Note from the XL Editor

Why Austinites are such happy campers

On the short list of reasons why I moved to Austin in 1984, count the intellectual stimulation of a university town, the variety of an indisputable landscape (as opposed to the virtual sea-level flatness of Houston), the ease of a pedestrian-friendly urban core and a group of friends who knew how to grasp life by the scruff of the neck (not always legally).

Oh, and camping out. The outdoor-sleeping-on-a-rock-ledge-by-a-gushing-stream type, not the indoor-screaming-at-a-drag-queen-by-a-dance-floor variety.

Ever since my Scouting days, when we hiked the Devil's Backbone at El Rancho Cima every summer, I've associated the Hill Country with nights under the stars, cold plunges in swimming holes and, oddly enough, the overpowering scent of junipers.

And, during my first few years here, we'd drop our grad-school cares to thread through Lost Maples' canyons or scamper up Enchanted Rock. Extra-long-weekends meant Big Bend or New Mexico.

Then I settled down. Ever since then, through no fault of my partner, our camping has been reduced to family reunions, mostly at Bastrop State Park. Cabins in Yellowstone and Yosemite only half-count, right? (Funny how, in one's 40s and 50s, sleeping on rocks no longer seems as inviting.)

So here comes American-Statesman fitness reporter Pamela

LeBlanc to make me ache with nostalgia about Central Texas camping.

Pam does that. Last year, she motivated us to explore shrouded parklands with her "Off the Beaten Trail" XL cover story. Her Monday columns always make exercise seem alluring. I'll read about some triathlete or open-water swimmer and think, hey, with a little training, I could do that.

Then I recall I'm still 25 pounds overweight and am recovering from several heart procedures.

Camping, however? That we can do.

On a related subject, don't look for updates on my Out & About blog over the next four days, since we will be down at Surfside for the holidays with the Gulf-loving Labs and my immediate family (the 26-member nuclear unit).

I promise, however, to post some of the best blogs from the students enrolled in the St. Edward's University entertainment journalism class.

mbarnes@statesman.com; 445-3647