New trails

Joyce and I visited Wildcat Bluff to see the new trails.  Some cattle have been but on the trail area to graze and we were told they have created some new and interesting trails from the windmill/stock tank to the back 40.  Currently the Windmill Trail runs from the visitor center to the windmill.  Amazing, huh?  Anyway, one of the WCB board members is an avid hiker and often makes use of the WCB trails since he lives close by.  Even before the cattle were put on the property he was advocating building some new trails through the west end of the section, the part west of West Amarillo Creek (dry, of course).  The other evening at a board meeting he said the cows have done a bang up job of creating trails pretty much where he would have suggested.  It was nice Saturday afternoon so we thought we’d go see for ourselves.

The cattle were congregated around the stock tank when we got to the end of the Windmill Trail.  It was mentioned at the board meeting that the cows have calves and might take umbrage if anyone got to close.  We were able to skirt them, though, and they gave us no problem.  From the stock tank, we followed the paths they’d made.  There wasn’t just one, of course, but we knew the direction we wanted to go and that and the fence on the south side helped us pick the appropriate ones.  It was easy to cross the creek bed and the cattle had grazed and trampled down the area west of it so we weren’t wading through knee-deep brush and grass, which was nice because the weather was warm enough to bring the rattlers out.  There is a nice view of the Bluff from the west and there are several really big cottonwoods that add to the ambiance.

Following the cow trails we circled back and crossed the creek bed again emerging south of the windmill.  We walked through the cattle to get back to the trail back to the visitor center.  I sang to them to calm them and only those directly in  our path made any movement and that was just to get out of our way.  Mostly they just stood there regarding us with stunned expressions.