Gene Hikes the Appalachian Trail

Category: Uncategorized

  • Around ACC Highland

    As those of you who are frequent readers of this blog already know (both of you), I am a proponent and aficionado of free, public, outdoor fitness areas. I cannot pass up an opportunity to highlight the area around ACC Highland because it not only includes two such locations but also a short trail that dovetails into a longer trail for anyone interested. There is a lot in the area for anyone looking for a nice quick workout or hike during a lunch break or lazy weekend morning.

    ACC Highland is one of the campuses of Austin Community College. This particular one is housed in what used to be Highland Mall. The region used to be one of the higher parts of the city so there are a lot of place and street names that play on it. Crestview neighborhood, Twin Crest and Eastcrest Drives nearby. Highland Mall opened in 1971 and served the community for over forty years before closing in 2015. From there the building was scooped up by ACC and transformed into the shiny collegiate location of today.

    With as overwhelmingly hot as it gets in Austin pretty much all the time between March and November, you really need to fumble the bag to screw up an air conditioned, indoor shopping mall. That place should have printed money forever and ever.

    Shockingly, racism was one of the big reasons it failed. Highland Mall was in a … what’s the euphemism … “racially diverse” part of Austin and somehow hated the fact that people other than rich whites wanted to shop there. During the Texas Relays (a yearly event around Easter that brings together the best amateur and professional track and field athletes in the state) even more, uh … “urban” youth wanted to shop there. And the pearl clutching began in earnest. Highland Mall faded into irrelevance years before the doors closed for good.

    ACC Highland is shiny and new and all that stuff. A different kind of blog would continue to talk about how great the interior looks and all the wonderful things you can do there. This is not that kind of blog; we are staying outside.

    We begin on campus about a block from Airport Boulevard at the corner of Highland Mall Boulevard and Highland Campus Drive. So named in case you ever happen to forget that you are near ACC Highland for some reason. Here in front of a new apartment building complex is the first outdoor fitness station. This one is robust and includes pullup bars, step platforms of varying heights, dip station, pushup bar, an ab exercise spot, and a lower back extension. I can also proudly report that the water fountain works as well.

    If you are looking for something else to do at this location instead of workout, there is also an outdoor ping pong table. Unlock your inner Marty Supreme if you dare to bring paddles and a ball.

    A couple blocks east along Highland Mall Blvd you’ll reach the beginning of the 1.25 mile Highland Trail. It goes roughly along the perimeter of the ACC Highland footprint. It goes along behind some buildings and passes by a large and open parking lot.

    The parking lot looks like it would be a great place to get sprinting work in. I used to do a lot of sprinting way back before I became old and decrepit. My go-to sprint workout didn’t have a cool name but it always got me tuckered out. All you need to do it is a large open spot (like a parking lot or soccer field) and a way to roughly measure off distances. Go as hard as you can and try not to rest more than a couple minutes between any two sprints.

    • 1/4 to 1/2 mile warmup
    • ten 100-yard sprints
    • eight 80-yard sprints
    • six 60-yard sprints
    • four 40-yard sprints
    • 1/4 to 1/2 mile cooldown

    Just past the parking lot is the second outdoor fitness station. This one is older and has fewer spots in which to workout. It has some pullup bars and pushup bars with a couple of inclined benches for abdominal work. The water fountain here works too. However, I also need to mention that there is zero shade over either fitness area so don’t even think about using them this time of year except for right after dawn or before sunset.

    Highland Trail continues behind another apartment complex (you see, nothing gets built in Austin except apartment buildings and things owned by Elon Musk and the occasional restaurant) and meets up with the Red Line Parkway along Airport Boulevard. The Red Line Parkway is still in development but it is hoped to ultimately become a 32 mile stretch going all the way from Leander to downtown Austin. Anyone in the local area that is interested in hearing more should come to the State of the Parkway presentation at the Central Library on August 26th. Tell them Gene sent you.

    Eventually you come upon Fontaine Plaza on Airport. It is like a super miniature version of Central Park. The plaza and the street that runs next to it are both named for Jacob Fontaine. He was a former slave who became an influential pastor, merchant, and journalist in Austin during Reconstruction. He also played a large part in helping to get UT established in Austin. Hook ’em.

