It's been a while since my last post. I feel nothing interesting has been going on for me, so I have remained off of the blog. I just got back from a backpacking/hiking trip that I would like to share.
April 21st to April 27th 2022, I went on a hiking and partial backpacking trip to Big Bend National Park with my friend Nathan and his brother-in-law Jake.
We left the morning of April, 21st around 5:30 AM to make the 8 hour-ish drive to Big Bend from Georgetown, TX. We arrived at the park around 1:30 and checked into the ranger station to get the backcountry permits. We were told that the one trail we wanted to hike had a temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit the day before, so we adjusted our schedule.
The first place we went was Camp De Leon near Ernst Tinaja. We hiked Ernst and Carlota Tinajas for a couple of hours, then ended the day at Boquillas Canyon Trail where we sat in the shade of the canyon by the river until it was almost dark. We then headed back to camp, ate and went to bed.
We stayed at Camp De Leon for two nights. The second day, we tried to start early. We got up just before 6:00 AM and arrived at Marufo Vega Trail just before 7:00 AM. We began the hike about 10 minutes later. This was a tough hike for me. Part of the hike was off trail as Nathan had found a view of the Boquillas Canyon he wanted to see. The way there was not bad, there was a climb up that was not fun. The view was good to see once we arrived. On the way back is when I started to not feel that great. I was shaky and felt like I was always thirsty. Speaking of which, our water was the same temp or warmer than outside, so around 80-ish degrees I would put it. Even though not cold, it was still better than nothing. We made it back to the trail and then down the sketchy climb we made earlier. The climb down was difficult for me the way I was feeling. When we made it down, my legs were shaky and I need to rest for a few minutes. After that, we hiked the rest of the way back to the truck. The temp began to climb and I started to feel worse. My hands began to swell and water was doing nothing for me. I was relived when we made it back to the truck and we could rest in the air conditioning as we drove to another place to hike. I drank some Gatorade and had a sandwich and protein bar. I did not feel the greatest for the rest of the day. I felt bad, but I explained to Nathan that if he intended to do more hikes like that, I was not going to be able to accomplish them. I felt, but did not say to him, that I was a reliability. I did not want to get sick or hurt on the trail and have to have them take care of me. I said I could be left someplace and they hiked the harder areas. Plans were changed and a seven mile backcountry hike was removed. Again, I felt bad about this, although I know that I could not have made the hike and not get sick. We ended up driving around the rest of the day, returning to Panther Junction to change the backcountry permits to different areas. We spent some time at the RV section where there is a lot of grass and cottonwood trees, along with some aqueducts that get water from the nearby river. We just laid in the grass under the shade of the cottonwood trees and rested/napped until it was late enough to head back to camp.
Day three, we woke up and broke down camp. Packed up the truck and headed out just before 7:00 AM. We drove to Dog Canyon Trail and hiked that. That was a good hike and we returned back to the truck just as it began to get hot. Next, we headed into Terlingua, TX to get ice and gas, but to also head to Indian Head Trail to check out the ancient writing on the rocks there. That was a quick hike, and it began to get hot, so we headed to the local gas station/diner to fill up fuel, get ice and eat. Jake bought our lunches and I thanked him for that and appreciated the gesture. After we finished there, we headed back into the park and found our next camp site for the day over at Solis. I do not recall if we had one or two. I honestly do not remember much about the campsite and I did not take any pictures. We stayed there one night. It was near the river and we walked around there and enjoyed the shade until it was late enough to avoid the sun and setup camp.
