Wilderness Park near San Antonio - Sun., June 5, 2015

Friedrich Wilderness Park was calling our name today for a Volksmarch. A whole new part of the park has been opened up with new trails. Susan met Bob and I about 7:45 a.m. to do what I thought would be a 5k Volksmarch. She showed me the map with the new trails and it was immediately apparent this would NOT be a 5k. In fact it looked longer than the old 10k hike at Friedrich! I wasn't going to take my hiking poles, but when I saw the elevation changes, out came the hiking poles.

Before I say anything else, I'd like to congratulate Susan on her new position as Regional Director for the Southwest Region (Texas and New Mexico) of the American Volkssport Association.

Today, we were tasked with finding an easier way to do the 5k, one with less turns; however, that was not to be. As we started up the hill toward the new trails we realized there was not an easy way to go to the new section of the park. The easy 5k will have to remain as it is for now.

We started up the Main Loop Trail as it wound upward to the right. We stayed on it until we reached Vista Loop Trail, then took that to the new Restoration Way Trail. These trails are Level 4 out of 5, and I thought we were going to do an easy 5k. Ha!

New directional signs to Restoration Way

Susan writing new Volksmarch trail directions

Our new Regional Director on the trail at Friederich

As we were hiking we saw a very tall chain-link fence with barbed wire on top of it. I remarked it looked like we were hiking into the park at Jurassic World.

A beautiful, fragile, ethereal rain lily.

Quite a few wildflowers are currently in bloom at Friedrich Wilderness Park. We hiked open meadows, south Texas scrub, through some aloe and cacti as well as treed areas. The day was hot and humid.

Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera)

Check out the new trail!

Coreopsis?

Nature's bouquet

Blackfoot daisies (Melampodium leucanthum) and
Mountain pinks (Centaurium beyrichii)

Bob and Susan discussing the Spurs
(for about two miles)

We got the biggest kick out of the signs on the high fences. Someone else thinks like I do. LOL.

New cactus garden soaking up the morning sun

Dayflower (Commelina erecta)

Rose mallow (Pavonia lasiopetala)

Purple horsemint (Monarda citriodora)

It was a good hike, but I was tired, hot, sweaty and grumpy because I thought we were only doing 5k (3.2 miles). When we finished, we had done 7.2 miles.

We went to Taco Cabana for lunch, then Susan headed home. Bob and I went to see Magic Mike XXL. If I thought the day was hot, the movie was scorching hot! Whoa. We'll leave it at that. At least the movie theater was cold.

Tonight we watched the U.S. women's soccer team take down Japan in the World Cup Finals. The finale was satisfying. U.S. women won handily.

That's it for today. Travel Bug out.