    Those purple poles on the plaza are part of a light art project that is supposed to resemble bats in flight. I should mention here for those of you that are unaware, ACC teams are called the Riverbats in honor of the bats that live downtown.

    From Fontaine Plaza you can walk a short distance back to the first fitness station or complete the 1.25 mile loop of Highland Trail. Like I said at the start, this is a great area to kill an hour or so and get a good sweat on. You really don’t need to bring anything with you except a desire to explore. And your house keys, don’t forget those or you’ll have trouble getting inside when you get home.

  • Solidarity

    I had been excited for the merry, merry month of May. I planned to use this month to start making some purchases that I’ll need for my thru-hike next year. I already have a lot of the things I’ll need, but I definitely have a wish list as well.

    1. One large backpack (somewhere around 55-65 L)
    2. One sleeping bag
    3. One or two pairs of those cool hiking pants with the legs you can unzip and then they become shorts (seems like they are called “convertible hiking pants”)
    4. One entrenching tool or similar multi-purpose shovel / axe thing
    5. One tablet computer, to make blogging on the trail easy

    I actually pretended to be an adult and budgeted $400 this month to purchase a few of those items. Why did I choose this month specifically? Well, because this month is the big, exciting REI Anniversary Sale! The one time all year when the greatest outdoor store in the world has their best prices for their loving customers and members. Imagine my shock and disappointment when I found out that there was a planned boycott during the sale.

    Lots of crazy people yell at the rain and call for boycotts for all sorts of dumb reasons. Those boycotts usually go unnoticed by right-minded individuals. This boycott, however, comes from the members and workers of REI itself. Therefore it seems worthwhile to hear about why they are doing it.

    REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc) began in 1938 in Seattle as a co-operative founded to allow outdoorsmen and women a way to get quality camping and hiking gear at affordable prices. From that humble beginning REI became one of the leading outdoor retailers in the country. It was able to parlay the public’s love for the outdoor industry into millions of dollars in profits every year while still maintaining its core principles as a co-op. Great benefits for workers and members, money to spend promoting the outdoors and protecting the environment, and some left over to line the executives’ pockets.

    COVID-19 brought changes for REI the company and the public image of REI. The first cracks in the corporate image facade appeared as lax enforcement of CDC guidelines and COVID-19 safety protocols. Things like not being transparent with workers about who had the illness and having workers work too closely with one another.

    Still though, the bottom line continued to perform to expectations. After a down year in 2020 (like nearly everyone else), REI made $3.7 billion in revenue with a net income of $97.7 million in 2021. By 2022 revenue increased to a record $3.9 billion. However, income was a net negative of $164.7 million. Equally important in 2022, the REI store in SoHo, Manhattan (New York City, not Kansas) voted to become the first union store. The execs in the suits were less than pleased with the associates in the green vests.

    As more stores unionized the company became colder and colder to their workers. Among other things, REI quietly settled a charge of attempted union busting in at least one location.

    By 2025 the company went full mask off and left their co-op ideals behind. REI initially supported Doug Burgum for U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Having this billionaire, business-first, ex-management consultant in charge of the nation’s public lands and wildlife is literally letting the fox into the hen house. REI also tried to pass a slate of corporate yes-men to their board of directors. However, that was voted down by REI’s members. No problem though. REI changed its own rules and packed the board with a bunch of yes-men anyways.

    Now in 2026 the eleven total unionized stores are finding it harder and harder to work with REI. Ever since May 2025 they have been attempting to collectively bargain a contract. The most recent offer from REI was overwhelmingly rejected by the union in February 2026. REI then declared an impasse and wants to unilaterally institute wage and benefit cuts across all stores on the 1st of July. Feeling that they were left with no choice, the union along with REI members called for a boycott of this year’s Anniversary Sale. This is a boycott, not a strike, since a strike would only affect the 11 unionized stores but a boycott can be felt across all stores during the biggest time of the year.

    I linked to information about the boycott above, but I’m linking it again here as well. Please also read the many articles I’ve linked above, because I’m not a journalist and I feel like you should read some of them yourself instead of just skimming my overly brief summations.

    So bringing this back around to me, it really sucks that this is happening. It sucks for the workers at REI. It sucks for me because I’ll support their union and their cause but I’ll need to find somewhere else to shop for my wish list. But I’m happy to do it if it helps support their union cause.

