Backyard explorations

Hike and bike along wild parts of Trinity at remote Dallas-area preserve

The preserve runs deep into the Trinity River.

All Trails

Editor's note: North Texas resident Stacy Breen is an intrepid explorer of local culture with an instinct for making nifty discoveries. During October, she's contributing a weekly column on her visits to parks around Dallas-Fort Worth.

Goat Island Preserve is what started my summer 2020 exploration of parks around Dallas-Fort Worth. I was at the Lakewood Farmers Market in Dallas, where I sell bread at the Empire Baking Co. stand, and this woman came up and was apologizing for being sweaty. She said she'd been hiking in Goat Island, which she said was great "because nobody was there." I said, "Tell me more." My friend and I went down the very next week.

Like Post Oak Preserve in Seagoville, Goat Island is part of the system set up by Dallas County to preserve natural wilderness areas. The street address is listed as 2800 Post Oak Rd. in Hutchins, and at 2838 Post Oak Rd., in the southeast corner of the county. It's the second-largest preserve in the system.

Named for the Trinity
The name comes from one of two islands located in the Trinity River. It's definitely part of the lower Trinity River area. Some of its trails go right along the river — and in this area, it looks like a real river, not the trickle you see when you cross the bridges downtown.

The main path included a gravel road and what they call a two-track road, a dirt road where one car can go through, with many smaller trails that extend off into densely wooded areas.

One odd thing we noticed was that a lot of the trees seemed to have split trunks, where the tree was split into two trees, but with one base. It seemed like something that native people might have done, for markings? They were older, big trees, and there were enough that it seemed like a deliberate thing.

It had creeks where we saw a lot of run-off, with tires piled up and really weird trash. Large pieces of trash, like a fax machine and a toaster oven, in places too remote for anyone to walk in and dump stuff like that. It seemed like they had to have washed up in a flood.

DORBA in charge
In 2013, the county worked out an arrangement with the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association to maintain the trails; they get high marks for their mowing and helpful identifying markers.

While we were there, we coincidentally ran into Joe Johnson, the assistant trail steward from DORBA. You're not supposed to drive a car on the trail, but he had a key to unlock the gate and had his Forerunner parked on the trail. We figured with that kind of access, he must be someone official.

He told us all about the various trails, and how Goat Island was his passion; that he comes down there all the time, and it's his idea of heaven.

Lunch at Bonton Farms
We'd been wanting to visit Bonton Farms, so we went there for lunch. We arrived in the nick of time, just as they were about to close.

Bonton Farms is the urban farm founded in 2012 by executive director Daron Babcock to restore health and create jobs in South Dallas. Their farmers market, cafe, and coffee house are currently open, but with modified hours and limited capacity due to the coronavirus. They're not allowing indoor seating but they have an outdoor patio, which we had all to ourselves.

We got a dish called egg pie, but it was really a quiche — a most delicious deep-dish quiche, with well-cared-for vegetables, meaning that they didn't just throw in raw vegetables, but everything was cooked down properly, then put into the quiche so that it was the right amount of doneness after it was baked.

For the crust, they used good butter so that it was nice and flaky. And they heated it in an oven, so that when you got it, the crust was just as crispy as if it were just baked. It was a little more eggy than the heavy-cream style you'd expect from a quiche, which is maybe why they call it an egg pie because it's less custardy. It was the most perfect quiche.

We also got a fried green tomato sandwich, which came with unexpected extras like pimento cheese and arugula.

We sat and had our lunch sitting underneath a shady tree with a misting fan. We got to see people who worked there sitting down for their employee meal. You could just feel what a positive place it was to be.

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Airline News

American Airlines launches new gate program to foil early boarders

Photo courtesy of American Airlines

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Fort Worth-based American Airlines has launched a new system to catch passengers who try to sneak ahead in line.

According to a release, the airline is deploying a program in which technology is used to deter passengers who try to board before their official boarding group has been called.

Passengers who try to board early will not only hear a beep when they scan their boarding pass, but a tattletale message will pop up on the scanner, alerting the American Airlines employee of the passenger's correct group.

The airline trialed this modern technology over the past month at Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Tucson International Airport. It will now be deployed at more than 100 airports across the U.S.

If a customer boards before their assigned group is called, the new software will not accept the boarding pass and instead makes an audible sound to alert the gate agent and customer that the group has not yet been called. In these instances, the American team member will invite the customer to rejoin the line when their boarding group is called.

According to a story in the NY Post, airline employees have a name for these people: “gate lice."

A statement from American Airlines says that those passengers who are paying for early access should get their just desserts. People who are paying extra are mad when others get the same benefits.

"The new technology is designed to ensure customers receive the benefits of priority boarding with ease," it says.

Surely a factor is the way American Airlines' current boarding system has become an exercise in the haves vs. the have-nots, with nine levels of boarding groups, from elite status members and credit card holders all the way down to the Basic Economy nobodies. It's gotten worse since the pandemic, with extra charges applied to every element of flying, including a charge if you want to choose your own seat.

As an explanation of why people might do it, the NY Post cites a theory that travelers try to get ahead "out of a tendency of conformity and a sense of competition."

Public shaming is a powerful motivator, and Larry David fans would surely agree that line-cutters should always be called out — but in this case, there is an actual valid reason for trying to get a jump in line, and that can be summed up in two words: overhead bins.

Too many travelers place their luggage in overhead bins that are not located over their seats. Who has not seen the guy breezily stash his suitcase in whatever bin is closest? And this is an inequity that is not addressed by flight attendants, who admittedly have enough on their hands.

But the fact remains that if you get on the plane when your boarding group boards, the odds are slimmer that your designated overhead bin is going to have room for your suitcase.

If the airline is not going to enforce the overhead bin situation, then it's hardly fair to blame gate lice for worrying about where their suitcase is going to end up — or worse, whether they'll face the horror of having to get their bag checked at the last minute because some other passenger stole their overhead space.

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