A Walk on the Lonestar Trail

It finally warmed up today.   We are still having to wear long pants and sweaters, but at least there was no frost on the ground this morning.   There isn't a lot to do in this area, but there are several hiking trails in the Sam Houston National Forest, so today we headed to one of the shortest ones.   The Lonestar trail is 2.7 miles into the woods, and of course 2.7 miles back out again.    We didn't get to the end because we got a late start and were concerned it would get dark before we got back to the car.   

We could hear birds all around us, and saw a lot of them, but were only able to capture a few with the camera. 

Can you see the snake in the hawks claws? 

I love the way this tree grew.   We saw several dead trees that grew like this one, but we didn't see any live ones.  Odd.

  Robins were by far the most plentiful of birds on the trail.    I don't think I have ever seen so many in one place before.   

Gerry is hoping to be able to do the El Camino de Santiago this summer.   He has a lot of training to do first.    We hope to do some walking almost every day between now and then.   We only walked about 5 miles (8 kilometers) today and he was feeling a lot of pain.   It generally takes almost 5 weeks to walk the 800 kilometers at an average of 20 kilometers a day.    With Gerry's migraines and pain disorder I think it could take him closer to 12 weeks.   He would have to count on being unable to walk at all at least 3 days per week.      

The only way I could do the walk would be if we stayed in good hotel rooms every night, and we simply can't afford that, so I won't be going.    Most overnight stops along the way are in hostels and you have to sleep in cots, with up to 300 other people in the room with you.   My back, knees and sleeping issues aren't up to the challenge.    Spain is crazy hot in the summer which is very much to Gerry's liking.