Gene Hikes the Appalachian Trail

Tag: nature

  • A Trip To Mount Bonnell

    I decided to throw on my pack with 25 pounds in it and start a hike from 38th St and Guadalupe to Mount Bonnell (one of the highest points in the city with great views of Lake Austin). For those of you unfamiliar with Austin, this meant I was looking at about a six mile round trip. The first part of the journey was uneventful, just following 38th and 35th Streets past Lamar and MoPac and Camp Mabry. Here is the one-way route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=7804394

    As I continued to approach my goal I saw an unexpected Peacock Crossing sign. Not seeing any peacocks in the road, I continued on. Then came the Balcones Escarpment. I needed to climb a steep vertical height over a short lateral distance and it kicked my ass. Those of you who are not from the Austin area may not understand what the Balcones Escarpment is. Luckily for you, they had a pictograph on the summit that describes it perfectly.

    Unfortunately for you, I am a shitty photographer using a shitty camera on a shitty phone so you can’t really see what the above says. Allow me to type it out here.

    An escarpment is an area where the elevation of the earth changes suddenly forming a line of hills or scarps. At Mount Bonnell, you are atop the Balcones Escarpment.

    The Balcones Escarpment runs through Central Texas from Austin, southwest through San Antonio, and from there to the Rio Grande (Big River) near Del Rio. It marks the boundary between the Great Plains stretching west and the Gulf Coastal Plain to the east. The break in the landscape defines major differences in earth resources, weather and climate, soils, vegetation, and animal habitats. East of the escarpment are the prime farmlands of the Blackland Prairies; to the west are the rangelands and woodlands of the Hill Country and the Edwards Plateau. The Balcones Escarpment marks the beginning of the American West in terms of landscape, ecology, geologic processes, and human endeavors.

    After hiking up the steep escarpment along a narrow two-lane road with no shoulder, I came upon the base of Mount Bonnell. From there it was a nice easy 100-plus stair step journey to Covert Park at the summit.

    Covert Park is named for Frank M. Covert, who was the original owner of the tract of land containing Mount Bonnell. His family gifted the area to Travis County back in the 1930s. Frank Covert is famous for opening the first automobile dealership in Central Texas. The local area is still crowded with Covert locations such as Covert Cadillac and Covert Ford. Pretty much the only name you see on the side of more buildings around here is Moody.

    The view of Lake Austin from the peak is awe inspiring and my photos do not do it justice. Because, once again, shitty photographer.

    The view looking northward
    The view looking southward

    After catching my breath and eating a turkey sandwich and yogurt I had packed, I trundled back down the road home. Along the way I stopped at Mayfield House and Nature Preserve. The house itself is an 1870s cottage that I did not visit, but there were some nice short trails along the water’s edge that I did partake in. They were rather relaxing and enjoyable.

    Just as I was getting ready to leave the area I figured out why that peacock crossing sign was along the road. I real bona fide peacock hanging out near the parking lot! Ultimately, I could not coax him into revealing his plumage for my camera but took some pictures anyway.

    And after that encounter I hoofed it back home. But not before stopping at P. Terry’s for a large shake of the month, thereby undoing all the good work I had done on the day’s hike.

  • The Fifth W

    So, in my first post I gave my big “action statement”. It also gave a good overview of the four W’s every good journalism student knows. I briefly summarized the who, what, when, and where of my blog:

    I (who) will be thru-hiking (what) the Appalachian Trail (where) in 2027 (when).

    Left unsaid was the fifth and most important W: why. Why am I doing this, and why should you give enough of a fuck to read this blog? I’ll take some time here to answer the first why, and hope that the reasons I give are sufficient to warrant you continuing to follow along.

    I spend a fair amount of my time playing video games. Mostly Xbox video games, but also some computer games as well. I can’t call myself a “PC Gamer” anymore since I switched over to Linux last year. One of the video games I play more than I should is Fallout 76. It is an MMORPG with inventory management as a core mechanic. One big aspect of inventory management is “perk cards” that you can equip to your character to make carrying things around easier. Nothing about the story elements of Fallout 76 are relevant to this blog except for the fact that it is based in West Virginia.

    Since the game is based in West Virginia, they decided to name the “perk card” that makes your food weigh less be “THRU-HIKER”. I played this game for years while using the THRU-HIKER perk card and never really bothered to ask what a thru-hiker was. One day about two years ago I finally bothered to search the term on the internet and discovered the idea that thru-hiking a trail was something that could be done.

    If you are thinking that I immediately decided to pledge to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail after figuring that out, you would be wrong. I mostly just filed it in the back of my brain alongside interesting but otherwise pointless knowledge like the formula for flux across a surface or the history of Liechtenstein’s flag. My number one reason for making this pledge is that I got so fucking old.

    I just turned 50 in January of this year, which makes me a Capricorn just like all the greatest people throughout history. Even though I just turned 50, I have felt 50 for about eighteen months. Beginning near the end of 2024, I became obsessed with being 50. I thought about myself as being 50 so often I actually would tell people I was 50 and then need to correct myself. “Oh sorry, I mean I’m actually 49 but I am just working through some shit in my own head so I literally forgot my own age”.

    Fifty has always felt so old to me. Like the finish line for the competitive portion of my life. Nothing left after 50 except moving into senior living and waiting patiently for dementia and/or colostomy bags and/or needing to use a walker to get around and/or all three. Forty felt old as I approached it too, but in more of a “you are now dead to advertisers and women” kind of way than a “you are now dead” way.

    Late last year, as 50 continued hurtling towards me like an asteroid towards Earth in a sci-fi movie, I decided that maybe my fiftieth birthday isn’t my expiration date. The Rock is over 50. Dave Bautista is over 50. Hell, Brad Pitt is over 60. They are all doing great. And I have so much in common with those guys.

    Cough.

    Anyway, that is when I remembered that thru-hiking exists and decided to do something incredibly rash like hike the Appalachian Trail. I decided to wait for 2027 to give myself time to get my life in order first, so that is where we are and why I am here. I hope my “why” is compelling enough for you to stick around as well.