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We're chronicling our travels around the states on this blog. Check it out, if you're bored and sitting on an apple box (you can also check it out from home or the office).

Big Bend NP

May 18, 2014Samuel Herbig

You guessed it, we did make it to Big Bend National Park!

A big motivator was that Marfa really didn't have much to offer to keep us occupied. To be perfectly frank, Marfa was a disappointment plus dust. So we were happy to pack our stuff back up, grab two free cups of coffee from the office and head out on to our next adventure.

Once again we passed through Alpine gassed up and continued until we found route 385 which was going to take us South (past a Border Patrol check point) to the entrance of Big Bend.

Whitney wasn't feeling well. The second night in Marfa had given her sinuses what seemed like the final blow, so when we got to the park entrance flying dust was of particular concern.

So we asked the ranger.

The answers he gave us weren't exactly what we were looking for. He said things like, "oh yeah there's been a lot of dust there in the past days . . . but maybe it was smoke" and "sure, it's always windy up there".

Unimpressed, we pressed on.

Driving towards Big Bend is a wholly uneventful affair. The landscape is a series of low rolling hills, with the occasional rift covered in grass, low shrubs and an occasional cactus. The only animals we saw were a few birds. Part of Big Bend National Park's allure, is how remote it is. In the brochure we read that it is one of the most remote places in the lower 48 states. It doesn't come as a particular surprise then that I counted about 5 cars in the last 2 hours of our drive.

About the extent of our interaction with anything on the way to Chisos Basin

When we reached Panther Junction both of us wanted to get out to stretch our legs, ask a few more questions regarding a few hikes we had our eyes on and to get our super awesome National Parks Passport stamped (some people have suggested that the passport is somehow lame and something for kids, but those people lack both imagination, spirit, and display a worrisome case of seriousness).

Once past Panther Junction, the landscape started to change dramatically. The air was filled with fine dust (or maybe smoke? let's just call it haze) so driving up the into the Chisos Basin was a little spooky, even though it was the middle of the day. Slowly one by one the mountains stepped forward out of obscurity. The last half hour we were flanked on both sides by huge 7,000 foot (and taller) mountains. Along a narrow and very windy road we made it up to the basin where our campground was located.

Purely based on it's location, this campground was easily the most spectacular we'd been to. After oohing and ahhing for a bit, we set up our tent and then swung by the lodge to score some free Wi-Fi access to hopefully hear from our friends at Happy Mac in Austin. We didn't get an update and so we cooked dinner back at the campsite, decided to try to hike the Lost Mine Trail (tripadvisor!) in the morning, and then went to sleep.

Views: Brewster County, TX by Samuel Herbig

Hang on, there was one more thing: Before heading into the tent to sleep, I took some night sky pictures. I've been trying to polish my skills a bit in that department and I think they're getting better. Still, I admit there's a lot of room for improvement. I'm open for tips, by the way!

Whitney messing around in the tent, or somthin'

Then we went to sleep.

In the morning we both agreed that we had slept much better and that there was no additional dust in the tent. The haze had cleared out of the atmosphere for the most part, too. Suddenly, we could clearly see all the mountains surrounding us in the basin. Bathed in the warm morning sunlight it was a sight to behold.

While making breakfast, the high winds and extreme wild fire danger were worrying me. I literally covered the open side of the grill with my hoodie to prevent sparks from flying. I really didn't get a big enough bed of coals going. Additionally, I think the strong wind caused the coals to burn through much faster, so that in the end we didn't have hot enough coals for long enough to make eggs and coffee.

After both of us were done stewing, we decided that enough was enough: we're gonna get a campstove.

Encouraged by our own ability to face the music and move on we, uhm . . . moved on to break camp and head to the the Lost Mine trailhead.

The trail starts out easy enough: it is wide enough for two people to comfortably walk next to each other and well maintained. This was our first long hike of the road trip, so that suited us just fine. Aside from it's remoteness, Big Bend is also know for it's many native varieties of cacti, which bloom in the spring in fall. So we got to see a lot of different kinds, some of which were still in bloom.

The trail really showed off once we reached the Juniper Canyon Overlook. Ahead of us, we could see deep into the Juniper Canyon and looking back over our shoulder we saw the trailhead and Chisos Basin with the campground and lodge. As we continued our ascent along and up the northeast wall of Juniper Canyon the views just grew more and more spectacular. Each switchback provided a new vantage point. Across from us we could see the majestic Casa Grande (which, coincidentally was also behind our tent site) and other peaks.

