintenance road, took a bit of a wrong turn towards the swimming access, cut through the path Matey and I have walked two mornings from the picnic area to the campground and at about 1:30 got back to camp, having walked just over four and a half miles.

We still hadn’t done the trail I had picked out, so we decided we’d have time to do it after lunch. That one started at the low water crossing of the river. Jack just walked through in his hiking boots, but I took the time to put on water shoes, which I then left on an old towel pinned down with rocks. I would put them back on when we came back across.

The reason I wanted to do this trail is because it led to overlooks that gave the best views in the park. This is the hill country overlook.

and yes, it was a nice view,

and we stopped to take it in.

Back down the trail a bit,

we came to the river view.

and we both agreed,

that made the long uphill worth it.

Back down we went, and back across the river, and back to camp, having walked another four and a half miles.

I still walked Matey his two miles, and Tuesday had already taken him another mile in the stroller before Jack and Sharon arrived. So Tuesday I walked about nine and a half miles and today almost eleven. I don’t think I could do this every day, but it sure has been fun to do some serious walking with Jack.