Well, woke up to 60 degrees this morning and thought I was somewhere else. The bro and I talked and decided to do a hike at McKinney Roughs Nature Park which is 10 miles down the road and a place in my own backyard where I had never been.
We arrived about 10AM, paid our fees and looked over the trail map. There are roughly 19 miles of trails, so we picked a route and headed out. I took my Maxped Sitka Gear slinger BOB because I had never worn it for an extended hike and I wanted to test it, pretty much found out that it is fine as a BOB, not so much as a day pack. My shoulder is sore from the single strap placing all the weight on one shoulder instead of spreading out the load like a two strap pack.
The trails were not difficult, there was some up and down and deep sand in spots that gave a decent workout for me since I had not been out in a loooong time, so I am stiff and will likely be a little sore in the AM, but we managed somewhere around 7-8 miles which for me is a good little haul since I need to get back into shape; I was not dying or anything, it was just strenuous mainly because it heated up to around 100 before we were done. Despite the exceptional drought we are in, the scenery was noce, mainly because the park is on the Colorado river. I recommend it to any of you around the Central Texas area for a day trip. Below are some pics of our outing.
Pine Ridge Overlook - Nice little view
Plaque for the Overlook:
Burned out area from the 2008 fires in the park. Pretty good indication how things will look in 3-4 years from out recent devastating fires (pic of my lil bro in the foreground).
Trail snack if you like cactus fruit. We noticed that the drought is so bad that a lot of the flora is dying including some of the cacti, also yaupon which is dang near impossible to kill.
Some other vegetation that I need to look up since I don't know what it is.
Here is a pic of a 200+ year old pecan tree in the park. Beautiful old tree. You don't see many old pecans this size, and there are quite a few very large ones in this park.
Speaking of which, here is another large pecan, and take a look at what is growing off the side and the size of it:
Me along one of the slight descents on the trail.
My bro down at the river:
Me down at the river:
River
Some food I foraged at one of the resting areas by the river. Never did find the tree it grows on, maybe next trip.
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