Hiking Lost Maples

Trying not to get lost.

   I am not much of an outdoors sort of person. If I am outside it is because I have a camera in my hand. One thing I do like to do outdoors though is to hike. It kind of makes sense too since of course it provides some really great photographic opportunities. Hiking is really one of those things I wish I had an opportunity to do more of. I do however live in a big city and to hike in San Antonio either
means a little park trail or driving for some hours to a really nice trail.
   That is exactly what I did yesterday. I was invited by a professor of mine to hike at Lost Maples park. It's about a two hour drive one way and located near Medina in Bandera County. The trail we went on was a fairly intense 4 or 5 mile hike with about 1.5 miles being quite steep. I must say though that it was a pleasant sort of intense and not at all unbearable. I haven't hiked in quite a

This sign doesn't prepare you at all for what is to come.

few years and it really wasn't that bad. I say that, but I'll tell you now that I slept quite well last night after the hike. Speaking of sleep, I also did those 5 miles on 3 hours of sleep. The previous night I just could not sleep for some reason.
   I haven't done this sort of outdoorsy hiking photography before. I am not much of a landscape photographer or wildlife photographer either so please excuse the mistakes I have made. If you'd like to see more photos from that day that are not in this blog you can check out my flickr page.

I was actually pretty scared of this thing.

   This park has a lot to see and I believe an even longer trail than what we went on which doesn't have a climbing part. One thing I had to comment on was the amount of litter I DIDN'T see in this park. I am used to seeing trash everywhere in parks but this one was actually pretty well kept and I am glad for that. Oddly enough I only saw one trash can in the whole park and that was where the picnic tables were at the start of the trail. This park also has some really nice looking camping areas. I would really like to camp here some day. Perhaps a future blog will be my experience camping in Lost Maples. Stay tuned.
   As always I was glad to have the opportunity to take out my camera and make a scene. I don't know what it is about having a camera in my hands and capturing that moment in time. I don't do it for snapshots although they do serve that purpose well. I don't know what I do it for, it's kind of therapeutic. If I had no one to share my photos with I would still be making a scene about everything I see around me. This was a perfect place to do so and I really recommend it to anyone who likes the outdoors, likes hiking, or enjoys photography like I do. To capture something that may not be around tomorrow is quite a magical experience. Grab your camera and make a scene. It's always worth it.

I almost forgot to share a link to their website! What a bad blogger I am. Here it is, check them out.