National Park Diary: Thanksgiving Work Week

It is Saturday morning and I am having fun going over my photos of the last few days. There seems to be so much packed into each day as I look back over it! I worked backcountry over the Thanksgiving period, but also enjoyed TWO (!!) big feasts and great fellowship. Fellow backcountry friends, Mike & Nancy, traditionally bring 20 friends and relatives to the group campgrounds and stay the weekend. They deep fry turkeys and everyone brings a dish to pass so I joined them after I finished patrol that day. Then in the evening a fellow volunteer, Terry, and I drove to Panther Junction to the volunteer coordinator's house where she had baked turkey, dressing, etc. and everyone brought a dish to pass, too!! I only ate a few turnip greens and sweet potatoes at dinner #2 and was stuffed to the gills!

Today I am enjoying a quiet day blogging, writing some letters and cards, etc. Here are some memories of the last 3 days:

I had so much fun visiting for a couple of minutes at the first campsite I visited around 9:00 a.m. Wednesday. There were 4 families with 8 adults and 12 children at the site. As I pulled up the site was busy with parents cleaning up breakfast dishes and getting ready for a day of exploring while all 12 children seemed to be singing with their loudest voices inside one tent. how much fun! I later ran into them at their next campsite and the parents all reported that they were having the time of their lives in Big Bend. Yeah!

That day (Wednesday) I patrolled the north side of our district - from Panther Junction north to Persimmon Gap. There are lots of hikes and landmarks that I had not seen so it was fun for me to find them and learn about each one. I was especially touched by the Nina Hannold gravesite. A quote about her life: "This gravesite is one of the few visible traces of Curtis and Nina Hannold's pioneer homestead. In 1908 the Hannolds moved here from Oklahoma by covered wagon. While Nina took care of the ranch and three children, Curtis supplemented their income by teaching school in Dugout Wells eight miles away. At age 29, Nina contracted uremic poisoning during pregnancy, and died September 20, 1911. She asked to be buried on this hill overlooking the spring where she had often read to the children in the shade of the cottonwoods."

The original arrow-shaped headstone is behind a more modern one. The grave is decorated with numerous coins and trinkets.

One of the things we do in our jobs is dismantle memorials to someone's presence in the wilderness, like this "We were here" sign at one of the campsites.

The same party must have been letting their "inner landscaper" come out as they build rock fences around the creosote bushes. Another "What NOT to do" in the National Parks.

Beautiful rock from Persimmon Gap draw.

Looking down from the area above the pour-off at Persimmon Gap draw. I can only imagine what it would look like when rain creates a torrent of water roaring down the draw!

Two ferns growing in the draw.

Resurrection fern during "wet" season.

Dung beetle. Video to follow below!

PGap draw had tons of tracks & scat! Also this evidence of javelina - prickly pear pads munched - one of javelina's favorite snacks!

Thanksgiving day I started out at the Boquillas Port Of Entry and found a real surprise - a tree in the same area I'd done trimming had dropped a huge fork onto the trail. The fun of the job was that many Mexican's were carrying supplies to their families on the other side, passing me on the trail multiple times with huge coolers, bags of clothing, cans of gasoline, etc. Each one joked about how hard I was working and I teased them about not tipping over their boats with all their goods!

My "quork buddy"! Most of the time if you make crow-like noises and don't scare away the ravens, they will return the calls and look quizzically at the crazy gringo (me!) who is trying to talk to them.

The big tree fork that fell on the POE trail and the job completed below.

Cleaning up a camp fire (illegal in this park). They tried to hide it with stones.

Where there were only rocks and more rocks last year, green galore!

Auto tracks that were made right in front of my eyes! The driver thought he was being polite by pulling off the road to let me pass. I politely educated him about NOT driving offroad and why one cannot do that in the park. Sigh!

A little stowaway - this guy flew into the truck while I was checking a campsite and rested on the stones on the floor mat. He flew out after he was rested. . .

Friday started out not-so-good. I was on my way to check the vehicles of backcountry hikers at the Marufo Vega trailhead parking area when the sun blinded me. Even though I was going only 15 mph in those 2-3 seconds I wound up off-road big time! (Yes, I realize how close I was to rolling the vehicle down into the canyon!) Daisy and Steve came up with her truck, "Darth Vader", and pulled me off the precipice!

Notice I did NOT make this photo "extra large" - No way!

The rest of the day was awesome!! Terry, a visitor center volunteer, and Joan, an archeological volunteer, both joined me for the patrol down Glenn Springs Road to East River Road and South Black Gap. We saw the Mariscal Mines and all the backcountry campsites and river pull-outs. Unfortunately we did not get any photos of the two huge hawks that flew up right in front of us or of the equally big and beautiful coyote that flew like the wind in front of the truck. We were not sure if he was chasing a jackrabbit or if he had startled it in the process of scampering across the road.

Visiting at lunch time with two visitors on a multi-day river float trip.

A "fortified" campsite! Unusual - I think they were worried about people driving into their site. We had to move their stuff temporarily so I could turn the vehicle around to get out.