Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Rudolph and the Rabbit

 

Texas is a huge state. The drive across Interstate 10 from El Paso to Beaumont covers around 950 miles west to east. A trip from Brownsville north to Amarillo covers 800 miles.

In fact, Texas is the second largest state with 261,797 square miles. California is a distant third at 155,959 square miles. But it would take two California's and one Texas to equal Alaska’s whopping 571,951 square miles of land.

The reason I bring this up is that in a state as large as Texas you are bound to see animals adapt to the different environments. The most striking example of this is the western Texas rabbit. A lot of predators roaming this area would love to feast on a fluffy bunny. So they have come up with a unique defense.

While I was walking around Garner State Park on Monday, I saw a rabbit hopping in the distance.

Garner Rabbit 1

He looked a little different from other rabbits I had seen so I snuck closer for a better look.

Garner Rabbit 2

Amazing! The rabbits here have actually evolved into having armor plating to protect them. Makes sense. He finally noticed me and hopped away.

Anyway, I have been quite busy over the past week. I’ve gotten the trailer pretty much loaded the way I want it and I found time to visit four state parks, all less than two hours west of the San Antonio-Austin area.

Blanco State Park has 42 sites including a half dozen cabins.

Blanco Sign

Folks were getting festive with Christmas just a few days away. (#27)

Blanco_027

The Blanco River runs next to the campground.

Blanco River 1

Blanco Dam

Blanco River 2

The cabins looked cool, with several having great views of the water. (#42)

Blanco_042

25 miles east is Guadalupe River State Park.

Guadalupe River Sign

The spring-fed river is popular with swimmers, kayakers, and tubers.

Guadalupe River 2

Guadalupe River 3

Guadalupe River 5

There is a neat day-use area just above the river.

Guadalupe River Day Use Area 1

Guadalupe River Day Use Area 2

There are 94 campsites here including six walk-ins. This is #69.

Guadalupe River_069

I liked walk-in #87 near the river.

Guadalupe River_087

On Monday I visited two more campgrounds. Little Lost Maples and Giant Garner.

Lost Maples Sign

The star of this Natural Area is a stand of rare Uvalde bigtooth maples which date back to last ice age. In late October/early November this place is packed with leaf-peepers. I was almost two months late for the show but did manage to find a few stragglers.

Maples 1

Maples 2

But most of them were on the bottom of the crystal clear Sabinal River.

Drowned leaves

There are only 30 sites here, most look like #13.

Lost Maples_013

So if you want to camp there during the fall colors, make your reservation early.

Those are oak trees in the picture above still holding some leaves. The hillside behind the campground was colorful.

Trees

20 miles south is Garner State Park. This is the most popular campground in the Texas State Park system. The ranger told me that some families have been coming here for five generations. It is set on a huge chunk of land alongside the Frio River. There are 337 campsites and several dozen cabins and screen shelters.

Garner Sign

The campsites are divided into two sections. The northern area contains the Rio Frio, Live Oak, and Persimmon Hill loops, a little over 200 sites. This area was closed when I was there on Monday so I had to park and hike in a mile or so to reach them.

Site #313 is typical of this area.

Garner_313

For a really large private tent site, #234 is the best.

Garner_234

This is the quieter section of the park. Most of activities center around the Pecan Grove and Oakmont loops a mile away. The cabins and screen shelters are here, along with the store, café, and boat rentals.

Garner Boat Rental

There are kayaks and paddle boats available. Notice the people? They stocked the river with trout while I was there.

Garner Fishing

It drew quite a crowd. I don’t understand why they publish the date and time of the stocking. (I read it in the Sunday paper) The hatchery fish tend to congregate in the area they are planted for a few days before spreading out in the river. This makes them easy pickings. Maybe just say there will be two plantings in December or one during the week of 12/22. Give the little guys time to say goodbye to their friends and have a chance to grow bigger. Just a thought.

Here is a tip. The best campsite in this whole state park is #66.

Garner_066

It is right across the road from the fishing and boating area, near the volleyball court and playing field, yet still has plenty of privacy. Grab it if you can.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve. And what better way to enjoy it than with a taco dinner.

I took out the fixings.

Taco Fixings

Made sure I had some good hot sauce.

Salsa

(Thanks Brother Mike)

And heated up the tortillas.

Tortillas

Splatter screens are a camper’s best friend. You can crisp tortillas and make toast and heat up just about anything. Give it a try.

The end result looked delicious.

Taco Dinner

I was just sitting down to eat when I heard something crash through the trees and thump to the ground. Startled, I looked over a saw a deer struggling to his feet. He turned and looked at me.

Rudolph

It was Rudolph.

“Um, don’t you have some place you need to be?” I asked.

“Yeah, I am running a little late” he replied. “Which way is north?”

I pointed him in the right direction. He pawed the ground, bunched his shoulder muscles, and took off into the darkening sky. He circled overhead and gave me a nod. Then he disappeared.

I ate my tacos and then went to bed.

I am writing this on Christmas morning while watching Rudolph’s relatives prance about outside my trailer. I want to wish all my friends and family a very Merry Christmas. I miss y’all (I’m turning Texan) but this is where I am meant to be.

Regards,

Greg

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Cleon Dion

 

It’s that time again.

I dusted off my typewriter and splashed some ink onto the ribbon. I am ready to hit the road on an epic multi-year camping trip.

But first a pop quiz - Jeopardy style.

The answer is Cleon Dion.

Is the correct question:

A. What are the names of the two winter storms that stranded me for a few days near the New Mexico/Texas border and left me freezing in my tent?

