This week started out with me not really having a great plan for what I was planning to do. But I did know that I was going to be out in nature for at least a couple of hours every morning after work.
On Monday morning (August 8th) just before sunrise I made my way to Phil Hardberger Park, where I had intended to hike the Salado Greenway again (Alltrails link). But then once I got there and started walking out of the parking lot the signs reminded me that this is also the starting location to get to the Robert L. B. Tobin Land Bridge. I had been to the land bridge once before, but it was during the middle of the day, and we didn’t stay very long, so therefore didn’t explore the rest of the park too much either. Today was going to be different.
After I took the skywalk, then crossed the land bridge (see picture at the top of the post), I decided to wander around the water loop on the other side of Wurzbach Parkway (the hwy the land bridge crosses). I had some nice shady trails.
Then on the way back over the land bridge when the sun was up, so the light was a little better, I was able to get a couple of pictures of the goldfinch perching in a field of wildflowers.
After I exited the skywalk, I took the Geology Loop around the west side of Hardberger Park. By this point I had walked about 5 miles and it was getting a bit later in the morning, so I almost went back to my car. But since I had intended to check out this part of Greenway, it didn’t seem right not to. I headed north towards Walker Ranch. It was a nice little trail, but I did have to dodge a few more bicycles than I would have liked. I chased a couple of hawks at one point, but didn’t get any pictures worth sharing. I did stop to admire some of the houses. I’d love to have one like this, where I could just walk out my back door and be right on a trail.
They also had some interesting neighbors …
I only went a couple of miles up the Greenway before I decided to turn around and call it a day … which means, I probably should come back this way again to do the actual hike I’d intended to.
Between this hike, and the 9 miles I did last week, I did learn one thing: I think that around 7 miles or so is my “sweet spot” distance. Much beyond that and my back and feet start to hurt. I need to either work on fixing this problem, or just accept the fact that I’m getting older.