We finally reached the end of the trail after about an hour and a half. However, the end of the trail in this case wasn't a peak, a singular point. Instead it was a drawn out ridge, the length of which we could walk from little peak to little peak. We could see into three different valleys and at least a handful of peaks and points rising around us. To top it off, we'd seen about a dozen or so people or so on the trail. In short, this was easily one of the most impressive views I've had and we both agreed that the ratio of visual pay-off to effort was steeply stacked in our favor.

We sat there for a while, us and the desert mountains, and I thought about how wildly different nature out here was. How different it looked from the places in the Alps I used to hike growing up, or even the Appalachian range on the East Coast.

Views: Brewster County, TX by Samuel Herbig

Deeply satisfied, we began to descend. Not before long we were united again with the Omimobile and on our way towards El Paso, Texas. That's not technically correct: really we were headed for Santa Teresa, New Mexico since that's where Princess and a Kostya were getting married in only two short days! I was particularly excited to see those two get hitched, because Kostya is my oldest friend in the United States and he stood with me at our wedding. Now it was my time to stand with him at his.

Whitney was so greasy, she wouldn't let me take a picture of her. The steak on the other hand...

I should mention one more thing:

On our way there we stopped at Cattleman's Ranch, a short drive outside of Fabens, Texas for steak dinner. The steak was out of this world. I mean really, it was amazing. Peter L. (you know who you are), if you're reading this, you should take note.

As always, if you want to see a few more pictures, head on over to the Flickr page!

categories Hike
tags Hike, Chisos Basin, Big Bend, National Park, Camping, Lost Mine Trail, Steak, Cattleman's Ranch

Mountains of Dust

May 17, 2014Samuel Herbig

A bunch of what follows will be about weather phenomena and different kinds of elevation and both were the kind of things that I'm sure seem perfectly normal to anyone living here, but were remarkable, because this was new ground to the both of us.

Smooth introduction: on our way out of San Antonio Whitney wanted to get a count of Texas and American flags. The thought had really occurred to us when Whitney was counting F-150 trucks the other day, but she couldn't keep track of two things at the same time. Anywho, we started driving and Whitney started counting flags (just as a reminder, this is our third day of driving westward . . . and we're still driving through Texas). In about 30 minutes she got:

14 Texas flags
2 Texas Logos or Objects
30 American flags

That's a pretty good display of state and national purpose by any measure. Interestingly Whitney gave up counting flags right around 10:40 and it wasn't because there were too many flags. The opposite was the case. Quite suddenly we had arrived in the Texas hill country and let me tell you: there's nothing out here. I mean sure, there are shrubs and grasses, rocks and iron ranch gates every ten or so miles but this is unmistakably the desert. Hill country is also firmly tongue in cheek, at least going by the RPM's poor Omimobile had to push to get us over those mountains.

Driving along I-10 I kept wanting to stop so that I could take pictures of the building mountains around us or to get a shot of what the desert looks like. Turns out taking a picture of the desert isn't that easy and I really wasn't satisfied with what I got. Hmmm.

As we mentioned in the post from Austin, we had set an unfortunates precedent in driving all day without eating and we followed that to a T again. We're both still shaking our heads. Anyway, we literally stopped twice on our drive to Marfa. Once so I could take pictures and a second time to get gas and switch drivers.

We got to our campground in trendy (?), hip (?) Marfa at El Cosmico, pitched our tent and...

... we checked high and low for a place to eat and there was nothing. Everything was either open Wednesday thru Sunday or open during the day until 2pm or open after 6pm. That was incredibly frustrating. There simply wasn't anything open in the middle of the day where you could go to get hot food. So we found ourselves once again in the situation of being hungry and without food. We're working on it.

Jett's Grill, a half mile into town (?) at the Paison Hotel was the place that would finally release us from our gnawing hunger. It's unclear whether the food was that good or whether we were just hungry. At any rate the plate was empty in less time than it takes most people to decide what they'd like to order. Once sated, I took a look around the courtyard at the hotel and kind of got the impression that I was in some kind of a strange world made out of festival hipsters and leather clad motorcycle adventurers. It gave me the impression of being in some exotic semi-perilous desert outpost that adventurers sought out as base camp or way point along their route while at the same time being at the out-of-sight celebrity vacation spot at the end of the earth.