  • North Walnut Creek Trail

    So I threw the old backpack on again and headed out to North Walnut Creek Trail, which you should have been able to figure out from the title. This is the northern portion of the Walnut Creek Trail System, a not-yet-completed trail which will extend 19 miles across northern and eastern Austin when finished. I picked up the trail on Lamar Boulevard just north of Oakbrook and four miles from Balcones District Park. This made for a nice eight mile round trip, and since it took me a few miles to get to my origin this wound up being 11 or 12 total miles of hike.

    This entire trail was paved and very wide, easily accommodating walkers, bikers, strollers, and even a maintenance pickup truck. I probably should have taken a picture of the truck, but I didn’t so you’ll just have to trust me.

    Not long after I started I came upon Walnut Creek Metro Park, the first of three trailheads on my route. With ample parking, a gated pool, and a kids’ play area the location seemed like a good place to chillax for a while but I quickly sped through.

    Along this trail there were lots of unpaved side trails that promised adventure. Trails with exciting names like Log Loops Trail and Ski Slope Trail. However I was unusually focused on completing the main hike and not on doing any side quests. I did see lots of mountain bikers going back and forth between the trails so they are obviously very popular.

    The next significant marker I came across was Gracywoods Neighborhood Park Trail. I did do a small detour thinking there would be a nice neighborhood park nearby. Nope, I was dead wrong. The only thing I saw on the trail was the backs of some apartment buildings. I did come across a meadow with some cool flowers. I know I must be spending more time outside than usual when I use “cool flowers” in a sentence without a hint of irony or sarcasm.

    These flowers are known as gaillardia, and they bloom pretty ubiquitously in central Texas. Actually, all across Texas. They are bright and low maintenance and can handle hot weather. It rained way more than usual in April so these and other flowers have been shooting up all over the place. The cloudy weather lingered during my hike, which explains the grey skies in all my pictures.

    Once I got back on the main trail I was treated to the best mile or so of the day. The walkway went through a wooded area that was shielded from any urban noises and became like a secluded country trail. I passed by some young ladies hanging out in a gazebo and smoking reefer. Or is it “the reefer”? This was a great stroll and it saddened me immensely when I came upon Gracywoods Trailhead, the second of three trailheads, at Metric Avenue.

    Metric Avenue, but they still measure speed in mph

    Gracywoods Trailhead had its own play area. I gave everything a try but I honestly have to give it low marks. The swings were too low and the slides were too narrow. I don’t think anyone over the age of ten would enjoy playing there. Zero of ten stars. The benches did work though, which is always a plus.

    The next big landmark on the way to the end was crossing underneath MoPac. I took a picture because there was one of those hideous Cybertrucks at the intersection. MoPac is one of the main roads north-south in Austin. It has express lanes that can be accessed if you pay a toll. And by “express” I just mean everyone in those lanes likes to “express” themselves by flipping you the bird or honking repeatedly like a siren.

    When I first moved to Austin the second question I asked my friends was why is it called MoPac. The answer is because the road follows roughly the same path as the old Missouri Pacific Railway. By the way, the first question I asked was why is everything freaking thing named after Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar? The answer: because he was a bad ass soldier, politician, and poet. He was also a bigoted racist who did more to harm the Native American cause than almost any other Texan, which also must be mentioned.

    From MoPac on to the third and final trailhead was not much to write home about. It wasn’t bad, just nothing worthy of addition to a blog. The trail got noticeably steep for the last half mile or so. Then I finally reached the third trailhead at Balcones District park.

    Balcones District Park is a spacious open area with clean, working toilets and multiple covered benches where you can sit or host a birthday party. And they also had a play area that I would not recommend to anyone old enough to have hair on their chest. They also had basketball courts and working water fountains. This park is a place where you can go and spend a good half a day easily. Cue a small gallery.

    I hung out there for about a half hour before turning around to head back. Not much happened on the return trip until I got back to almost the beginning. This time I decided to take one of those beaten trails near Walnut Creek Metro Park. I chose one called Powerline Hill.

    I hoped it would be a pleasant, brief, uphill climb that would reward me with a panoramic view of part of the city. I was right about the short climb part. The view wound up just being a bunch of power lines. Oh, and a person on a mountain bike who zoomed past me on the ascent.

    Not shown: a fourth power line just off to the right

    And then I went back down and finished up. And there was much rejoicing.

