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| Finally made it! |
Big Bend – Outer Mountain Loop
Texas is home to 2 National Parks. Big Bend is one of them,
and “Big” is an understatement. Unfortunately this beautiful slice of heaven is
very isolated. Lying 4.5 hours from El Paso and 6 hours from San Antonio, it
makes Big Bend challenging to come by… but worth every second. Remember how Big
Bend is huge, it is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island and once you
enter the park, it is still another 30 or so miles until the Visitor Center. If
you would like to learn more about Big Bend, visit the National Park’s web page
(
http://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm). Below will be a recap of my adventure to Big
Bend with 3 other buddies. Our endurance/health levels varied, but generally
our camping was minimal.
Here is what I
packed for the trip
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| OML without the South Rim Detour |
Trip Recap:
May 22, 2014
Leave San Antonio around 10 pm in hopes of making it to the
park by sunrise. Aside from almost running out of gas, we just kept each other
awake on the drive. We made a stop in Fort Stockton to grab a bite to eat
figuring there would be nothing else open along the way. I got a foot long
subway to eat once we got closer to the park.
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| Heading down to cache ou |
May 23, 2014
We got to the Park around 7 am as the sun was rising. During
our drive in we started to feel how massive and majestic this area was. During
the night ride we were oblivious to the giant rock formations jetting out of
the ground. The sun’s reflection was giving off a vibrant red glow that was
photographic view, even from a distance. We already knew that hiking the Outer
Mountain Loop was impossible without caching water. We headed to the Homer
Wilson Blue Creek cache point. All four of us placed 1 gallon each. CACHE 2
GALLONS. I cannot stress this enough. It is no difference hauling 2 gallons
from your car on the side of the road, down 400m to the cache box. We saw other
jugs in the box dated in April, some with “Emergency water”. We heard doing the
OML was suicidal in the summer months, but we were experiencing a rather cool
May. We returned back to Chisos Basin Park Center (can leave car here) to buy
our park pass ($20/vehicle) and get our backpacking permit ($10). The park
ranger issues these and was strongly trying to discourage our plans. In the
end, our research and knowledge from it convinced him to give us a shot. He did
mention that OML has a 10% success rate… scare tactic or truth?
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| Getting ready to take off! |
The water alone I was carrying weighed almost 20 pounds.
After adding in everything else, I was somewhere between 25 & 30. My
preparation for this trip? Walking around Freer, TX with 35 pounds in my bag
for 2 hours one day and 4 hours another. We all chugged about half a gallon of
water and began our adventure at 10 am. We began with the Pinnacles Trail. This
was an immediate uphill hike. We got into the grove by allowing each person to
lead the group for 15 mins, and then drop to the end and continue until one
cycle. We would then stop and rest for 15 mins then continue. This gave each
person the chance to go at
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| Maps help! |
their own pace and include plenty of rest. We
continued this method for 3.5 miles where we came across Emory Peak Trail. I
hear great things about this view, but we heard better things about South Rim,
so we trekked on for about 1.3 miles (passing the Colina Trail). We took a
breather here. There is a nice dried out creek. We headed to the right towards
South Rim, but only for a short, maybe half mile, we were forced to continue
right on the West route due to falcon mating season. After a mile we came up on
the most breath taking views. We were again restricted by the falcon mating
season and forced to turn right. We took lots of photos. One of the guys in our
group was deathly afraid of heights, to the point where us being close to the
edge made him queasy. We spent a solid 30 mins admiring the great views and
taking photos. Our vantage point allowed us to see for miles and
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| Enjoying South Rim |
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| Group Shot! |
consequently,
where we would be walking the next day. We headed back to our turn off point
(~3 mile side trip in all) and got onto Juniper Canyon Trail. We all thought
the steep ascend was bad… the steep descend was possibly worse! We were still
covered by trees and the heat wasn’t too back despite temperatures reaching
into the upper 80’s. After descending from 7,000’ to 3,000’ we made it to Upper
Juniper Springs. Soon after this point is where back packing camping begins.
This must occur 50’ off the trail (there are clearly marked spots). We
estimated that we were 1.5-2 miles from the Dodson Trail turn off. We set up
the tent and got ready for bed as the sun was setting. Due to our lack of sleep
we were able to sleep pretty easy despite the thunder clouds rolling in.