Day four, we again woke up, broke down camp and packed up the truck to move on to our next hike. This was at Mariscal Canyon Rim Trail near the Mariscal Mine. This hike was another tough one for me. We started early, just after 7:00 AM. This was good as the trip up the canyon was mostly in the shade. I saw the most animals on this trail. There were the horses and cows from Mexico roaming around. I also saw javelina/peccary on the trail. A lot of them actually. They created their own trails that were near or crossed the main trail to the canyon. I'm not sure how much elevation we covered, but around three quarter of the way up, I was done. I told Nathan and Jake that and I waited for them to go up and come back. What I found funny was that I'm the only person on this mountain/canyon overlooking the desert and the only thing I hear is the buzzing of insects. So many insects, I was surprised at the amount of noise. When Nathan and Jake came back down, we did a side journey to another off trail area that looked like it was used for backcountry camping. From there, we got a very nice view of the canyon and river below. Another aspect that I overlook is that Mexico is right there on the other side of the river. It is just weird to be that close to another country and not have all of the craziness of having security. After getting some pictures, we headed back down the canyon. The sun was up now and the rest of the hike was in the sun. We rested a couple of times in the shade to keep from getting overheated. Once we made it back to the truck, we drove back down river road to find where our campsite was located. We also went to the actual mining area and checked that out. That was interesting to see. They mined cinnabar/quicksilver which they turned into mercury later. I'm sure working in that area was some backbreaking working. Plus the heat and harsh desert. It's not someplace I would like to work. We left and drove back down the river road. To try to avoid the heat of the day, we found a spot near Tally 3 and 4 campsites to sit in the shade and chill. We ended up on the Mexican side of the river as that was where the shade was. I'm not sure if we were actually in Mexico or not as we never left the river bed. After about an hour, we drove back down river road for about two hours. This road, you need a 4x4 truck. Not all of it, but when you think you are OK, then a really bad part of the road comes up. Around 6:00 PM, we head back to our campsite. We opted to stay at Tally 1 instead of Tally 2 as it was closer to our destination in the morning and no one else was using Tally 1. This spot was wide open desert. no shad whatsoever. We sat in the shade of the truck for a good hour and half after setting up our shelters. We watched a thunderstorm form in the mountains in Mexico and that made me decide to put the rainfly on my tent. This was probably a good idea just to be safe, but it made it a lot hotter in the tent. Which was odd because it was extremely windy that night. I had a two-person tent, where Nathan and Jake shared a tarp that was open except for above them. That night, Jake got stung by a scorpion after he woke up feeling it crawling on his neck. He grabbed it and threw it away and that is when it stung his finger. That was around 1:30 AM. Everyone went back to sleep and we woke up again around 5:30 AM. I got up and started to breakdown because I saw lightning and I did not want to breakdown in the rain.
Day five ended up being a lot cooler than the previous days. We drove to Elephant Tusk Trail to hike to a canyon near there. We got to the trailhead and our campsite for the night, but there was someone there already. They were breaking down their site and getting ready to leave. We pulled off to the side and it was time for everyone to go the bathroom. We took turns and I was last. Probably too much information, but I felt so relieved to actually have a bowel movement that day. My body was reluctant the last couple of days, but this morning my body realized it could not hold it any longer. When I finished, we put on our packs and headed down the trail. This trail is not used often and you could tell. It was difficult in a few places to find the trail. There were metal posts every tenth of a mile, but the blended into the environment since they were weathered to a brown color like everything else in the desert. With the cold front that moved in, it was cloudy and windy. We made it to the canyon, took some pictures and headed back. I recorded our trip back using my watch and tracking it via GPS. It was 4.49 miles back to the truck. In total, a good 9 mile hike there and back. We decided to change our campsite and headed back to Panther Junction. We switched to Terlingua Abajo which is near Santa Elena canyon. Our next hike was the Upper Burro Mesa Pouroff. This was a nice trail, but it is one of those were you hike down. Which makes you realized you have to hike up the trail on the way back. To me that is not as fun as you are tired on the way back and do not want to hike up, but it was a good place to see. We stopped by Tuff Canyon and hiked down in there. We went to Lower Burro Mesa Pouroff trail and hiked that. We had to make a detour to Panther Junction and then back to the Lower Burro Mesa trail as Jake forgot his phone there. Luckily he found it still there. We headed to the campsite and setup. This was the only site that was actually near other campers. They did not seem to happy to see us, which I'm not sure I understood. I guess they thought they would have the entire area to themselves. Terlinqua Abajo camp was nice. We had number 3. We hiked around the area and there must have been a settlement there as there was deserted and dilapidated stone buildings. I think we counted about a dozen remains. There was a river or an offshoot of a river there and there was actually water in it in areas. After our exploring, we headed back, ate and went to bed.
