Wordless Wednesday: now that's a berry bush (pyrocantha)

Geology in Action

Last time we walked down to the Canyon Lakeshore on our family's property, you couldn't hike very far up the little gully that feeds down into our swimming cove. It was just too overgrown. So this was quite a surprise:

Of course, some of the openness is due to the deciduous trees being bare, but that doesn't account for all the change. During one of the heavy rains we had at the end of the year, a whole lot of stuff must have washed down this gully, obliterating a lot of brush and leaving practically a road-like surface extending a good many yards upstream.

I tried to find an older picture so that the contrast could be more easily shown, and wasn't too successful. But I did find this photo taken from a little ways up the draw, in February of 2012:

I can't say for sure, but I think this photo taken last week shows something of the same scene, but from further away from the cove:

Even if the topography changes aren't apparent, all that gravel certainly looks new!

We speculated that increased construction uphill from our property provided more than usual loose stuff to wash down toward the lake.

Not all of the geological debris was left on the shore, either. You can see a large tongue of deposited rocks and dirt extending pretty far out into the cove in this shot:

And not all of this new lake bottom had to have come from far away, either. Here's a closeup of where the gully empties into the cove; note the deep and rather recent-looking erosion of the gully's banks:

The eroded material has to go somewhere, doesn't it?!

Our little cove is actually a great barometer displaying the cyclic changes affecting lake as well as events like this recent erosion/deposition occurrence. Compare this shot of it from our latest trip, when the Lake was pretty much at normal pool elevation...

...to these shots from April of this year...

...and from February 2012...

The last two photos show the place during two different droughts. 

But in this part of the country we're always, it seems, either in a drought or suffering from floods. There's even more dramatic evidence nearby of the geological changes that floods can bring. Someday, we will take one of the tours of Canyon Lake Gorge, an impressive new channel cut when the Lake overflowed during the floods of 2002. Since I've made doing this—finally—a new year's resolution for 2016, I hope I'll be able to show and tell you about this amazing feature before too long.

Wordless Wednesday: looking east at sunset

Mission Reach: a quick look from the River

Our day-after-Christmas Mission Reach paddle was a lot of fun, at least in patches. Joline was enjoying one of the fun parts, the extra-long chute before Espada Dam, in the picture above. Unfortunately, in between chutes were long stretches of relatively flat water and lots, and lots, and lots of headwind. Thank goodness we only went about 4 miles...that was almost too much for me.

But the chutes were fun! Here are Henry and Brian coming through shorter ones further upstream:

Another plus from the overly-strenuous afternoon was an opportunity to get some good pictures of these Egyptian geese. Yes, they are invasive species, but they look awfully cool, don't they?

Mission Reach: from the shore

Our visits to Missions San José and Concepción just before Christmas were connected by an enjoyable, if somewhat strenuous, bicycle ride along the Mission Reach Trail.

After some logistical issues regarding the fitting of my trusty bike into a vehicle, everything went smoothly. My compatriots got their rides through our local Bcycle program, which offers many stands along this trail. Here are Sally and Travis choosing their new steeds at the Mission Concepción station:

Getting a new bike (or the same one again) is not only something you need to do here because it's best to park before touring the grounds (see the sign at the right). But because of the way the Bcycle program works, you can save a not unsubstantial amount of rental cash by checking in your bike in and out periodically.

You have to buy a daily pass, but there are additional charges if you keep a bike out over 30 minutes. However, each time to you check it in, the clock starts over. So, if you're careful, you'll only need to spend the money for the pass.

And it's easy to be this careful along the Mission Reach, because there are lots of stations, and most are conveniently located next to tourist sites like the Missions, or by parking areas along the trail.

Because we didn't want to take two vehicles, we needed to end up where we started. And since we wanted to have lunch halfway through our excursion, we set up the Blue Star complex, home to a family favorite brew-pub, as our mid-point. There's plenty of parking at San José, where the national park visitor center is, so that was our start and end point.

crossing a bridge near Blue Star

I took most of my pictures around Blue Star, partly because a good bit of the rest of our ride involved huffing and puffing up small hills, and [carefully] careening down them. It's a little flatter as you get closer to town.

I was also super impressed (in a good or a bad way?—not sure about that!) with the multitudes of new apartment buildings going up near the arts complex. Gee whiz! There are going to be a lot of people living along the river when these are done!

that bridge from further upstream

I wonder what they're going to use those old silos for? If they were going to take them down, it seems like they'd already have done that, doesn't it?

But I did snap a florally-framed portrait of the San Antonio River Tunnel's outflow gates, near the old Lone Star Brewery. Follow the link to a newspaper story about this engineering marvel that keeps the touristy part of the Riverwalk downtown from washing away in our occasional big floods.

Next up: some of this same real estate as seen from the river.

Wordless Wednesday: a blue seat near Blue Star

Mission: Possible

I've spent a lot of time in and around churches over the holidays, much more than I usually do  . In addition to our recent visits to Main Plaza and San Fernando Cathedral, I paid an overdue repeat call on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River just before Christmas.

The kids and I broke up a strenuous cycling workout with a delightful lunch at Blue Star, and equally enjoyable tours of two of our National Park (and World Heritage-worthy) missions.

The one above is the lovely Mission Concepción. Since the last time I visited here, we couldn't go in, and I didn't take as many pictures there as at the other missions, I tried to make up for it this time. 

Besides its handsome exterior and grounds, the interior of Concepción is really its highlight. The colorful decorations on many of its interior walls have been restored, and I was very much looking forward to seeing them this time. Here are a couple of glimpses:

the altar, with restored decorative walls

a lovely multi-colored lantern

Some of the other walls have not yet been restored...

this room will be great when they do the restoration!

barrel-vaulted ceiling in one of the side rooms with charming decorations

And here are some more shots of Concepción's impressive exterior:

Off to one side of the grounds, there's a grotto built out of amazingly hole-y (pun intended) chunks of limestone...

And we learned that we probably aren't the most famous people to visit this mission...

probably while he was in town recruiting for the Rough Riders?

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The mission I told you the most about last time was San José. We did visit it again on this trip, and found it just as impressive as ever...

...inside and out...

In case you're wondering about the title for this post, our exercising/sight-seeing excursion was made possible by the wonderful Mission Reach trail, and I thought it was fitting to acknowledge that. More about our transport between missions next time.