For many years (2005–2016) I would hike in Government Canyon. What a wonderful place! And only 20 minutes from my home. Typically, I would solo hike on weekends and over time I became familiar with all of the Government Canyon Trails. A normal hike would be around 8 to 11 miles. During these years I was involved in two major hikes each year. Spring break would be a Grand Canyon hike and July would be a section hike on the Appalachian Trail. This was a great way to make myself “trail ready” for each of these challenging hikes. The trails are typical of mountain trails—rocky and a lot of up and down. Government Canyon opened in 2005 and has both hiking and biking trails. See Government Canyon for official information and maps.
San Antonio, Texas, has many local trails. Around 2000 city officials developed a vision of a network of local trails for hiking and biking. See Greenway Trails for background information and maps. I have found a wonderful Greenway trail 10 minutes from my home. I can get there early in the morning with my Australian Cattle Dog, Colter. We have developed a route that is about 4.6 miles and for me, that equates to more than 10,000 steps. So, a great way to start each day! But, this trail wasn’t constructed until 2016.
My wife Hedy introduced me to the Mission Reach trails around 2016. The Mission Reach trails connect all five missions and basically follows the San Antonio River. We began going there on Sundays for a section hike. For example we would park our car at Mission San Jose and do a loop hike to San Juan. The trails are picturesque as they wind along beside the San Antonio River and cross under bridges. Great place to see different wildflowers and birds and learn the history behind each of the missions.
