Wednesday, May 29, 2013

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.