We got back to El Cosmico and the wind is kicking up. For the first time we pulled out the four guylines we have for our trusty Basecamp 4 and tethered it to a nearby tree. After a little time of settling in, we turned off our water-headlamp light and cuddled in. It was getting cold.

The morning came. Carefully we poked our noses out of the top of the sleeping bags, it was that cold out. What we saw wasn't pretty: a fine earthen, clay colored dust covered the inside of our tent. At this point I'm starting to notice my dried out mouth and Whitney's showing definite signs of her allergies. Overnight, the gusty winds had kicked up the dust outside and swiftly carried it underneath the gap of the rainfly, through the mesh of the tent onto the pillows, sleeping bags and anything else not thoroughly sealed.

We were cold, dust covered and had no coffee.

I want to deviate from the storyline just for a moment, because I feel that it is important that we inform all of you, just how dusty it was. It just so happened that it was Bob's birthday (Whitney's dad who took us to Nashville and Memphis earlier in the trip). Quick thinking Whitney made the best out of the situation. With a little patience, spit and a camera she made an impromptu birthday card!

Briskly we trudged over to the main office and went inside. It was warmer in there and there's coffee. By the looks of it, we weren't the only one's trying to shake off the chills of the night. The internet was down though, so any planning we wanted to get done was a no go, so we eventually decided to pick up on a tip from George back in San Antonio and headed up to Balmorhea State Park.

Balmorhea is about an hour north of us along Texas route 17, but we had to take the detour via 90, to Alpine and then via 118 back to 17 so that we'd have a chance to refuel and get the oil changed.

Which brings me to an interesting experience I'd like to share:

Boulders strewn about as though they were flung there by a giant's hand

Do you sometimes drive along and then you see "oh look, I'm running kinda low on gas only have a quarter tank to go..."? Well, once we had started heading west from San Antonio, and certainly once we'd left the I-10 corridor both of our senses of scarcity particularly in terms of gas had kicked up. I kept thinking about gas in terms of means to get from safe haven to safe haven. Without it, we'd be pretty SOL unless someone happened to find us. Gas stations started to be over 50 miles apart at times so dropping below a quarter task was a no go.

The one cactus we found that wasn't "hanging on"

With clean oil and a tank full of lifelinesque gas we set out once again. Guess I didn't mind the detour either, because it led us from the perfectly flat desert through a small group of mountains back out into the desert a few times. Before we met up with route 17 once again at Fort Davis, we stopped so that I could take some pictures and gaze at this barren land that stretched out all around us. Some of the mountains seemed to be dropping rocks on the surrounding landscape, littering it with large boulders. Looking more closely, we could find little cacti hanging on, on the roadside.

About every 5-10 minutes a car or truck would pass us. I felt small, alone and peaceful all alone out there.

As we entered Fort Davis, Whitney saw a sign for the Limpia Creek Hats company. Since we would be out in the direct sun and I needed something to cover my noggin, we stopped in. The building was a small, three room cottage. We were greeted by John Davis.

What followed next was one of the single most pleasant, cordial, and professional sales consultation I've experienced in years. You see as a Yankee, buying a cowboy hat is a bit intimidating. I don't want one of those gaudy "hey look at who just got back from a real rodeo in Texas!" hats, you know? I want a practical and nice looking hat that also happens to be from Texas.

Mr. Davis provided me with just that. After picking out a Guatemalan palm leaf hat and a shape, he hand molded the hat, changed the band for me and made sure that the thing fit just so. All while addressing Whitney and myself with more "yes sir" and "mhmm, ma'am"s than I'd ever heard one person utter in the span of an hour.

I left a happy customer and would like to endorse this business right here: if you're in need of a quality hat in west Texas, visit the Limpia Creek Hats company in Fort Davis.

By the time we pulled off Texas route 17 in Balmorhea, we had an apatite so we stopped at the one (of two?) open places in town for a snack before heading to the park.

The park isn't really a park in the way you'd imagine a state park. It's more of a public pool on public land made into a state park centered around the fresh water springs of the San Salomon creek.