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| Take BREAKS! |
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| Our sleep spot |
Total distance covered: 14 miles
Lunch: 1 apple, couple beef jerky pieces, and cliff bar
Snack: 1 orange
Dinner: Tuna package, jerky pieces, twizzlers and washed
down with half coconut water
May 24, 2014
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| Rattlesnakes blend in well... Be careful! |
We woke around 6 and began to get ready. We were on our way
by 6:45 with the sun barely peaking over the mountains. Within 30 minutes of
leaving we became INCHES from a rattlesnake. Just sitting in the middle of the
trail was a 4’ rattlesnake. We took no chance and walked way around. Another 30
minutes we were at the cache station for Dodson Trail. We took a look and found
some emergency water. We took some and filled our jugs. We did not take full
advantage ago, and we wish we would have! Never pass on water!
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| Day 2! |
There was a
single rain cloud on the mountain where South Rim view was. It was a great
shot, so we took a couple photos before taking off. We had roughly 11 miles til
the Homer Wilson Blue Creek Ranch point. This part was very brutal and intense.
It involved very rigorous up downs causing us to take multiple breaks. There
was no shade from the sun. The immediate contact wore on us greatly. The only
positive is your shoulders become use to the weight and the load is lessening
with time, but be sure you save water! After the intersection of Smokey Creek
Trail, the terrain becomes more tame. The heat however is climbing rapidly. We
started a 20 mins on, 5 mins off campaign and that 5 mins had to be spent in
whatever form of shade we could find. We knew the cache station was coming up
after we ascended and
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| Cairns will save you! |
took a turn and saw we had a big descend. Take this
descent lightly, then follow the creek bed and finally the cache station is in
view! The heat was making it quite miserable but the scenery is amazing. We sat
at the cache station for an hour chugging water and eating what we could. Half
our crew decided that was enough and hitched a ride back to the park center. We
continued up the creek bed for another 2.5 hours passing the red rocks (looks
like something out of Utah!). We made camp and passed out!
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| The red rocks |
Total distance covered: 13 miles
Breakfast: Cliff bar and rest of coconut water
Lunch: 1 apple, couple beef jerky pieces, peanut butter and
honey sandwich
Snack: 1 orange
Dinner: Tuna package, jerky pieces, twizzlers
May 25, 2014
We woke up early to beat the heat. We had to use our head
lights for the first 30 mins or so but it was worth it. The steep mountains
that surrounded us made it feel like we were closer than we really were. We had
one last ascend where at the top the sign indicated we were 3.5 miles away from
the park center. Hope! This involved a lot of switch backs that were hard on
the joints and blisters on top of blisters. We could see a glimpse of the park
but it was misleading as the switch backs were killer. We did start seeing
people walking towards us wearing fresh clothes and smiles while I am sure we
looked like something from the Walking Dead. We finally reached the park center
and immediately went to the park store to buy any kind of foods. Burger and ice
cream? Sounds great! Finished up with about 36 miles in all
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| FINISHED! |
We took 3 days and 2 nights on our adventure. Trevor was living in the Bay Area at the time and Becky came to visit for Thanksgiving. Figuring the city may be packed with family and most shops closed, we decided to get in touch with our nature side. We used Eureka as a base point. The drive up the 101 is very beautiful. It is full of river crossings and rolling hills. We rolled into small town Eureka late afternoon with no reservation. We had a little bit of a tough time but we eventually found a hotel. We toured around the city, visiting the old Victorian style homes that interest Becky. I hope we don't have to buy one now... It was Thanksgiving so we found a place having a great special and pigged out before our hiking adventure the next day.
Before this visitor center there is a nice, very easy hike (60 minutes round trip) called Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail. Very casual walk with lots of history apparently. At the park center we took off for the Big Tree... it took all of 5 mins! But the tree was massive. Towering 300 feet tall and 21 feet in diameter. It has a 68 foot circumference. I couldn't even get a picture that captured its massive size. Try to find the "corkscrew" tree. It is 4 trees trunks intertwined to become one! We went back to Davidson Rd to head to Gold Bluffs Beach. If I would have done some research, I would have taken the Coastal Trail to get a good view of the ocean.
