Thanksgiving 1994
Caverns of Sonora Clean-up, Big Bend and points
West
(With notes on the Marfa Lights)
Principal players:
1) Wendy Van der Pol- UT student from Holland. Caver.
2) Joanne Chu- UT Biopsychology Grad Student.
3) Elisa Meussen- Another UT Grad student from Holland.
4 & 5) Russell and Sue Julian- newly weds and long time
Austin
friends.
6) Bill Brooks- The author, UT Staff member, Texan.
Friday Nov. 18, 1994
I picked
up Wendy after work and we drove to the Caverns of Sonora, in Sonora
Texas,
of all places. We were one of the first to arrive at around 9 PM.
Someone
had brought some fresh caught fish and a fryer and we ate some of these
wonderful tidbits; the first of many great meals! We (Wendy and I) were
there to partake in George Veni's cave clean up project. When the walks
were blasted out for tours, there was a lot of left over rubble which
was
just pushed to the side, or into pits. This is about the 5th year
George
has been in charge of getting some of this stuff out, returning the
cave
to it's original state.
Saturday Nov. 19
Our work day started at 9 AM. We formed a bucket line from the digging
point to the dump truck at the entrance of the cave. In theory we were
constantly rotating spots.After dumping 20 buckets of earth and rocks
into
the truck, you would grab a pile of buckets and go to the digging spot,
deep in the cave. In fact, the rotating didn't work that well, and I
was
caught on some stairs for about 4 1/2 hours. (actually, thiswas a bit
by
choice. I was in better shape than many of the others, and the stairs
were
where everyone needed the most help. Wendy rotated through until she
found
her nitch pushing a dolly. We broke for lunch at 12 and the cavern
staff
fed us taco salads or burritos. We were back at work by 12:30 and
worked
until 4:30. By the end of the day, we had hauled out 25 tons of rubble.
(Over 600 lbs. person.) A wonderful dinner was again provided by the
Cavern
Campground folks. This time there was an outside BBQ complete with
brisket,
turkey, vegies, wonderful dutch oven peach cobler and home made ice
cream.
Yummy! After dinner George showed his China caving slides. I was really
tired and I kept watching the lightning outside the window. Before
long,
I bailed on the talk, and by the time I got to the van, it was pouring.
The wind was blowing quite hard also, forcing me to retie the tarp, I
was
using as an awning, many times. Wendy's tent was pitched under the
tarp,
but even this didn't keep her from having a stream flowing through her
shelter. Once again, thank goodness for a warm dryvan!
Sunday Nov. 20
The rain had stopped by morning so we got a chance to hang everything
up
to dry. George gave us a full tour of the cave. This cave is commonly
thought
to be prettiest show cave in the world. I can believe it. I took many pictures
with my little throw away camera. Late afternoon we drove to
Balmorhea
and set up camp. We cooked some wonderful hamburgers and this is where,
I believe, Wendy started her love affair with my mustard. Once again it
was very windy and we used the tarp as a shield. That night we took a
moonlight
walk around the large hot pool and saw our first (of many)
javelina.
Monday Nov. 21
We got up in the morning (Wendy already had her tent down, when I
arose)
and drove through Davis Mts. State Park. This is a really lovely spot
which
I really must remember. We should have camped here last night, instead
of Balmorhea, but oh well; live and learn. . . hopefully. We toured
Fort
Davis and walked around the McDonald Observatory. Afterward, we stopped
at a little hamburger joint down the hill and had a lovely drive into
Big
Bend Park. There was no note from Russell and it was late, so we had to
camp in the overflow area of the Rio Grande Village Campground. On our
way there, our headlights flashed on a coyote. There were lots of
stickers
at our campsite, but we had lawn chairs so it wasn't too much of a
problem.
That night, like many nights on this trip, we saw many shooting
stars.
Tuesday Nov. 22
We were at the showers by 8:30, which was a bit of a problem, because
they
didn't open until 9, so we pulled out the Coleman stove and made
coffee.
After getting cleaned up we drove to the Basin, and secured a lovely
campsite.
We then started up the the Lost Mine Trail. Just a short way up the
trail,
we ran into Russell and Sue. They were on their way down, so we made
arrangements
to meet that night. It turned out that they were camped just down the
hill
from us. Russell had rented a white mini-van, so I didn't recognize
their
camp. He thought we weren't getting to the park until today, so he
hadn't
left us a note yet. None of that mattered now. It was very windy that
evening
so cooking dinner took longer than planned. In fact, we had to finish
cooking
dinner inside the van. Russell and Sue came over before we were done,
so
we cooked and partied in the van until late.
Wednesday Nov. 23
Today was the worst looking day we'd had so far on the trip. It was
cloudy
and spitting rain, so Russell volunteered to drive us around in his
rented
van. After we went to Panther Junction and left a note for Joanne and
Elise,
we did the west side loop; had a nice little hike up the Croton Springs
trail, drank a little of the liquor made from the sotol plant at the
sotol
overlook, checked out the very interesting looking Burro Mesa Pouroff,
saw the Mule Ears, and stopped at Castolon for snacks and to drove
through
the Cottonwood Campground (the trees were turning colors). On the dirt
road from Santa Elena Canyon to Maverick Junction Wendy got in a little
driveing practice. At Maverick Junction, we turned West again and
visited
the Study Butte store, saw La Cava and did some window shopping at
Lajitas,
came back through Terlingua and stopped by the Starlight Lounge. That
night
we ate Russell's great stuffed bell peppers for dinner. About 9:30 PM,
Joanne and Elise arrived and the party started all over again. They had
made good time, about 7 hours from Austin, even in the thick fog that
fell
that evening. It was so thick that they couldn't even see the mountains
that surrounded them. (Boy, were they be in for a treat in the
morning!)
