Big Bend, Tx 1996,

Or In Search of Shade

The Victims:
1) Sondra Bland- University of Texas Biopsychology grad-student.
2) Hu Dan- UT Biopsychology grad-student from China.
3) Seon-hi Shin- UT Biopsychology grad-student from Korea.
4) Jennifer Townsdin- Caver friend and fellow adventurer.
5) Bill Brooks- Author of this silliness and a UT staffer.

Everyone asked me, "Why go to Big Bend now?" It was the middle of May. Texas was in a heat wave and drought. (Later, I was asking myself the same question.) Actually I had been asked by some UT graduate students to lead a trip to Big Bend right after finals. I need even less of an excuse than that to go to Big Bend so I set up the trip. As it turned out, five of us, 3 students, a caver friend and myself could get away for our May 18 through the 22 trip.

Saturday morning I picked up Jennifer then met the others at SW7 on the University of Texas campus. We were off by 9:40 am. My van was on it's last legs. After 189 thousand miles the engine was about shot, It had no air conditioning and the tape player ate every tape it was offered. We decided to use the van as a mule for our gear and take Hu Dan's air conditioned Honda Accord for our travels around the park. We went out 290 West, through Johnson City and Hye, where young LBJ used to go pick up the family's mail. The post office/ general store has changed very little since then and up until a few years ago, it was staffed by the same two brothers who waited on the young LBJ. We stopped to look at a herd of Buffalo and then went through the lovely little town of Fredricksburg. Fredericksburg was celebrating it's bicentennial and bright red, white and blue banners were every where. We picked up the pace at I-10 after Harper and turned South at Sonora. We'll return via I-10 but for the way out I wanted to take the folks who hadn't been here before past Lake Amistad and over the Pecos River Bridge, the tallest suspension bridge in Texas. There is a nice little overlook at the bridge where we had snacks and I found a pile of onions that had fallen off someones produce truck. We had onions galore for the trip. It was a short drive to Langtry and Judge Roy Bean's Law West of the Pecos Courthouse/ Bar. This is a favorite stop of mine. There is a lovely little cactus garden and a Texas Highway Department Information Center there. The air conditioning is cold, the restrooms are clean, and there are _lots_ of pamphlets for the collecting. The place closed at 5:30, shortly after we arrived so I didn't get to take as many photographs here as I wanted. After gasing the cars in Marathon, it was South to the park. The entrance booth and Panther Junction ranger station had been long closed when we got there. We went directly on to the Basin campground and got the last campsite available. Hu Dan brought a batch of precooked noodles, vegetables and eggs for dinner that night. They tasted great! We ate, then took a very short hike away from the campground's lights to look at the stars. They were amazing. There always seem to be more stars at Big Bend than anywhere else I go. It was easy to go to sleep tonight. Why does a day of driving make one so tired?

Sunday morning I made breakfast tacos. Scrambled eggs, onions and cheese in a warm tortilla garnished with hot sauce and French onion dip is a hard camp breakfast to beat. After our overstuffed breakfast tacos, we were off to the Panther Junction ranger station, museum and book store. I was in a bit too much of a hurry. Seems I left my Big Bend information files on the trunk of the car as we left camp. Some nice folks in another van caught us at the ranger station and returned some of the papers I had lost. I left the ladies at the station while I back tracked our drive. It was worth it. I found two of my books near our camp. The rest of my information was gone and not to be found. Oh well. On the way back I made a quick stop at the Basin turn off to look at a dead Trans-Pecos Rat Snake. Even dead, this was a lovely 3' long serpent. When I got back to the ranger station everyone was more than ready to hit the trail. We drove 6 miles down a dusty little dirt road to get to the 2.2 mile Grapevine Hills Trail. Even in all the heat and with so little rain, there were still flowers that caught our eye. We stopped and looked at the orchid-like flowers on the Desert Willow, some big yellow blooms on the Englemann Prickly Pear and some bright purple flowered Devil's Head Cacti. Our first hike was a good one but it was HOT! It was pushing noon and aproaching 100 degrees. We made it out to a window of stacked boulders and later saw that image on post cards all over the park. Along the way we paused to look at a yellowish milipede and many lizards scattered as we hiked by. We then had a quick stand up lunch on the hot, bleak and barren parking lot of the Boquillas Canyon Trail. (Was it pity that caused us to buy florite crystals from the sweaty vendors?) After lunch we took off on the 1.4 mile canyon trail under the unrelenting rays of the sun. Hiking from shady place to shady place was our method of crossing the desert here and everywhere we hiked. It was a real treat when the bamboo made a little tunnel for us to travel through. Seon-hi found herself a fair sized patch of shade in the canyon and stayed there while the rest of us continued up the canyon until the water met the cliff face. Sondra then waded across the Rio Grande to continue up the canyon a bit and peaked around the corner....only to see.... the next corner. The heat never quit that day and to get the ladies into Mexico I had to bribe them with a boat AND a pick-up truck ride to Boquillas. We got a young man to paddle us across the river for $2 each. Then I got a truck to take us up the hill to the "city" for $3 each. We spent a couple of hours there hanging out at Jose' Falcons Resturant drinking beer and eating mini-tacos. The dusty little resturant was empty when we arrived but it wasn't long before we were under the watchful eye of Moma and her brood of kids. The eldest was the waiter/ cook. The middle aged ones sold little woven bracelets. (Hu Dan succumbed and bought one.) And the youngest simply held out her hand. We traveled up and down the short street visiting little shops and bars, buying t-shirts, colorful clothes, and more beer. Our truck was waiting for us when we were ready to return. No burro rides this time. In this heat the BUMPY truck ride was quicker and that was important.

