Welcome to Trail Notes, a weekly column highlighting trails, trail life and even trail gear. By way of introduction, my name is Christian Hawley. Last year I wrote an article called the San Marcos Traverse about running all the trails in our town, and this year Susan Hanson has written a couple of articles about my parish, St Mark’s, and our partnership with SMGA to create a public nature trail on 20 acres of our church property. I have also written for Trail Runner Magazine, the Outdoor Journal and Task and Purpose. Suffice it to say, I love trails.
Raised in East Tenn., I grew up on the Appalachian Trail, and I have logged every mile from Springer Mountain, Ga. to Mt Rogers, Va., not to mention a few additional treks up the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the Presidential Traverse of New Hampshire. My time in the military and my wanderings afterward took me up the Barr Trail of Pike’s Peak, down a path in Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park to the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, and through the high deserts of Idaho and Bolivia. For family reunions, we hiked Italy’s Cinque Terra. For my bachelor party, we ran through Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, and for my 40th birthday, we backpacked the Hoh River Rainforest trail to the glaciers of Mt. Olympus. Along the way, I met a Texan.
I knew my now spouse was the one when we set up a tent in the dark after hiking 13 miles around Big Bend’s South Rim Trail, a trip that changed how I thought about both her and hiking in Texas. She wisely enrolled us in the Master Naturalist program a few years later and then became my adventure partner in excursions through state parks: Caprock Canyon, Palo Duro Canyon, Big Bend Ranch, Davis Mountains, Lost Maples, Hill Country Natural Area, LBJ Ranch, Bastrop, Buescher, McKinney Falls, McKinney Roughs, Palmetto and Garner, just to name a few, but our favorite local getaway has always been Pedernales Falls State Park. Then we had kids, and our relationship with trails changed again.
We went from 50k trail races and multi-day backpacking treks to running strollers and child hiking backpacks. After an awe-inspiring and disastrous trip to Yosemite with a 22-month-old, we learned to slow down and appreciate the micro miracle of tossing rocks into the Merced River instead of trying to conquer macro wonders like Half Dome. We added a second adventure gnome the next year, and our life and our trails became more about what we could “I Spy” on our local paths.
Luckily, our little 864sf house in South Austin nestled itself right next to the Stephenson Nature Preserve, where we went for daily woods walks, created tree art, and ran with the local running community Trail Roots. In 2022, we moved to San Marcos, and while we were excited to live by the river, we were lamenting what we thought would be a downgrade in trail life. Three years later, I’m happy to report we were delightfully wrong.
San Marcos is a great trail town. Texas is a wonderful trail state. The USA is a fantastic trail country, and we live on a fabulous trail planet. So every Sunday in this little column, I hope to give you a little glimpse of why.