Day six we woke up around 5:00 AM, packed up and left before dawn. We then headed Chisos Mountain Lodge area. The general store was not open yet, so we waited for the hour and got our lunches ready for the hike that day. It was a bit colder higher up, so I changed out of shorts and t-shirt to a new t-shirt and long sleeved shirt over that and some pants. We also got all of our gear ready as this was going to be a pack-in camp. After the general store opened, we bought a couple supplies we needed and some snacks. Finished our preparation and began the hike. It was cloudy and rainy, but actually it was the fact we were in the clouds and that is why it seemed rainy. Another thing that is hard to wrap your read around. The hike to the campsite was a mile up. Which was not that bad, but to me, after 5 other days of hiking, my feet hurt. The extra weight was not bad, but you could tell it was there. We made it to our campsite. Boulder Meadow 4 and setup our tents. We unpacked as much weight from our packs as possible and headed back to trail to go up to the South Rim. I think this was 4-ish mile hike in total. We stopped at the junction to go to either the South Rim or Emory Peak, which was 2 miles from camp. We had a snack, caught our breath and headed back up the trail. We hiked through Boot Canyon, which was very picturesque. The clouds were starting to lift and we began to get better views. By the time we made it to the top of South Rim, the low clouds were gone and we could see for miles. We got some good pictures, rested and snaked again and then headed back down the trail. When we reached the junction we stopped at before, Nathan and Jake went to Emory Peak and I headed back down to the campsite. We reached both places pretty much the same time. Nathan sent me a text that they got to the top. I was surprised I actually had signal, but it depended on which part of the camp area I stood. While I waited for them to come back, I ate the remainder of my food, drank some Gatorade and read my Kindle. They made it back about an hour and half later. We talked about what to do in the morning. Jake wanted to get back to Georgetown early because he had to take care of some business before another trip he had coming up. Since we had been getting up at 5:45-ish AM, I suggested that again. Jake said sure, but then Nathan said we should get up at 4:00 AM and hike down after packing up. We all agreed to that. I said since we are getting up early, I went to bed early. Right after I went to bed, the wind came up and it was windy the entire night. Luckily the trees around the campsite kept the wind off of the tents.
Day seven I woke up around 3:30 AM. I laid in the tent for about 20 minutes and then said fuck it and began to get ready for the day. I rolled up my sleeping bag liner and sleeping bag. I rolled up the air mattress and pillow. I packed them in my backpack and began to take down the tent. I am so happy I bought a really good headlamp for this trip. It was Fenix headlamp with a rechargeable battery. It has a ton of light that comes from it. This was helpful in packing up and the hike down the mountain. Nathan helped me pack up his one person tent and I helped them breakdown and pack the three person they used. The hike down was not bad, I just kept my headlamp on and looked at the ground. I was at the back, which was fine as I am slower than the other two. We stopped at one point in a clearing and turned off our lights so we could see the beautiful stars with no light pollution. Seeing the stars like that is such an amazing sight. Something I would like to take Gaby to see. It was about 45 minutes to hike the mile down. We got to the truck, we put our packs in the back and headed to Panther Junction. Thankfully the bathrooms were open there. We used them and put air in the tires of the truck. We had deflated them to help with the rough roads. I forgot to mention the road Black Gap road we took on our way out of Elephant Tusk. It was super sketchy in places, but Nathan's truck handled it without any issues. After air was in the tires, we headed out of the park and on our way home. We stopped at two places to get gas. The second stop was the bad one. It was a McDonalds c-store in Junction, TX. All three of us were away from the truck for no more than 5 to 7 minutes to use the bathroom. Well, we found out after getting back home that someone stole Jake's backpack out of the truck while we were there. It just boggles my mind that some people are so shitty that they do that. Damn losers.
Other than the last part about the backpack being stolen, the trip, to me, was fantastic. I hope to do it again or something like it. I'm not sure I want to hike in 100 degree weather again, but 80s would be nice. I will need to invest in some more lightweight equipment if we plan to do backcountry camping. Another thing I just remembered. We packed around 10 gallons of water for all three of us and we thought that would be too much. We ended up using all of it. Granted, some was spilled and some leaked from punctured containers, but we used all of it. Just think of that if you plan on doing any desert hikes. Take lots of water. We had 3 to 4 liters on a person at all times.
