Bastrop State Park
This past weekend we drove to Bastrop to camp, hike, and enjoy some time outside. Jae’s Kindergarten is on Spring Break this week, and LisaDiane (as she is always so good about) planned ahead to get us a very nice campsite for the first few days of his holiday.
Bastrop State Park is a beautiful wooded park not very far from Austin. The park is filled with post oaks and loblolly pine trees, part of the Lost Pines Forrest. The park is in the early stages of recovery from the Bastrop County Complex fire, which swept through Bastrop County in 2011 and burned 96% of the park. I volunteered in Bastrop in 2012 and 2013 to clear damaged property, and I’ve driven past the park many times, but this was my first time staying in the park.
We’ve been expanding our camping kit – LisaDiane tried out some additions to her sleeping hammock, and we set up our new screen tent to cover the picnic table. The setup took a bit more time, but the results were good, and I think we will get quicker with more practice.
On Sunday morning we attended church via my iPhone. All Saints’, as a response to the spread of the coronavirus and in response to guidance from the Diocese, was closed for all but this virtual service. Travis and Lane did a fine job making the technology work on very short notice.
We stayed in the Copperas Creek Camping Area, and our first hike was to the nearby Fehr’s Overlook Shelter, a CCC structure with a nice view. Our second hike was an out-and-back from the CCC structure at the top of the Scenic Overlook Trail down the trail and back again. We had planned to make a third hike out to the Post Oak Spur, or out to the Lake Spur, but as we were ending our second hike, we received a message from Troy.
Troy told us that during the last couple of days, concern about the possibility of a curfew in response to the rapid spread of the coronavirus meant that people were panic buying groceries and supplies in Austin. He suggested that we cut our trip short. We took his advice, packed up early, and stopped for groceries at Buc-ee’s and H-E-B in Bastrop before driving home.
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