The weather was cool, but we were dusty and hadn't showered in a couple of days so the temperature was certainly not going to hold us back.

After testing the temperature with our toes we carefully climbed down the algea covered steps. It was very slippery, but the water was oh so refreshing and crystal clear. We'd snorkeled twice before on our trip, but I ran back to the car for the goggles soon so that we could see better what was going on underwater.

The only reason Whitney gets to be in the picture is because I can't float on my back. True story.

The whole pool is roughly in an L shape with a larger round pool at the joint. The fresh spring water flows in at the top of the L through the round pool and out the other end. Since it is a natural river it's full of the aforementioned algae but also of scores and scores of little fish swimming around and which tickled the bottoms of our feet when we sat at the edge of the pool. As the sun was shining down on us, we were sitting in an idyllic oasis in the middle of the barren Texas landscape.

I think I counted six other people while we were there in an area that could have easily accommodated a hundred or more. Everything's bigger, I guess. Clean and refreshed we headed back towards Marfa.

With all this open land around us and the huge Texas sky above us, we thought we'd be fools to miss a sunset while we were here. You see, seeing the sun rise above and fall below the horizon is the kind of thing you make you do when you want to make sure that you positively have nothing better to do. Road trips are time you spend away from (most) time constraints, so a sunrise or a sunset is a quintessential part of that experience. We passed El Cosmico and continued South (passing a Border Patrol check point, our first of many more times in the coming week) until we found a suitable place to watch the sunset about 15 minutes later. We got out and got to see a beautiful red, black, brown, yellow, orange, purple and blue sunset!

When we got chilly, we headed back to camp. We cooked a sparse dinner and settled in for the night discussing our idea to trade in our inhospitable post at El Cosmico for a taste of Big Bend National Park.

Are we going to pull it off?

categories Drive
tags Texas, Dust, Marfa, Hat, Balmorhea, El Cosmico, Desert, Swimming, Drive

The Heart of Texas

May 15, 2014Whitney Lea

Since leaving Disney world there have been a few places and moments that have reminded us of a real world version of the Disney experience. San Antonio was one of them.

Can you believe we didn't have a single margarita while we were there?

In one of the first drafts of the road trip plan I had scheduled to stay there for half a day. At some point I decided to change that plan. It may have had to do with one of my best friends, Nathalie, endorsing the beauties of San Antonio and its Riverwalk.

Nat clued us in to the fact that we would be visiting during Fiesta, a multi-week festival that everyone in San Antonio gets really excited about. The idea that locals get excited by a festival that brings in tourists was a little unbelievable to me but I didn't dwell on it too long.

I did a little research on our drive there and it turned out that the night of our arrival would coincide with the Fiesta Flambeau Parade. According to residents this parade is the largest night parade and the third largest parade in the USA (after the Rose Bowl and Macy's Thanksgiving). So needless to say, I was a bit excited.

Since San Antonio was only an hour or so away from Austin, we elected to take the most backroads route there to do a little exploring and see some interesting terrain. (Little did we know that we would see more cacti and dusty plains than we could handle in the coming days.) We had hoped to do an art session on the way but had to put it on the back burner as the explorations pushed our arrival time later and later. We stopped in Lockhart, "the barbecue capitol of Texas" and ate some barbecue that was good... Better than most of the brisket I've had in my life, but not as great as La Barbecue in Austin.

The vegetable options were corn, potatoes, and cabbage bathed in a variety of dairy products and condiments

I will also use the Supergeil scale because it makes Sam smile.

Then Sam got out of the car several times to take some pictures as we drove down tiny roads deep in the heart of Texas.

When we finally got to San Antonio we settled into our room at an airbnb. Our host, George, seemed to know everything there was to know about the city and after a lengthy and very informative chat we came up with a rough itinerary for our visit. I am not kidding when I tell you that George could come up with a tourist plan that would require two weeks. Although I was vaguely familiar with San Antonio's beloved Riverwalk, George explained it further for Sam and I. The Riverwalk is a series of walkways lining the San Antonio river one story below street level, though it is open air. (This isn't the ninja turtles!) It stretches for miles and the city is expanding it all the time.

George's enthusiasm for the parade was nonexistent, but he clearly understood why so many people would want to go and he gave us a ride into the historic district while it was still light.

