Austin Explorer's Logbook

Stats
Total Log Entries: 722  [List Them]  [Map Them]
Average Rating: 2point5stars (2.89)

Earliest Log Entry: 4/7/2001
Latest Log Entry: 8/9/2017

Average ratings are based on the published values and not the values entered in your own log entries.

Photos
Another group photo

Group shot number two. Common theme here? Penny's eyes are closed in both shots! [Christmas Caper II]
Log Entries
Wonderful muddy discovery
Discovery Well Cave Preserve [Hiking] - 8/9/2017  [View Log Page]
Rating: 3stars Difficulty: 3stars Solitude: 3stars
Distance: 2.31 Miles Duration: 54 minutes

I had not known about this preserve until I researched Cedar Park parks for this trip.  I postponed going a couple of days since it rained the morning I had intended to hike it.  As it turns out, 2 days was not enough for things to dry out.  I only had running shoes and not hiking boots and they muddy and wet from the remaining dew on the grasses.

It was still an enjoyable hike.  Not another soul on the trails, though the close proximity of Anderson Mill Road provides a constant reminder that one is not far from suburbia.

At one point I observed four deer (two of them quite young) darting across the open grassland in search of some better cover.

I also did the small crushed granite loop of the adjacent Ranch at Cypress Creek Park afterwards, which you can see on my map.

Compact neighborhood park
Rosemary Denny Park [Hiking] - 8/8/2017  [View Log Page]
Rating: 2stars Difficulty: 1star Solitude: 2stars
Distance: 1.68 Miles Duration: 33 minutes

Got a walk in early in the morning and obviously I was not the only person who thought of this.  Because it had rained yesterday I wanted to avoid any dirt trails and I had observed the paved trail here when I last drove by, so it seemed ideal.

The length of the trail here is not very long, so I made a few loops to get a bit over a mile and a half in.

Well equipped neighborhood park
Elizabeth Milburn Park [Hiking] - 8/6/2017  [View Log Page]
Rating: 2stars Difficulty: 2stars Solitude: 2stars
Distance: 2.31 Miles Duration: 40 minutes

Hot and humid day, even with my early start.  Very few people on the trail or in the park in general, with the exception of a strong contigent of cricket players.

Tiny plot just off the trail
McRae Family Cemetery [Cemeteries] - 8/6/2017  [View Log Page]
Rating: 3stars

I had seen this fenced in area from the road numerous times in the past.  When I went walking through Milburn Park there was no reason not to take a few steps off the trail to get a closer look at what's here.

There's just one legible headstone, for one Daniel McRae, who passed away in 1919.  There are signs of additional burials there, but nothing legible.

First Austin hike in over a year!
Yett Creek Park [Hiking] - 10/30/2016  [View Log Page]
Rating: 2stars Difficulty: 2stars Solitude: 3stars
Distance: 1.05 Miles Duration: 32 minutes

Coppertone and I made a brief visit back to Austin to check on my Dad and decided to log a quick stroll at a park we'd not previously hiked.  Actually, Coppertone had been here before for some geocaching, but not to log a hike.

We parked at a nearby office that didn't look like they had 24 hour security like Apple and did what amounts to the outer loop of the park.  It was starting to get a bit warm and didn't want to get too sweaty given our other stops today, so this small loop was all we managed to get in.

Thankfully, the maintainers of the park mowed down a good width of grass over most of the trail, which saved us from too much of a chigger risk.  Coppertone is pretty sure she still got one of them here though.  Reminders of our previous home!