We were all ready for showers by then. (For some reason the hot springs just had no appeal.) After cleaning up in the Rio Grande Village showers we were ready to return to our camp. I fired up the BBQ pit for Seon-hi and she cooked some stur-fry and rice for dinner. I crashed out on my lounge chair right after stuffing myself. Sondra walked the Basin Window trail and got back late but doubly happy. (She had a great hike and we saved her some dinner.)

After a quick snack Monday morning, we were off to the West side of the park. We had every intention of hiking the Burro Mesa Pouroff but there was some construction going on around the turnoff and we just missed it. No matter. Plan two was to hike the 1.7 mile Santa Elena Canyon trail. Usually one has to wade across Terlingua Creek to hike this trial built into the wall of the canyon. This time there was a small 8' wooden bridge across the creek. The short hike was lovely and fun but it was still HOT. We hung out under a rock overhang at the end of the trail before returning. We then drove to Castolon and got a cool drink. There was some new covered parking that I hadn't seen before. It was only palm leaves over a frame but it was more welcome shade. We also drove through Cottonwood Campground. The tall cottonwood trees there were in stark contrast to the rest of the park we had seen. I wanted to catch a burger at the Starlight but it didn't open until 5 so we ate at a little cafe at the intersection of 118 and 170. After this nice little rest stop we made our way down to the Barton Warnock Environmental Station to pick up some info on the new Big Bend Ranch State Park and then on to Lajitas. We all did a little window shopping while Jennifer and I tried out some of the new frozen drinks in a bag. They tasted pretty good in this furnace. It was here, in one of the boating trip offices where we heard that Far Flung Adventures may close down for the summer due to the lack of water. (Back in Austin, this was the dryest May since the 1920s.) We waved at the Study Butte store and rock shop as we flew by going back to our camp. We wanted to walk the 5.2 miles out to the window to watch the sunset. We made it with time to spare. Sondra even hiked a bit up the Oak Springs trail and brought back a lovely color filled rock to show us what was up there. I really must do that hike sometime. While we sat at the window watching the sun go down we met a couple of guys who had paddled Santa Elena Canyon the day before. They told stories of dragging their canoes and of feeding them by hand through the boulders of the Rock Slide area. Boy, we all really need some rain.

We hiked back from the window in the dark. Sondra, Hu Dan and Seon-hi walked ahead and right past a herd of javelinas. By the time Jennifer and I came along, we were surounded by them. This was the first time I had noticed how bad those ugly little pigs smelled. We watched them for a while and then went on our way while they went on theirs.

Back at camp Hu Dan's ice cold watermellon was a great hit. I made up some chicken fajitas and after a little more star gazing we all crashed. Sleeping was great in the Basin. Every night I had fallen asleep in my lounge chair and had to get up in the middle of the night to crawl into the van because I was cold. Very, very Nice.

Tuesday morning we split up our little group. Sondra took off to walk the 14 mile long South Rim Trail. Hu Dan and Seon-hi snacked and prepared for our day's outing while Jennifer and I went up to the Basin Lodge and had breakfast. I've made it a tradition the last few years to have a sausage, biscuts and gravy breakfast here at least once during my trip. It was as good as I remembered it. Jennifer had a filling stack of pancakes. We took a moment after breakfast to check out cabins for my brother, Bob. He and Kathleen made reservations two years ago for a cabin here this Christmas (and they have invited me along). They are cozy little three room affairs with three double beds in them. Sounds like an interesting holiday. Jennifer and I bought more ice (something we did often) and returned to our camp. We loaded up Hu Dan's Honda. We were so very grateful for that air conditioned car. First we retraced our path of the day before. Again we were late getting out and again it was a blazingly hot day. We gave it our best effort to hike up West Rancherias Canyon but we hadn't gone very far before we were defeated by the sun and retreated back to the car. The dead rattlesnake at the trail head should have been a warning. The sun was even too hot for this beast. It was a nice drive back. We stopped at the Tee Pees rest area for a luncheon under these concrete tents on FM 170. Sandwiches, watermellon and some of Sondra's Habanero Cheese made a fine meal.

We made another short stop at Terlingua to photograph the larger than life Wolf Brand Chili can, La Kiva, the ruins and the cemetery. When we pulled into camp about 5 that evening, Sondra was just cooling down in the camp water spigot from her walk. She was all smiles. We gathered up our shower stuff and took the 23 mile drive to the Rio Grande Village showers. (And still no takers for the hot springs.)

Back at camp I fired up the BBQ pit, which took a while. Seon-hi then cooked some wonderful spicy meat on the grill. Some of us ate the meat over the last of the rice and others wrapped it up in the last of the tortillas. Either way it was pretty wonderful.

After we had all digested a bit we made another attempt at finding the javelinas for the people who missed them the night before. We walked a bit down the Basin Window Trail. It was another lovely night and the stars were big and bright but there were no javelinas to be seen. Stories were told. We heard some crunching in the woods and a fox barked a warning at us but our quarry must have been dining elsewhere tonight. We were all pretty worn out. After the short walk back we were very content to sit around the camp the rest of our last night. It was a delightful quiet ending to another great trip.

Wednesday's drive home was uneventful. We had several gasoline stops, a nice burger stop and gave our regards to Paisano Pete, the roadrunner statue in Fort Stockton. I was back home after dropping Jennifer off at 7:40 Thursday evening. Work at 7 am the next morning came very early but I had a great trip to day- dream about.

I want to express my thanks to my friends who joined me on this adventure. Your conversation and willingness to help out with every aspect of the trip made it enjoyable for all. You were great!

Note: The milage from Big Bend's Basin Campground to my West Austin home is just about 500 miles.