George had mentioned a food truck court in waking distance from San Antonio's River Walk and we decided to eat there rather than the mostly tourist oriented places in that area.

The moment we finished we started to follow the trajectory of every other pedestrian we saw and wound up right above the river walk. The San Antonio Spurs were playing in a playoff round against the Dallas Mavericks at the time and several buildings in San Antonio had banners cheering them on, including the Hilton.

I feel sorry for the guy from Dallas on a business trip here

We later learned that this hotel, the Hilton Palacio del Rio (wiki), was a milestone in modular architecture, which meant every room was constructed and furnished eight miles away and then trucked to the site and locked into place, almost like Legos. The bathrooms even had toilet paper in them before they were placed in the building.

Back to the real mission: get a good spot for parade watching. The streets were packed with locals full of hometown pride and everyone seemed very excited about this tradition. We finally found a place where Sam could get a good perspective above the crowd without blocking people and we settled in for the Fiesta Flambeau Parade.

After that we decided to stroll the river walk back to George's place. It took about an hour but we had a chance to really experience it. There were shops, restaurants, hotels, art installations, and gardens, making for an experience that was a cross between the Highline in New York and a boat-based ride at Disney World. Tourists love it (I saw a woman spend $372 on a huge bag of chinzy souvenirs for people back home when I was picking up postcards), but unlike most of the touristy things I've been familiar with in places that I have lived — ahem, Times Square — the locals actually seem to appreciate it and feel proud of it too. I couldn't blame them, it was really well done.

The other side of the Hilton Palacio del Rio during the parade and the dangerous underbelly lurking below

The next morning we thought it would be a great idea to check out the Guenther House because George had dubbed their breakfast "heavenly". It was good food, but the 99 minute wait was unexpected and not a great use of our time. We did manage to pick up a small cake that we enjoyed over two evenings in Marfa, so there's that I guess. Oh, and we compiled the Best/Worst List (see sidebar) and posted it too. We'll call the stop at Guenther House mildly productive.

After that we realized we wouldn't have time to visit the Alamo or do a river tour before meeting Nathalie's little brother, who is a San Antonio resident and also named Sam. Instead we headed over to the Blue Star Art Complex and discovered much of it was closed on Sundays. Luckily the Blue Star Brewing was not and we enjoyed a flight of all of their beers. I drank the majority because we knew Sam Herbig would need to drive.

Other Sam introduced us to Rudy's barbecue and then we went to play giant jenga, cornhole, and hang out at a bar to let the heat of the day get over with as it was in the mid-90s in late April.

While talking to Sam we got to hear his thoughts on living there and he confirmed that San Antonians have a lot of hometown pride, are enthusiastic, family-oriented, and overall very polite. He also pointed out there are 300+ pool days a year. We were glad to see how happy he was there.

Here is the picture of the two Sam's so you can see how easily distinguishable they are aside from their names:

We hightailed it back downtown so we could catch a boat tour of the Riverwalk. As expected, it was a very Disney-like experience. The boat tour we took was shared by a group of more than 30 college girls who were in San Antonio for some dance competition, the boat captain was a very sweet (and patient) lady also named Sam, and the boat stalled out. We did not have to hear "It's a Small World" on repeat throughout though. It was actually a pretty fun time and a cute little tour.

Smiling on the new boat with fully operational motor

The last stop we knew we needed to make was to The Alamo, a site that was the bloody inspiration for Texan freedom. Davy Crockett (of coonskin cap and wild frontier fame) fought and died there along with many others. Here are some pictures of that, too.

The next morning we said goodbye to George and he gave us some helpful tips about Marfa and it's surrounding attractions, which we put to good use when we got there.

And there you have it: our 36 hours in San Antonio. Festive. Picturesque. Enthusiastic.

Up next, let's go get dusty in Marfa.

Random Facts and Statistics from San Antonio:

We had our first tequila shot of the trip here (with plenty more to come in the following week), a gift from Texas Sam.

According to a teenager at the parade, Sam looks like "that guy from Dexter". Compliment? Suuure, why not.

We saw so many Texas flags driving around here that we decided to do a count on our way to Marfa. That statistic to come next post!

categories Exploring
tags Texas, San Antonio, Parade, Riverwalk, Friends

It's so cool, it's awesome

May 15, 2014Samuel Herbig

Our first day in town was a little strenuous, you know with all the walking around and the humid weather. That's why the other Austin "thing" we'd eyed fit in nicely: get outta town and find a swimming hole.

