Dancing in the Rain

Saturday, October 24, 2015:  This morning we are catching the remnants of hurricane Patricia which slammed into Puerto Vallarta yesterday. Drizzle started in the campground about 8:00 this morning and as I drove up to the group campground the first local inhabitants I encountered were three little mule deer playing tag in the brush. It looked for all the world like they were dancing as they leaped, twirled and playfully butted each other enjoying the wet stuff falling out of the sky.

One of the images I will never forget is our last 0.2" rain which the deer were greedily licking off a small tire track in the pavement. What a precious gift is water.

So backing up a bit, most of central Texas was getting tons of rain from the north the last 2 days. Today that same area all the way into Louisiana is getting drenched by more than 10" of rain according to the weather reports. Some of our campers left hurriedly yesterday to try to get to their homes before flooding occurred, but we think they were heading into the worst of the weather.

Most of the campers know that I have WiFi and access to weather reports so my rig is
"weather central" today as they stop in groups to get an update on Doppler radar. The radar is showing that all the rain is past us - so much for Doppler!!

Daytime temperatures are supposed to be in the 60s today and the mid-40s tonight. Tomorrow winds pick up and the temps drop to daytime 50s and nighttime low 40s.  The folks determined to enjoy hiking are reporting bear on the trails today. Whoo hoo! And I am really surprised that 43 of our 60 sites are filled! Being that full this early in the day is a real testament to the determination of Big Bend aficionados to enjoy their park!

Two days ago, Kenn (the other camp host) was painting a picnic table here in the campground. He was startled to see 2 deer go running by not too far away and even more startled to see a young mountain lion running right after them trying for the kill! The deer escaped, but stories like that really get the campers to comply with food & garbage regulations! (Kenn was not going to tell even his wife about the sighting because she (and I) would be extremely jealous. In his lifetime, this was his 3rd mountain lion sighting and Linda and I have never seen one in the wild.)

Friday night was pretty exhausting, but, thanks to Kenn and Linda "minding the store" for me, I was able to get away for a while to enjoy dinner at the Lodge with a friend. The campground was 100% full and all 7 group sites were occupied by 78 people. Some of the group site members were delayed in their arrival until after 10:30 p.m. so their friends were worried about their safety and I hung around to make sure everyone arrived safely. There was a short family dispute at 12:50 last night (I did not have to call any law enforcement) and a carload of campers had to be turned away at 2:00 a.m. They were happy to go on to Cottonwood, which was their final destination anyway. . .

Sunday, October 25, 2015:  It is now early Sunday morning. The drizzle turned into an all day rain yesterday - accumulating just over 1" - the most of anywhere in the park! I went from damp to soaked through. By the time I realized how heavy the rain had become it was too late for the rain pants and boots. Oh, well! (For Stef - OMG to the bacon Spam!!!! Enjoyed a whole can over the past few days!)

This morning I am sure there will be a few campers huddled in their cars with engines idling and I will have to be the grinch that  tells them to shut off the engines. Today about half the campers will depart for civilization and jobs that resume tomorrow morning. Group camp will change over from a fraternity group, a bunch of 20 year old drinking & hiking friends, and a wedding rehearsal cookout to 140 8th graders and their chaperones for 5 days. It will be interesting! Well, I'm off to enjoy another day of camphosting!

Love notes from campers :-)

My First Bears Today!

Today I saw my first Mexican Black Bear cubs! We were driving back from a volunteer hike and three cubs were crossing the Basin road just above the campground. Mama bear must have crossed ahead of them and the cubs scampered across the road after her. They were SO CUTE, there are no words and no photos on the internet to do them justice! Although I had my camera I could not get a good photo of them, so I will wait and hopefully get to see them under better photographic conditions.

Their coats were black and shiny. They were roly-poly, extremely healthy looking and ran like the wind! Two of them stood up briefly after they were up on the side of the mountain to take a gander at our cars - I imagine to make sure we weren't chasing them. :-) They are busy beefing up for the winter season and one of their favorite calorie-dense foods, acorns, are plentiful this year. According to park biologist, Raymond, they will often break off branches to make a little "recliner nest" up in the oak trees from which they can lay back and gorge on acorns.

This last week I was busy with the campground, of course. I have been working on digging out the rocks, gravel & soil from under the bear boxes (food storage lockers). The bear boxes have been in place for up to 20 years I'm told and removing the debris may help prevent the mounting bolts that hold them to the concrete base from rotting away. It's hot, dirty work but, hey! I got to see a pretty big scorpion!

On my days off this week I mostly slept and recovered, baked some yukky pineapple/coconut beer batter bread, baked some really good English Muffin toasting bread, and cooked enough garbanzo beans & farfalle pasta with spinach & feta cheese to eat for at least a week and a half.

