Monday, October 6, 2013
We drove here from Wolf Creek County Park today. Found what appears to be a good campsite in the Hackberry campground. It backs up against a large stand of Juniper trees, with several animal trails cut through them. So far so good. We had asked if we could stay in the tent section of the campgrounds, but were turned down cold. Most places allow this. As a result, we have electricity and water, neither of which we need, but oh well. Every place has its own rules, usually for a reason, even if one lacks the big picture to understand them.
It isn't cheap. Not only do we have to pay a camping fee each day, but also an "entrance" fee. Sorry. Tex ass, but Washington state parks don't charge you both.
The Civilian Conservation Corps is all over the place here. It is advertised in their brochures and on the web site--one of the trails is named the CCC Trail, for example. Ironic in that it is doubtful whether Texas as a state would now support a program like the CCC, since it was a program where the federal government hired employees and so was criticized as "socialist" at the time.
It is probably similar to how so many conservatives bash Obamacare as being socialist, all the while defending their Medicare and, in fact, demanding that the federal government "stay away from it." How some people can seem to willfully make themselves ignorant of the fact that Medicare is a federal government medical program that works really well for them is a testament to the human mind's ability to twist facts to fit ones pre-existing biases. So, the CCC is touted here, even though the state would never support a similar program now. And Obamacare is bashed by people sitting at doctors offices for whom Medicare is paying for those visits.
Tomorrow we are going to do a long hike. It will be 8+ miles round trip if we do it all, but we don't know if we will. Our hiking legs may not be ready for something fairly grueling, and we don't hike to prove how far we can go. Instead, we want to experience the beauty and history of the area and get healthy exercise. Parts of the hike are described on the maps as "difficult," but we won't know what that means until we get out--each place has its own standards for difficulty level. There may not be much elevation gain, in which case 8 miles would be fine.
The good news: gas was $3.02 per gallon the on the drive here. The bad news: flies. We have been using our fly swatter so much that it is breaking apart. We are getting good at it. I have to admit that flies in Washington are wimps compared to those in Texas and the Midwest. Here you have to be deadly accurate with the fly swatter, and even then sometimes it takes another bullet to put them down. In contrast, at home you can catch them, easily, with your hands. I'm a little embarrassed about our flies.
We are practicing saying: "The 'Boys (i.e., Dallas Cowboys) got robbed yesterday! The refs wanted the Broncos to win." Just in case we need it. Of course, we don't believe that, but we have a strong survival instinct. Sorry, Cowboys fans, but Tony Romo is Tony Romo--he can play brilliantly or play like he is a bonehead. Sometimes in the same game. Just good enough to drive you crazy.
Just wait until the Broncos get their two best defensive players back (Miller and Bailey).
October 7, 2013. Givens, Spicer, & Lowry (GSL) Running Trail plus the Lighthouse Trail
Today's hike was a quite respectable 8.6 miles with 850 feet of elevation gain. We took the GSL trail from the Hackberry campground. Three miles later we met up with the Lighthouse trail, which took us, sorta, to a hoodoo that was named "The Lighthouse." The reason I say "sorta" is that when you get to the end of the trail, a big hill blocks your view of the hoodoo that you have hiked four miles to see. ?
First time we have ever experienced that. There were some informal trails leading off from this ending point, so we took what looked to be the most promising one--wrong choice. Found out later that a different trail, one that was a borderline scramble, led to the Lighthouse hoodoo. But at that point we were already at 4.5 miles, and knew we had 4 miles back to the trail head. We didn't think it wise to add more just to say we had done it. So we turned back. Good decision, as our poor little feet were complaining enough when we got back to the camper. If we had done more, they would never have let us hear the end of it.
The hiking trails here are exceptionally well marked, with excellent hiking maps available. The park service goes the extra mile to protect novice hikers from themselves. There are brochures at the trailheads warning hikers about the dangers of desert hiking and making recommendations about supplies (of course, mostly water). About three miles into our hike, at a junction, was a huge thermometer! We had never seen such a thing.
The hike was terrific, allowing for wonderful views of the terrain. I am going to quote what Vicky wrote in her postcard to her parents about it:
"Here we are in Texas. 80+ degrees today. We hiked to the Lighthouse. 8.6 miles, up canyons, over dry river beds, across vast fields of prairie grass, cacti, and Juniper, where the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne laid up for the winter of 1874 and were driven off, supplies burned, and horses killed, forcing them to reservations in Oklahoma.
So sad.
This is a beautiful, harsh land. We could almost see the tepees and Indian ponies grazing."
Later that afternoon:
We had a small family of turkeys visit our campsite. They walked close enough that we could have reached out and grabbed one.
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