  • Unwanted Pedometer Reviews

    I’ve made a real commitment to walking everywhere I possibly can to improve my endurance. In order to quantify how successful I am being I decided to download a pedometer app to count my steps. I was originally counting them without an app, but I started looking stupid whispering my current number every place I went. Therefore I deigned to test several pedometer apps and post reviews of them here.

    When looking for a pedometer I had a few hard and fast rules in mind for what I had to have:

    1. The pedometer had to be free. I was willing to accept some small, constant ads or infrequent, large ads in exchange for keeping my wallet closed.
    2. It had to work on an Android device. It is possible that the world’s greatest free pedometer app is on the iPhone (it’s not). If so, wouldn’t do me any good because I couldn’t download it.
    3. It had to specifically work on the Android 9.0 version. I know this is not the latest and greatest, but I am not upgrading my phone just for a step counting app. I downloaded a few apps that I couldn’t get to work and I think that compatibility might have been the reason.
    4. It had to work using only my physical activity data. That is the only permission anything was allowed to have. I was not giving my location data to any rando that uploads an app to the Play Store. I know for a fact that some apps I tried would not work correctly because I would not pony up my location and/or biometric data.

    Other than those above, I just wanted an app that could count steps accurately and generally leave me alone 95% of the time unless I wanted to see my daily step number. As I downloaded these apps to test them I immediately noticed one annoyance. All of these apps had names so similar it was nearly impossible to differentiate them. For that reason I will include the name, developer, and Play Store link for each app I discuss so there is minimal confusion.

    Without further ado, here are my thoughts on six different pedometer apps.

    Step Counter – Pedometer
    Leap Fitness Group

    This app requested my age, gender, height, and weight. It had an adjustable step length and the most accurate setting I could get showed 104 steps in the app for every 100 steps I actually took. There were a fair amount of full screen ads, and most of them were the annoying kind of ad like “oh no, you just downloaded a virus” that try to scare you into clicking on it instead of telling you about a product or service that may interest you. There was also a constant small banner ad on the bottom of the screen. It would have cost $11 / year to remove all the ads.

    This app made it easy to set custom daily and weekly goals and it counted calories as well as steps (provided you entered your gender and weight info). It also allowed me to see my daily step total right from the lock screen without having to unlock my phone. One cool feature with this app was that it included a lot of HIIT mini-workouts of 2-5 minutes for when you are in a hurry. For example, there was a 2 minute chest workout you could pull up that cycled through different easy chest exercises like wall pushups that could be done at home or in a hotel or wherever.

    A very solid app that did lots of things I liked. The only real drawback here was the scary ads that were a little too frequent but the bonus mini-workouts were a solid bonus. Four out of five stars.

    Pedometer – Step Counter
    ITO Technologies

    This app requested my age, gender, and weight. It had an adjustable step length and the most accurate setting I could get showed 105 steps in the app for every 100 steps I actually took. The ads were largely TikTok ads that you could skip through after it played for 5-10 seconds. There was no premium or ad-free version that I could see.

    The app let you customize theme and colors in a bajillion ways. I never gave that a second thought because I don’t want that sort of feature. It also counted not just steps but also calories, distance, and time walked. The big negative was the battery draw the app required to work. When you downloaded it there was a warning page about how quickly it drains your battery. And then while I used it I noticed my battery getting sucked dry in real time. It had a sleep mode you could use to minimize that, but then you needed to remember to un-sleep the app every time you went somewhere in order for those steps to get counted.

    While accurate, this app lacked the ability to see your steps directly on the lock screen. That is the second most important feature I found across all the apps. The huge inefficiencies in battery life also made this a less than ideal app. Two out of five stars.

    Pedometer App – Step Counter
    AceTools Team

    This app requested my age, gender, and weight. It had an adjustable step length and the most accurate setting I could get showed 105 steps in the app for every 100 steps I actually took. There were banner ads at the bottom of the screen as well as full screen unskippable ads, and also ads where the X to close it would be purposely hidden to make you unlikely to close the ad without accidentally clicking on it and opening the sponsor’s website. Their Pro plan with no ads cost $30 / year.