We had a doozy of a thunder storm with less than 0.3" of rain that drove out many campers. (The storm plus temps in the 50's made for great sleeping in the RV!) One camper is famous park-wide for their Porsche boxster breaking down on the Basin road that rainy night. They are still here enjoying their vacation here with a rental jeep, but we've been helping them with phone & wifi so they could arrange to have the car towed ultimately to Fort Worth to be repaired. (So I don't disappoint Stephanie & Steve, we simply call them "22" for their campsite. But we also have someone called Twitch and another I call Hooyah, A story for another day . . .)

From the Upper Burro Mesa hike today with Jane, Mike, Matt, Eva, Paul & me, here are some flowers, weird rocks, a bush called old man's beard, ferns, moss & lichen & a birdie. :-)

And, in case you want some more "cute" here are Tighe and Zuni grooming the other morning. Awww. . .

PS - Kenn & Linda are totally wiped out because they had a full campground the last two nights. Little thank yous like the following note left on the campsite marker make the exhaustion worth it!

Misty Mountains and the Gates of Mordor

A 50% chance of rain actually happened today and I utterly failed at capturing how intimidating the gloomy mountains looked today. Rugged, towering and shrouded in clouds the mountains loomed over the surrounding desert.

I scuttled my planned hike and drove out Grapevine Hills road and on to Castolon to see the Cottonwood Campground and scope out where I will be living and working come November 1. Very nice! Cottonwood is a small, flat 24 site campground filled with  . . . you guessed it: cottonwood trees. Oddly, camphosts are situated across the main road away from the campers. It will be a change and I will just have to see how it goes. I'm looking forward to exploring the west side of the park for a while. :-)

It was fun to see javelinas again and the area is full of jackrabbits! The whole park this year is teeming with quail, roadrunners, cottontail & jack rabbits. I expect a spike in the population of coyote and other predators given this abundance of prey.

Millipede curled up as soon as I got too close.

I go back on duty Monday through Wednesday! The campground cleared out significantly today with the rain and the fact that folks have to back to work tomorrow. More soon. . .

Roller Coaster Ride to Presidio

Yesterday was a great day to take a road trip! I have had so many park visitors ask about areas surrounding us that I decided to make a road trip west past the towns of Study Butte and Terlingua to Lajitas and Presidio as well as Big Bend State Park. Although I was a little curious to see the border town of Ojinaga I did not bring my passport and thought it might be better to have someone else with me if I crossed into Mexico.

The day started out in the 70's, perfect for driving with the windows down and sight seeing. But by the end of the day it was just over 100 in Presidio when I began my return trip. My car thermometer stayed on 99 until I got back up into the Chisos Basin where it was a much more pleasant 84. :-)

As I drove west out of Terlingua it was fun to see a place that I've heard others speak of: Long Draw Pizza. Such a nondescript building but around here there are no Aurelios, Genos, Papa John's or even Pizza Huts so one takes what one can get! Actually, everyone speaks very highly of the pizza and I'm looking forward to eating there one day soon.

Long Draw Pizza (photo from TripAdvisor)

A recent park visitor was exclaiming of the  lush beauty of Lajitas and I, too, was astounded when I saw how much money must reside in that town! There is a golf course, plush looking condos and swanky places to eat. Who would have thunk it in the middle of what most see as god-forsaken desert!

 

Lajitas Golf Resort & Spa (from their website)

The first major stop I made was the visitor center on the east side of Big Bend State Park. Ranger Laird, was happy to let me explore their wonderful visitor center and see their exhibits. They have the coolest fossils, a beautiful, 3-acre desert plant exhibit, camel saddles from the days when camels were used to cross the Chihuahuan desert, mercury mining equipment, and a collection of at least 50 different varieties of barbed wire that were used in this area throughout history.

When I began the trek through the state park I was in awe of the vistas! It was sort of like taking a roller coaster ride along the Rio Grande combined with views of all the same types of rock formations that I had seen throughout the National Park. For the average tourist the drive would be very enjoyable, especially because the Rio Grande River is in view most of the time with towering cliffs on the Mexican side.

This is campsite #1 in the Upper Madera. Pretty nice with a shade structure, a hook & pole for keeping your food away from critters, a fire pit, etc.!

This is what all the other campsites looked like though - this one was special because it came complete with vultures!

The roadside rest area. Teepees must be a tribute to the Apache and Comanches who used to live in the area.

I hiked in my flip flops into Closed Canyon but only until the shoes hindered safe progress.

What hike would be complete without a lizard buddy?

While driving I could not take a picture of the road where it zigzagged but this is one of the many, many roller coaster drops! Yee haw!

The Rio Grande River - Mexico is the "tall" side of the photo.

Population about 5,100 with a great grocery store, one of the biggest high schools I've seen down this way, banks, Bealls (for clothing), auto supply stores and more.

A house in the tiny town of Redford a few miles east of Presidio.

Roadside flowers in Redford. I recognized them as the same type I'd seen on the way to the Gila and was surprised to see them looking just as beautiful here.

Another house in Redford - not sure if it was occupied or abandoned.

There were a couple of interesting signs along the way and I'm not sure what this means, but it sure was eye-catching. :-)