This evening, Daniel and I went for a run together at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. It was really good to see water flowing in the creek again, even if it was muddy! Hopefully by the time Ken gets here next week it will be much cleaner — like it was last year.
We entered the Greenbelt at the 360 access point and ran west; about three quarters of a mile the path turned into a narrow ledge along a cliff. The path is slippery and dangerous at the best of times and with the resent rains it was worse, so we decided to turn around and go the other direction, back towards the east.
At about this point we met a guy taking his two dogs for a walk–a mama dog and her four-month old pup. There was a small stream of water near them, about two inches deep and five feet across, and that baby pup just did not want to cross the water. It took all three of us, Daniel, me, and the dog’s owner, to coax the little dog across the creek. After that, the little dog wanted to run with Daniel and me, and I almost wanted to bring him home–I wondered what my wife might say about that… and the cat would probably have some choice words, too.
At about mile two of our run, along the new route, we crossed the creek; the water was about a foot deep and probably two hundred yards across. It felt really refreshing. I would guess the temperature of the water was in the low sixties. It was great until I fell.
There was a good current and the bottom was slippery with a lot of large rocks that required you to place your feet very carefully. The water was very muddy, so you couldn’t see where to put your feet. You had to do it by feel, and the current was strong enough to give quite a pull every time you took a step.
I was about half way across and the current was about at its maximum when my foot slipped and I went down. I was able to quickly scramble to my feet and continue across the creek, but I was wet and muddy.
When I got to the far side I checked my cell phone and wallet and they were dry in their plastic zip-lock bag. I was carrying a bottle of water and it went down into the brackish water, so I did not drink any more from that bottle on the run; I was getting thirsty by the time we got back to the starting point. (The dirty bottle is now in the dish washer, waiting to be cleaned and sterilized.)
Daniel and I continued until we reached the second crossing of the creek and there we turned back to head for our pickups. The crossing on the return trip went much better than the first time–I was very careful!
Here is the Garmin view of the run: