Big Bend Hikes - October 2013

For the past five years Rita and I have hiked with the West Texas Trail Walkers in their sanctioned American Volkssport Association hikes over the Columbus Day weekend.  Last year we hiked in Caprock Canyon State Park and on the last day they announce where next year’s hike will take place.  This year it was supposed to be in Big Bend National Park so Rita and I made reservations a year ago at the Chisos Mountains Lodge located in the heart of Big Bend National Park not knowing, of course, that the US government would shut down and change all of the plans.

Starting mid-September I contacted the West Texas Trail Walkers and asked if they had alternative backup plans.  No, I was told, and many did not think the government would really shut down.  Well, surprise, they did.  Credit the club with making fast last minute plans for three days of hiking in the adjacent Big Bend Ranch State Park which was not shut down.  We had to scramble to make new hotel reservations and the Chisos Mountains Lodge was good about refunding our deposit but it was a hassle for us too.

We left home early Thursday morning, October 10, and stopped in Fredericksburg for a good, hearty breakfast at the Old German Bakery which we like.  We headed west to Interstate 10 west and stopped in Junction for a short side trip to the Native American Seed Company who sends us a beautiful catalog each year.  While they are mainly a mail order business the people were very friendly and sold us a package of seeds for a butterfly garden.  They also had a nice, friendly dog that liked us.

Back to I-10 west through Sonora to Ozona for another stop to see if we could spot the monarch butterflies we have seen twice in the past on Columbus Day weekend.  We drove to the nice green park in the town center but unfortunately no butterflies to be seen.  We hope they are just late and this isn’t a harbinger of the demise of the monarchs.  We returned to I-10 and drove to Ft. Stockton where we filled the car with gasoline.  Just past Ft. Stockton we took US highway 67 south to Alpine and state highway 118 to state highway 170 to Terlingua and Lajitas where we stayed at the only hotel in town, the Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa a quarter mile from the Rio Grande. 

As we were checking in our friends Jo Ann and Lee just pulled up and were checking in as well.  After a short rest we all piled into our car and drove west on highway 170 which National Geographic called one of the prettiest drives in the US.  We checked out where the trail head was for tomorrow’s hike then turned around and returned to the hotel.  We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and retired early for tomorrow’s early hike.

Friday morning we drove to the Barton Warnock Visitor Center to register our car with the state park and check in with the West Texas Trail Walkers.  We decided to hike the Rancherias Trail and needed to start early because the temperatures would heat up into the 90s soon.  We had clear skies with no clouds and lots of sun.  While temperatures were in the 60s at sunrise it soon heated up especially while we were hiking.  Rita is still recovering some from her back operation and we told Jo Ann and Lee to go ahead and hike without us as they were faster and planned to do a 10 kilometer hike while we only planned to do the 5K hike.

This is the Chihuahua desert and there are no shade trees – only ocotillo and several other types of cactus plus plants that did not need much water.  The hike went up and down hills and through dry creeks with occasional blooming flowers which caught the eye.  We saw several lizards, gnats, flies, bees, and an occasional bird but not many of those.  Thankfully we did not see any rattlesnakes or anything else that was harmful.  Rita had enough after the 5K hike and we returned to the car to wait for Lee and Jo Ann.

After they returned we drove a bit further west to see the Hoodoos from an overlook.  Then we turned around and returned towards Lajitas with another stop at the Closed Canyon trail.  Rita waited for us while Jo Ann, Lee and I did a short hike into the slot canyon.  We walked about a mile then turned around.  We were told that the trail leads to the Rio Grande but the last bit of the hike needs ropes and special climbing equipment.  It was a beautiful, narrow canyon with sheer rocky sides straight up several hundred feet.

We returned to our hotel for a shower and short rest.  Then we headed to the Starlight Theater and Restaurant in Terlingua for dinner.  The beer was cold and the food was good.  I had chicken-fried antelope and it was tasty.  Draft beer was from a microbrew in Alpine called the Alpine Beer Company.  There were plenty of colorful locals on the “Porch” and at the bar in the restaurant. 

Unfortunately here our story turns south.  In the night Rita got up to go to the bathroom and fell down, cutting her right arm and bruising her right temple.  She said she was fine and, after patching her up with band aids, she fell back asleep.  We woke at 6:00 am when the alarm was set and told Lee and Jo Ann that we would not be hiking any more.  In fact, we decided to return home.  I was thinking that if Rita had any symptoms of a concussion we would stop in Presidio at a clinic or doctor to have her checked out.  She did not have any symptoms and just turned more colorful as her bruises expanded.

The hotel refunded us our unused nights and we drove west on beautiful highway 170 to Presidio, Texas.  We stopped to tour Fort Leaton which is a Texas state historical site.  The Spanish were in this area establishing missions long before the Pilgrims landed in Cape Cod but you seldom hear of this in school text books published on the East Coast.  The fort was a trading post on the old Chihuahua Trail which eventually led from Indianola, Texas, on the Gulf Coast to the city of Chihuahua, Mexico, with its silver mines owned by foreigners.  The Comanche War Trail led south through this area and they would raid into Mexico each autumn to collect horses from the Spanish.

After a tour through the fort we headed north on US highway 67 to Marfa were we stopped for lunch at a fairly new gourmet restaurant called Cochineal.  One wouldn’t expect this good dining in such a small town but there are three or four great restaurants recommended here.  We could only eat one lunch however.  Also in Marfa is the pretty restored Hotel Paisano where the cast of the movie “Giant” stayed many years ago – Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean and more. 

It was getting late and time to press on.  We headed east on US highway 90 which used to be the main highway from Houston to El Paso before I-10 was built.  Rita and I drove this highway back in the 1960s in our Chevrolet Corvair – BC or before children.  We drove through Alpine (again), Marathon, Sanderson to Dryden where we took a lonely back road, state highway 349, north to Sheffield.  East on state highway 290 a short distance one comes to Ft. Lancaster, another state historical site, established in 1855.  Only ruins remain of the old fort which was on the San Antonio to El Paso road.  Later when the US government built several forts along the road it became known as the Government Road.  It was close to closing so the park guide let us use a golf cart to get around the ruins quickly. 

We soon made it to I-10 again and headed east through Ozona to Sonora.  We thought we had better eat some dinner but very little was open in Sonora except a Pizza Hut and a Sonic.  Pizza Hut won.  Back on the highway between Sonora and Junction we saw big black clouds ahead with fierce lightning.  Sure enough about 15 miles outside of Junction not only were we getting low on gasoline but the storm moved right over our path.  It was a real cloud burst and in the middle of it, just as it was sunset and dark, the windshield wiper on my side broke – stopped working completely.  Panic!  I put on the emergency flashers and pulled over on the shoulder lane.  Many other cars and trucks were stopping as well because of the heavy downpour.  We found an overpass and waited until the rain slowed down.  We finally made it into Junction as the rain stopped and stopped at a gas station to refuel. 

We cautiously pressed on with more lightning all around us.  Would we hit more rain?  We made it through Fredericksburg, Johnson City, Blanco and eventually home about 10:30 pm with the smell of rain in the air.  Sure enough as we settled into bed about 11:00 the rain came down hard.  We needed rain but does it all need to come at once?  Sunday morning I checked our rain gauge and  it was over the top – more than 5.5 inches of rain in the night.