Barbed wire and the Galapagos of Texas

ejschoen@yahoo.com
Placed 12/14/2002
Austin, Texas, Travis County

Start at the parking lot for the trailhead for the trail along the
creek in the watershed that has been called the "Galapagos of
Texas." (There are many trailheads and parking lots. You want the
one on the south side of the creek, off of the highway that calls
itself a circle but isn't.)

Start at the wide dirt trail behind the information kiosk. After a
couple of minutes' walk, the trail ends in a T-junction. Turn right
(east by compass), then at the creek, turn left to follow the creek
downstream. If you visit after a rainy spell, the trail will
occasionally be muddy from runoff from springs bubbling up out of
the hillside to your left. After about 10-15 minutes' walk, trail
crosses under the aforementioned inaptly named highway, and then
creekbed broadens into a wide, deeply eroded limestone bed, at the
end of which is a small waterfall and a nice swimming hole. There
will be a parking lot directly across from you.

Look for (and step around) a tangle of rusty barbed wire along the
trail on which you are walking. If the barbed wire has been cleaned
up, an alternative landmark is a pair of trash cans directly across
from you on the opposite side of the creek, in the parking lot.

Take 120 steps along the trail downstream. This should bring you to
a point where the trail makes a quick dogleg to the left on a flat
outcrop of limestone. 41 steps beyond this, you will see a path
leading uphill to your left. A single metal fencepost, supporting
some barbed wire and painted orange, is on the left about half way
up. The path ends in a T junction with a wide trail that crosses a
meadow beneath some steep cliffs.

Turn left onto the trail and proceed 52 steps. You will encounter a
spur that departs the main trail on a heading of 350 degrees. Take
80 steps along this spur, at which point you should be looking at a
(usually dry) stream cut ravine heading downhill from your right to
your left. Before descending more than a few steps into the ravine,
turn right on a heading of 100 degrees and carefully walk uphill,
along the left side of six twisted strands of barbed wire that rise
out of the ground to form an old fence line. The wire is attached
to a tree with a hollow base, in which you will find the letterbox.