Barton Springs, July 5th

The wife (web moniker pending) said she wanted to come back from visiting San Antonio in-laws early so that we could go hiking.  Though hiking is a great idea for one who blogs about hiking, I protested: so long as you're stuck in San Antonio, you might as well be drinking tequila in some form.  To come back early meant sobering up.  The Wife votes twice (once for herself, and once for the patience required to live with me), so we headed north.

The 4th of July, like Thanksgiving, is about traditions: hot dogs, hamburgers, grilling, water, and blowing stuff up.  So after dropping the oldest child at work, I took The Wife and the younger two down towards Campbell's Hole, which was their first swimming experience on Barton Creek years ago.

The number of cars we found parked on Barton Skyway confirmed our fears, and then some.  We knew it would be too crowded at Campbell's Hole for us to have any fun, and that the pack of unleashed dogs would make our "untested" lab too hard to handle.  So at the bottom of the Barton Skyway entrance, we turned right instead of left, towards Gus Fruh.

Luckily, the water levels were just right.  On the way to the Skyway Crossing, we found a place with swift-moving but shallow water, about 1/4 mile from the bottom of the Barton Skyway trail entrance.

Earl loved it.  Dawg found it too difficult to navigate.  After a quick dip, we moved on to the Skyway Crossing.  The water was perfect -- though it did smell a bit brackish.  (We later found that the brackish water was nearby, not connected to the water in which we swam.)

The Skyway Crossing is .48 miles from the bottom of the Barton Skyway trail entrance.