B. What is the name of the reclusive brother of the Canadian gal who sang that Titanic song?

C. What are the names of the two winter storms that stranded me for a few days near the New Mexico/Texas border while I was warm and dry in my new trailer?

Yep. That would be C.

I will show you detailed pics of the trailer later but I want to get caught up on what has transpired so far.

I headed east in early December with the goal of visiting Gulf Coast and Florida campgrounds this winter, then following spring north to Maine.

I picked up a new gps because my old one stopped talking to me and enjoyed giving wrong directions.

New GPS

If you are familiar with Southern California, I am heading to the 91 via the 241 toll road. That blue splotch is Irvine Lake.

I spent the night at Joshua Tree NP and witnessed a nice sunset.

Trailer 2

Sunset 1

After reading for a bit, I headed out early the next day hoping to reach New Mexico.

Growler 4

Which I did after playing tag with several semi’s.

Trucks 2

Rockhound Sign

Rockhound SP is just south of Deming NM. The sites are large and set on a terraced hillside giving views of the desert and town.

Rockhound_016

Rockhound_018

Rockhound View

The rock collecting is supposed to be good here, hence the name, but I left the next morning bound for Bottomless Lakes SP near Roswell NM.

I headed northeast from Las Cruces to Alamogordo and then up and over the mountains.

5500 feet.

GPS 1

7600 feet.

GPS 2

I started noticing snow on the ground.

Snow 1

The campground is at only 3500 feet so I figured there would be no issues.

Snow 3

The road into the campground wasn’t bad at all.

Snow 4

I plugged in the trailer, turned on the heater, and went to bed. It only snowed a bit overnight.

Bottomless Campsite

Snow Scamp

The problem was the cold. Cleon provided the snow and then Dion kept the temps down in the teens for 3 days. The roads were way to icy to drive on. Finally by last Sunday the mercury rose to 40 degrees and I skedaddled.

Snow Tree

Leaving Bottomless

The campground itself was nice. I was here last in 2010 when I visited all the New Mexico SP’s.

Bottomless Lakes Sign

I stayed in site number 12 this time. Here is what it looks like in October.

Bottomless Lakes_012

And one of the lakes.

Bottomless Lakes View

I had planned to head east from here and visit campgrounds around Dallas/Fort Worth but Dion was still toying with that area so I headed southeast and stopped at Monahans Sandhills SP near Pecos, Texas.

Momahans Sandhills Sign

Monahans Sandhills_013

This small campground is on the edge of a 200 mile stretch of shifting sand that reaches west into New Mexico. You can rent saucers and go sliding down them if you so desire.

Monahans Sandhills

I was still chilly so I finally cooked something on the stove in the trailer. Chili. I thought it was appropriate.

Chili Dinner

I made my next stop at Seminole Canyon.

Seminole Canyon Bathroom

This 46 site state park is situated near the confluence of the Pecos and Rio Grande rivers.

Seminole Canyon_026

There is great hiking in this area with ranger-led tours down to the river.

The pamphlet says “Everything here bites, scratches, or stings.”

Cool.

Hey, if you are not living on the edge you are just taking up space.

I headed east to a campground near San Antonio where I will be staying until the day after Christmas. I need some time to finalize my itinerary and get the trailer properly set up. There are also a half dozen state parks I want to check out in this area.

It’s a Thousand Trails spot so it has wi-fi, laundry, etc. It also has a TON of deer.

This one peeked in while I was writing this so I had to grab my camera real quick.

Deer

OK, now I am all caught up.

On to the trailer.

I have been looking into getting a trailer for several years. On long camping trips there is a high probability that you will run into inclement weather.

Trust me on that one.

I needed a dry place to sleep and work. The hard part was finding one that fit into my Element’s towing capacity of 1500 pounds. It is rated higher in other countries but I wanted to be safe.

I looked at pop-ups, A-frame trailers like the Aliner, and even large teardrops. I liked the idea of having a ready made bed with no set up needed so that ruled out the first two types. A teardrop is just a bed on wheels and I needed more interior room, so that narrowed my choices down to the fiberglass eggs like the Scamp, Burro, Casita, etc.

I finally found a Scamp that fit the bill.

Growler 3

It is a base model (2003) with the options I wanted and none of the extras that add weight. No A/C, no fridge (just an icebox), no built-in heater, and no bathroom.

It has a screen door.

Screen Door

A fantastic fan for venting (that is the brand name) and rear overhead storage.

Fantastic Fan

And a kitchen window.

Kitchen Window

Those are the only options I wanted.

Here is a tour. This is the bedroom.

Bedroom

The closet.

Closet

The kitchen.

Kitchen

The family room.

Family Room

The pantry.

Pantry

And the ice box.

Ice Box

My non-hanging clothes fit in four milk crates under the bed.

Dresser

The bed is actually the dinette but I am going to leave it set up this way.

On the trailer tongue is a propane tank and battery.

Battery

The battery charges while I drive so when there is no shore power I can use it for work, lighting, charging camera batteries, etc.

I had to add a 7 way plug to my car to accomplish this and I also added a fancy U-bolt that stops the ball mount from moving.

Hitch

Two last things.

Sharp eyes might have noticed a sign hanging from the trailer door.

Growler 1

My friend Rob made this for me many years ago (I won’t go into the whole story) and I think this a perfect spot for it.

Kind of a warning yet intriguing. Probably confusing.

Growler 2

Perfect.

Finally, the trailer came with a name. Sometimes I like it, other times not so much.

Trailer 4

What do you think? Should I leave it? Remove it? Replace it?

Let me know.

Regards,

Greg