At the age of 13, San Marcos teen River Palmer decided he wanted to do something special to mark his birthday: He went for a hike in the Greenbelt.
“I really enjoy hiking and I thought it would be interesting to walk the longest trail I knew by myself as a kind of transition to my new age,” River explains. “I do it mostly as kind of a rite of passage that gives me time to really reflect or learn something from my previous year.”
Now a 9th grader at San Marcos High School, River says he’s been visiting the Greenbelt for as long as he can remember.
“I think my parents influenced me the most to hike on the trails since they’ve been taking me since I was little,” explains River, son of Jessica Allen Wolff and Trey Palmer. He adds that he goes out to one of the natural areas several times a month.
On his birthday, River says, he likes to hike in Purgatory Creek Natural Area. “I walk the entirety of Dante’s Trail, which spans about 4 and a half miles, sometimes 5 and a half if you take a detour, which I only did on my 14th birthday.”
On March 3, River marked his 15th birthday by once again hitting the trail.