Just west of Deep Eddy Pool, the 10-mile crushed-granite trail that encircles Lady Bird Lake fizzles out, a dead end along the city's most popular running, hiking and biking path.

That trail would be extended by about a mile, and could include an elevated boardwalk and a footbridge to Red Bud Isle, as part of a lakefront park in conceptual plans to redevelop 345 acres of University of Texas-owned land known as the Brackenridge tract in West Austin.

The plans, presented to the UT Board of Regents in June, are far from approved. But representatives of the Trail Foundation, a nonprofit group that helps maintain the hike-and-bike path around the lake, say they welcome any extension that would ease crowding on other parts of the beloved trail and potentially add a new access point to it.

You know how incredibly crowded the western loop is? This would spread out usage and, perhaps most important, give us another trailhead, says Sue Rankin, executive director of the foundation. We're excited. Personally, I think this could be one of the most beautiful parts of the trail.

With the extension, the trail would run dam to dam, connecting Tom Miller Dam to the west with Longhorn Dam to the east. It would provide an easy way for cyclists to access downtown from the new development.

The footbridge would link the development to Red Bud Isle, a small island and dog-friendly park in the center of the Colorado River, where parking is at a premium every weekend when pets and their owners stream in. When the parking lot fills, it's difficult to get there.

If you can connect Red Bud and make it safer for pedestrians to access that unique park space, that's a wonderful thing, said Griffin Davis, a member of the Trail Foundation board of directors.