    The app counted steps and calories and showed them straight from the lock screen. Which was great because this app took an exceedingly long time to load. Not counting the extra time it took for the ads to get out of the way. It included a sleep logger so you could enter how much sleep you were getting and an AI “Health Pal” that I am not really sure what its actual use was. It absolutely was not able to help me with my property tax questions though.

    Ultimately the long load times and nefarious ads undercut the other quality features of this app. Two and a half out of five stars.

    StepUp Pedometer Step Counter
    StepUp Inc

    This app requested my age, gender, and weight. It had no way to adjust my step length. That was really unfortunate because this counter registered 80 steps for every 100 steps I took. It didn’t matter if I said I was 5′ tall or 7′ tall it never got any more accurate than that. It also had a serious lag on counting steps. Like, I could walk from one end of a block to the other and the number wouldn’t change. Then after I stopped it would slowly count up until it got everything counted.

    The app itself was very minimalist and bare bones, which I liked because there was no fluff and no battery overuse. It also had very minimal ads to the point that I cannot even remember any negatives from that perspective. The one thing this app would not shut up about was wanting me to go online. It constantly asked me to join a chat group and message my friends — about how much fun it is to walk, I guess.

    One cool feature was that it had “bots” that race you throughout the day. For example, if your goal is 6000 steps there is a bot that slowly counts up to 6000 during the day and a leaderboard with you and another lazy bot that goes almost nowhere, and a busy bot that exceeds your daily goals to motivate you.

    I liked the “bots” idea and the minimalist design. However, the most important feature for me is accuracy and counting only 80 steps per 100 I take was a major negative. Three out of five stars.

    Before I continue with more reviews I need to talk about two things that I saw in almost every app I tested which annoyed the shit out of me. One, so many of them counted my weight in tenths of a pound. Why do this? Who accurately keeps track of their weight to the tenth of a pound? This is the same sort of meaningless hyper-accuracy as you see in rainfall totals to the hundredth of an inch.

    Two, nearly every app I downloaded served me ad upon ad for other pedometer apps. Wait, what? Why does one step counter app try to pitch me a different step counter app? Do they think I need to run two pedometer apps simultaneously? Don’t they realize they are supposed to compete for my business? It makes as much sense to me as if I bought a six pack of Pepsi and inside there was a coupon for a free Coke.

    Pedometer King – Step Counter
    Kingbrain

    This app requested my age, gender, and weight. It had no way to adjust my step length. Despite that fact this app was so accurate it counted 99 steps for every 100 steps I took. This was easily the most accurate of all the apps I tried. Weirdly, this was also the only app that counted in discrete intervals of 9 steps. Every other app I used would count individual steps and I could conceivably end on any number on any day. 4512, sure. 5398, absolutely. But this app only counted in increments of 9. If I started walking I had to go 9 steps before it would count all 9 at the same time. While this annoyed the ever living shit out of me at the beginning, I wound up accepting it since the app was so damn accurate.

    This app had a banner ad on the top and video ads for Temu on startup. It had a premium plan that removed the ads for $5.49 / month. There were lots of notifications, if you didn’t turn them off it could get excessive. The app also showed your steps and calories on the lock screen.

    In spite of the weird counting method and overzealous notifications, the fact that it was amazingly accurate and let me see my steps from my lock screen more than made up for it. Four out of five stars.

    StepsApp – Step Counter
    StepsApp

    This app requested my age, gender, height, and weight. It also had minimal ads with a premium option without ads for $19.99 / year. However none of that mattered at all.

    This app had adjustable step length but I was not able to dial it in anywhere close to my walking stride. No matter what height I used, no matter what step length I used, it remained wildly far off from my actual steps. The closest I could get it was 220 steps registered for every 100 steps I took. I wasted an entire afternoon just walking back and forth in my apartment parking lot trying every possible setting to get it sort of close to almost accurate-ish. Never got anywhere close. One out of five stars.

    Those are my reviews of the six different free pedometer apps for Android 9.0 and earlier devices that I happened to try. I valued accuracy and lock screen step visibility more than anything else, then intrusiveness of ads and battery usage. Least important to me were customization of colors and themes and online features or anything that tried to create the feeling of a “team”. If those sorts of things are important to you, you’ll probably rate these apps differently.

    Even though I had two apps both finish with four stars, the one I decided to continue using was Pedometer King because of those most important features. I reserve the right to delete this app if it starts serving too many ads or gets annoying in some other way.