Government Canyon

Cough, cough. It's Friday, better call in sick! Too sick for work, but certainly not too sick for the Rogue Holiday Hill Country Trail Tour!

Off to Gov't Canyon (not to be confused with Gov't Mule, one of the best rock and roll bands in the world!), the brand spankin' new state park down in San Antonio. My plan was to get in one good last back-to-back workout before Bandera.

Had a small but fun crew joining me. Steve, Carrie, and Corey were at Runtex for the caravan, and Dano was gonna meet us down there. Weather was gonna be perfect for running. Chilly and cloudy, but luckily the rain held off!

Gov't Canyon is slightly less than a two hour drive from downtown Austin. Well worth it. I was able to get a good 3.5 hour run in, and I saw less than half the park. It reminded me a lot of Austin's Brightleaf State Natural Area, but much bigger. And without the rush of jumping fences and trespassing.

From the trailhead, my first loop went out the Far Reaches trail. Beautiful trail, and at two points (Chula Vista and Sotol Overlook) the shiggy opens up and you get a great glimpse of the San Antonio skyline way off in the distance.

Decided to complete my first loop by coming down the Sendero Balcones trail. This was pretty cool. Very technical downhill. I hate running downhill, but once my Pikes training ramps up I'm sure I'll be back down to do this trail the opposite way, over and over and over again.

That first loop took me just over an hour. Grab a Clif bar, refill the water bottles, and I'm off again.

Jumped on the Joe Johnson Route, a jeep road. Took that up to Wildcat Canyon. WC was a lot of fun too. Nothing like running new trails, but I must say I will be returning to this park very soon.

From WC I went up and returned via the Twin Oaks trail. Another beautiful, somewhat technical trail. Next time, I'm gonna carry a beer back there to drink at the Twin Oaks tree.

Hadn't been drinking much water due to the cool temps, so without the need to refill I was able to take in a bit more of the park than I had planned. Decided to head north and check out the Overlook trail. Another awesome trail, and this also had a beautiful view of the park. After chillin' here for a bit, it was back to Joe Johnson to get my thirsty ass back to the trailhead.

Had planned to go back out and see more of Gov't Canyon, but the park has a 4PM cutoff time and the park ranger there was watching me. He allowed me to go check out some of the Frontcountry, but that's the part of the park set up for fat people and it was more like town lake (minus the UT babes) than a state park. Ended up getting 3.5 hours in and I called it a day.