Quick side note for anyone not from the area: the abundance and variety of swimming holes around Austin seem to be a source of some pride in these parts.

There are a few rather well known swimming holes and we didn't really know which one to go to at first. Did we want to go to the most proximate location with Barton Springs and risk it being crowded, or to Jacob's Well but have to endure an hour+ drive? We finally settled on Hamilton Pool, which ended up being roughly an hour away from our Hostel.

We got there, it's $15 (ouch!) and I had to squeeze the Omimobile next to a truck to get a spot in some damn shade!

Change, pee, sun-sreen, ray bans, ready!

It was a short and not too steep hike from the parking lot to the pool. Even before we got to the pool you could already hear the hollering and laughter of the people there. If you've ever been to an indoor pool, you know that echoey sound, right? It was surreal, because we were standing under these big trees with a little creek running to our left, birds chirping overhead and yet my ears were telling me: "attention please! no diving from the edge of the pool and keep your eyes closed under water, cuz of the chlorine."

Thirty steps on and after crossing the creek, we stepped out from under the trees and there it was: a big round pool of dark blue water, about fifty yards across. On our side was a tiny little beach with people sunbathing and chatting.

Half of the pool is tucked underneath a massive cliff overhang that is in the shape of a semi circle. The water feeding the pool drips in from a number of small waterfalls over the edge of this cliff into the pool.

I didn't even notice the people around us. I was transfixed by how incredible of a sight the whole thing was. This is the kind of thing water parks try to recreate, and here we were with the real deal right in front of us. Even better, there was no staff telling us what was allowed and prohibited. We were here with all the other swimmers and sunbathers enjoying this gift of nature. And that's what it really was: a gift of nature to me, to Whitney, to all the people that were there and all the people that are yet to come.

Views: Hamilton Creek, Texas by Samuel Herbig

See, if you thought the post title was silly you were so wrong! This thing was both awesome and cool (made sure I didn't give Whitney the satisfaction of squealing when I got in the water this time though). But I mean come on, that is freaking cool as anything this place, right? You get to swim under a natural waterfall, in a fresh water pool half in a cave half out of it.

There were lots of other things to observe around the pool, as well. Above us, swallows were feeding their offspring in nests that were attached to the cliff ceiling. After a quick swim across the pool we found that one of the waterfall's water, splashing raining down from above onto a moss covered rock was a good 10-15° warmer than the rest of the pool. It was like a massage and a hot shower rolled into one. Around the pool there were various fish and turtles. I'm not into fishing (no idea if it's allowed down there), but I'm pretty sure even I could've caught something there.

I think all in all we spent about three hours there. We packed up our stuff and made our way back to the car to free up our parking spot for any of the other people now waiting in line for their chance in the cool waters of the pool.

Blissful, we headed back to town to pick up a snack and to extend our food truck series at Burro's (grilled cheese).

Then we got ice cream over at the Cow Tipping Creamery (told you that was still going to happen, didn't I?).

Whitney's been kind of the champion of going on tours. She's pointed out that even if they can be lame or boring there is hardly a better way to learn about a particular areas history quickly, without going on one. Browsing through the weekly events thread over on /r/austin I saw that someone had mentioned a "Moonlight Prowl" of the University of Texas campus and that it was organized by a guy as sort of a passion project. That sounded good to me since I didn't feel like the rest of Austin had all that much history to offer and I'm always game for anecdotal history of pretty much any place.

For example, did you know that the campus of UT was plagued by roaming cows, who even figured out how to get through a turnstile erected specifically to keep them out?

Taken from Phil Cohen's website of old postcards

Or that the clock and tower of the main building closely resemble the city hall building in Camden, NJ? There may be some architectural plagiarism going on there.

I just blew your mind, admit it!

It was an entertaining tour to be sure and I think we both had a good time (right Whitney? "yeah, it was fun, it was cute!").

We finished the day out by meeting an old friend from New York, Matt, and his friend at Liberty bar. Yo Matt, thanks for coming out and thanks for not taking us to Library bar, right?

So in retrospect, today went really, really well!

categories Exploring
tags University of Texas, Tour, Austin, Hamilton Pool, Swimming, Food Truck

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