We fed them the macaroni and cheese and hash Wendy and I had left over
from the night before, and got to bed late that night.
Thursday Nov. 24
Thanksgiving Day
We had a wonderful breakfast that morning of Russell's Mexican crapes.
(Tortillas fried with cream cheese and strawberry jam in them) I
thought
it was best that we do Emory Peak the first thing. It is the highest
point
in the park and by far the hardest hike we would take. Russell and Sue
had passed on this trip. (Seems Sue had twisted her ankle the evening
before)
I told them, we would meet them back at camp by 2 for our Thanksgiving
day dinner and it turned out that we weren't back until well after 5
PM.
The hike was rough, and missing the trail and hiking up another peak,
didn't
help our time any. Anyway, we finally made it up to the top of Emory
Peak
and all agreed that even with the hardships of the path, it was worth
it.
Very lovely. After many pictures, we started back down to begin dinner.
Wendy was a bit dissappointed that we didn't see the bear. Several of
our
fellow hikers had seen them, but we didn't. That evening we had the
Thanksgiving
dinner that Joanne and Elise had brought. They did a wonderful job
bringing
a ham, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, and apple and pumpkin
pie. I even dug through my goodies and found a can of cranberry sauce.
It was a great dinner and we were all stuffed afterwards. (I thought it
was a very suitable introduction for the two Dutch women, of a great
American
custom.) Later, a skunk waddled through the camp, picking up anything
we
dropped or just didn't put out of reach. It visited us every night we
were
there. (I really didn't think we were that sloppy.) Just another animal
for the women from Holland to put on their "seen" lists.
Friday Nov. 25
Russell and Sue had to leave this morning to get their rented van back.
We said our good byes and then took off for the Rio Grande Village for
showers. One of the ladies'showers were broken, and there was a long
line,
so some of us didn't get as clean as we had hoped to. But hey, we were
on vacation and among friends, right? From
there, we boated across the border at Boquillas and were off to explore
the village there. This was the first time Elise had been to Mexico
and the second time for Wendy. There was an air of excitement until the
reality of this little sleepy village took hold. After exploring the
shops,
church, bars, plaza, and playing with the donkeys, we returned to the
park
and drove up a dusty little road to the Earnst Tanaja. We had some good
sandwiches then hiked up the colorful little canyon to this watering
hole.
I thought this walk was one of the best we had taken. The colors and
layers
in the rock, made it a magical trip. We drove back down the road to the
Hot Springs for a short visit. After dutifully soaking our feet, we
returned
to our basin camp.
Saturday Nov. 26
After a large egg breakfast we drove out into the desert and did the
Willow
Springs trail. In a rather round about fashion, we got there and found
the pool at the base of the falls to be smaller than I had ever seen it
before. It was a nice hike, as always, and after some candy bars and
apples
we returned to the van and back to camp. We had some more sandwiches
and
shared our lunch with a friendly road runner who came for a visit.
After
lunch, we did an odd thing. We sat around the camp for about an hour,
and
no one seemed to mind a bit. It was nice to have a bit of quiet time
before
our last Big Bend hike. We had been hitting it a bit hard, these few
days.
At 4 PM we took off from camp to the window. There were loads of
javalena,
a deer came out on thepath and posed for us, and Elise spotted an
Alligator
Lizard. I caught it and after a few photos, let it go. Just before we
got
to the window, I spotted a tarantula on the path. This was one of the
animals
that Wendy especially wanted to see and we all got a good look at it.
We
arrived at the window at 5:40 just as the sun was painting the clouds
many
colors. I think it took all of our breaths away for awhile. We had been
trying to get here for several days, but some how, it just seemed right
for this to be our final hike. It was a rather quiet hike back to camp.
As usual, the stars were wonderful. That evening, we had, as Joanne
coined
it, the dinner from hell. We had spagitti with sausage, and peas and
corn.
Not bad, but the wind had picked up again, and it took us forever to
get
our dinner hot. Finally, out came the foil, and after fashioning a wind
shield, the dinner heated up. I think it tasted all the better since we
had to wait so long.
Sunday Nov. 27
We left quickly in the morning without breakfast. It was sad to leave
our
wonderful basin camp, but it was time to get back to the real world,
and
we had a long way to go. Our
first stop was in Langtry, the home of Judge Roy Bean. There is a
nice
little exhibit there and lots of free stuff from the Texas Highway
Department.
We drove just a short bit farther to the lovely bridge over the Pecos
River
and had brunch. It was then off to Del Rio and walking across the
border
to Ciudad Acuna. The ladies with visas, got stamps and a few other
things.
Together we brought back an onyx chess set, hot sauce, blankets, bowls,
and, of course, cheap booze. Back across the border we said goodbye to
Joanne and Elise. As soon as they were out of sight, Wendy realized
that
Elise still had her passport. It didn't matter, though. The luck that
had
been holding true the whole trip was still with us, and we caught Elise
at our first gas stop. The rest of the trip was long, but there were
small
town Christmas displays to look at and some very fitting country music
to listen to. The after glow of a wonderful trip was already setting
in.
I dropped Wendy off at her co-op at 11 PM (Joanne had beaten us home by
30 mins.) and I was safely home by midnight. It was rough getting up at
5:15 for work the next day, but it was ok, because I had just been on
one
of the best Big Bend trips ever. I am writing this so I can pass it
along
to my friends, especially the special ones who were with me. I want to
take this one last time to thank them for joining me on this great
Texas
adventure.
Links to related WWW sites:
If you would like additional information on Big Bend National
Park, check
the GORP-Big
Bend NP page.
An interesting writeup on the Marfa
Lights.
Another writeup on the Marfa
Lights by Charlie Miller.
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