In my jogging days (back when I was young and in my 40s), I often jogged on the Town Lake trail. (Town Lake is now known as Lady Bird Lake.) It’s a wonderful trail, a set of loops, actually, with the longest loop measuring 10 miles. Depending on where you start and how far you want to jog, you can choose from a 3-mile, 4-mile, 5-mile, or 10-mile loop. You can mix-and-match or just do an up-and-back jaunt.

It’s wonderfully shaded, well maintained, has distance markers, and restrooms and water fountains. It crosses under the Ann W. Richards Bridge (formerly known as Congress Avenue Bridge), among others. What makes the Ann W. Richards Bridge famous is the Mexican Free-Tailed bat colony that lives on the underside of the bridge. It’s the world’s largest urban bat colony.

The bat colony is one of Austin’s tourist attractions. It’s quite a sight when they leave the bridge at dusk. Hmm, somehow the returning of the bats at dawn doesn’t seem to be as much of an attraction. Austin’s former professional ice hockey team was named the Ice Bats. Austin has all kinds of t-shirts, mugs, and postcards with the bats on them.

The bats live under the bridge from spring to fall, March to November. The jogging trail passes under the bridge and therefore so did I, when jogging that particular loop. On one particular uncoordinated occasion, I stumbled over a pebble while jogging under the bridge, and fell.

Ow. I scraped my hands and knees. Nothing to worry about, I thought, until I noticed where I was: underneath the bat colony. I could hear them and I could smell them. I wondered if I had fallen into some bat slobber — or worse. I washed my hands and knees thoroughly when I got home. Several times. That was years ago, so I’m guessing that there was nothing in the bat slobber to make me sick. But if you’re ever in Austin and underneath the bat colony, watch your step so that you don’t fall!