Dwight D. Eisenhower Park - Monday, July 20, 2015

In her new position as Regional Director for the Southwest Region (New Mexico and Texas), my friend Susan is putting a lot of time into checking out new trails for Volksmarching. On Monday morning she wanted to check out how many miles of trails we could do in Dwight D. Eisenhower Park in northwest San Antonio.

She had never been to the park before, but I had hiked it a couple of different times with San Antonio Hill Country Hikers. I told her she needed to wear hiking boots and bring her walking stick.

We started hiking about 7 a.m. First we hiked the perimeter of the park which had some pretty good elevation changes. The hiking poles came in very handy going up and down some of those rocky "cliffs."

Right at the start of the trail we saw a bunny. Other wildlife included a very small frog, a snake and a lizard. We couldn't capture any of them in photos; they were too darned fast.

Steep terrain, Susan peeking out at top

Very rough hiking in parts

Very easy hiking in other parts

Shady trail

Bat boxes mounted in the meadow

You can see the level of difficulty on the
trail signs - Level 4 is the hardest

From the Observation Tower at the highest point in the park, I was able to zoom in on Six Flags Fiesta Texas about two miles away. If you enlarge the second photo below you can see some rollercoasters.

Observation Tower

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Texas Hill Country view

Scenic Red Oak Trail

Fence and meadow

We were almost finished with our hike and had only an easy portion left to do. Thankfully it was nice and shady.

This was a challenging and beautiful walk with lots of different terrain. When Susan checked the mileage on her Jawbone device, we had walked 11K (6.8 miles) in three hours. It looks like this will become a new Volksmarch in 2016.

Travel Bug out.

Very Long Day - Sun., June 16

Our day started early with a 6.1 mile hike at Dwight D. Eisenhower Park in northwest San Antonio. The hike start time was 7:45 a.m. to allow us to walk during the "cooler" part of the day. That meant we were up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready. Ugh.

After bowls of oatmeal with blueberries, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground flaxseed, we drove to the park and met the group a few minutes before hike time. We start on time. Today's pace was just right and allowed some picture taking stops, even though I had to run to keep up after I took the photos.

Once again, we were hiking with the San Antonio Hill Country Hikers meetup group and Paul was our leader. He set a reasonable pace and we kept up pretty well until the steep rocky section. That slows me down quite a bit and I stop to breathe. Eventually I catch up again. Bob stays with me.

The tower at the top of the hill was a good stop. Climbing to the top of the tower rewards you with a cooling-effect breeze. Because of the recent rains, more wildflowers bloomed in the past week and they are gorgeous.

Start - everyone's fresh and perky.

Blue morning glory (Ipomoea indica).

Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani)

Powering up the steep part of the hill.

Lookout!

Dayflower (Commelina erecta)

Dayflowers with Englemann daisy (Engelmannia pinnatifida).

Rest stop.

Dwarf cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis)

Still trying to identify these flowers.

Field of dayflowers.

Purple horsemint (Monarda Citriodora)

I was lagging farther behind.

We opted to hike two loops with the group. Paul stopped at the parking lot after we completed one loop. Some people had other obligations for Father's Day so they left.

The rest of us geared up for Round 2 and off we went, taking a different trail this time. There were a couple of steep, rocky hills and those combined with the heat did me in. By the time we were to the top I wasn't feeling too well. I rested more and we continued to try to catch up with the group. We finally found them back at the parking lot. Thank you, Paul and Jake, for another great hike.

I will continue today in another blog.

To be continued...

Eisenhower Park Fitness Hike - Wed., May 29

Okay, I did it again. We went on a fitness hike. After the first one, I wasn't going to do the fitness hikes, they're just too darned fast for me. But when I read the description of tonight's hike, the "fitness" part didn't jump out at me. They walk 3.5 to 4 mph up and down rocky trails. {{{pant, pant, pant}}} Thank you, Anthony, for hanging out with us in the back so we didn't get lost.

I opted to do one loop of three miles. When we got to the intersection where the decision was made to do another loop, I bailed out to walk 0.7 mi. back to the car.

Bob came separately from work in his truck and he opted to do the second loop. So midway through the walk, we parted ways.

Uphill climb

The tower.

Below is a highly zoomed photo of Six Flags Fiesta Texas. If you enlarge it,you can see some of the roller coasters in the park.

Six Flags Fiesta, San Antonio, Texas

Part of our hiking group.

Our hike leader, Paul.

Bob heading downhill.

And there he goes.

A paved trail here.

Shortly after the above photo, I opted to head back to the car, 0.7 mi away. On the way back to the car, I moseyed, lollygagged, photographed, admired the scenery and chilled (as much as one can chill when it's 80 degrees and muggy).

The paved trail.

Rain lily.

Blackfoot or rock daisy (Melampodium leucanthum)

Hearts.

Trail scenery.

Juniper berries. Lots of juniper trees in this park.

A very large juniper.

Recent rain.

Greater tickseed (Coreopsis major)

Close up of the flower stalk from the yucca below.

A nice fence to keep people from going on a trail.

This park is in the flight path for the San Antonio airport.

Texas plume (Ipomopsis rubra)

When I returned to the meetup area everyone was already back! Was I THAT slow? No, the rest of the group bailed on doing the second loop. They all wanted to go to Freetail Pizza for pizza and beer.

We followed someone who knew where they were going and found the place. For dinner, we ordered the "Date Night Special,"  a pitcher of beer and a small, one-topping pizza. It was fun talking to Kevin, Nicki and Don for an hour.

What a great way to spend the evening. Thanks to everyone for coming out.

Travel Bug out.