An End of 2007 Trip to BBRSP

[Ay Chihuahua!]

On Christmas night 2007 I drove into Big Bend Ranch State Park at about 11:00 p.m.  I parked the truck and walked to the information board and read that late arrivals can camp there at the entrance (Botella Junction).  I got back in the truck and parked it on the other side of the road and immediately fell asleep in the back of the cab for about an hour and then squirmed around all night trying to get comfortable.  The next morning I was to begin a 5 day/4 night backpacking trip in the park.

On the morning of the 26th I opened my eyes at first light, took a leak, brushed my teeth and then drove into the park headquarters at Sauceda Ranch.  While there I spoke with the park’s superintendent, Tony Gallego about my route, read the mandatory orientation materials, paid my fees and received my permits.  I’d had a few questions about the route that were unclear to me, so Tony called in Ruben.  If I understand correctly, Ruben has been working at the ranch for about 30 years - since before it was a park.  He knows the terrain better than anybody.  He’s the guy who leads folks out on horseback rides through remote canyons and has all the routes down in his head. 

Unfortunately, Ruben doesn’t speak English.  Even more unfortunate, I know just enough Spanish to be dangerous.  So, Tony translated my questions to Ruben and vice versa with Ruben’s answers.  Something got a little lost in the translation, which I’ll get to later in my Day 2 Report.

Day 1 (Dec. 26th) 3.8 miles
I left Sauceda with Ruben in his pick-up truck and he drove me out to the Guale Mesa where I was to begin the day’s hike.  I was supplied by Tony with a roll of day glow flagging tape, which I was to use to make markers along my route.  Ruben showed me how he wanted rock cairns to be built with the tape tied in the direction from the cairn in which I had traveled.  These markers were to be placed when entering a canyon and exiting a canyon.  Others were placed to show which direction I was traveling within the canyon.  I also placed them at other turnoff points along the route.  The purpose of the markers was to allow an SAR team (Ruben) to follow my route if need be. 

According to the Garmin Etrex Vista, I set out down the drainage to Tapado Canyon* at 11:42 p.m.  From Guale Mesa Road I headed towards a large pile of rocks which marked the route down.  By approximately 11:45 p.m. the cursing began.  For anyone who may have been nearby, the echoes of “mother f-er” and “God d-it” could be clearly heard.  For that, I apologize. 


Drainage to Tapado Canyon

Ruben told me there was a trail that led down through this drainage.  He should know.  He has led folks down through here on horseback many times.  My blind ass never saw a trail.  If I was ever on it, I didn’t know it.  Following this drainage down to the canyon floor was 100% bushwhack.  By the time I had made it to the bottom I had fallen 5 times, turned my left ankle twice, had blood crusted on my arms and hands, a massive bruise on my right butt cheek and my legs were scraped and punctured. 

I began seeing water in the drainage well before I had reached the spot on my topo where Oso Spring is marked.


First sight of water at Oso Spring

I had intended to mark a waypoint when I first saw water.  Sorry, couldn’t do that.  The little joy stick on my Vista refused to allow me to move the highlighter left or right.  It also refused me the ability to hit enter.  For that matter, while I’m looking at the GPS, my routes aren’t saved in the unit…GREAT!  What did people do before GPS?  Oh yeah, they used topo maps and a compass.  Good thing Ruben had earlier turned around and taken me back to my truck where I’d absent mindedly left my topo behind.


Filled up with water here

I filled up with a gallon of water at Oso Spring and headed up canyon to where I believed was the route up the western side that would lead me to the Las Burras 1 campsite.  I am pretty, pretty sure that I was off a little on this route up out of the canyon.  In fact, I was off.  Looking retrospectively, I see a couple of routes that probably would have been better.  The route I took was steep with loose rock.  In the end I had to do some hand over hand scrambling.  Not safe…don’t recommend going this way.


Looking at Oso Mountain from west side of Tapado Canyon

I made it in to the Las Burras 1 campsite at 4:45 p.m.  It’s a beautiful and scenic spot up on the edge of the canyon with plenty of big views




Views from Las Burras 1 Campsite

I made camp and cooked the heaviest dinner I had – Kraft Mac and Cheese.  It was awful.  This was the shortest day’s hike I have ever done that so thoroughly kicked my ass.  The next morning I knew I had to descend back down into the canyon and then ascend a couple of miles down-canyon on the other side.  I was seriously considering walking the road back to Sauceda and calling it quits. 

More....

*The canyon I refer to as Tapado is listed as such on the USGS topo maps.  This canyon is referred to as Oso Canyon on the park’s map.

[RichardM]

Nice intro....can't wait to read the rest.  BTW, I resized your images a bit to speed up download time.

[jr ranger]

Howdy. I've been "lurking" as some say. Your report is quite intriguing so far and I'm sure what follows will only get better. Good to know you brush your teeth. 

[Ay Chihuahua!]

Day 2 (Dec. 27th) 6 miles
I woke that morning with a renewed spirit.  After I’d packed my stuff I started back the same way I came in.  Actually, I hiked a little further north and tried the next drainage.  Looked good on the map, but had a pour-off I could not have negotiated.  My route back down into Tapado Canyon, while very close to the route up, was much easier to traverse.  Going down I could see better where to go.  I also had broken out my trekking poles for the descent, and was better rested, which helped. 

Another view from near Las Burras

When I got to the bottom of the canyon, I headed back to Oso Spring to fetch some water.  I rounded a bend before the spring and I got the first shot of it - a gust of wind.  By the time I had started filtering water at the spring, the wind was full force gale.  It was howling up the canyon from below.  I’ve been in wind in BBNP that I knew was blowing 60-70 MPH.  This wind felt a lot like that. 


Inside Tapado (Oso) Canyon


Hiking directly into the wind, I was headed first to a spring about 2.7 miles down-canyon, and then up out of the canyon and on to Guale 2 Campsite…at least that was the plan. I made it to the spring, but not to Guale 2 that day. 

Not an easy canyon to get out of

In the first section of the report I mentioned that there had been a miscommunication in the English/Spanish/Spanish/English Q&A translation session with Tony and Ruben.  This is where that part kicks in.

I walked on past the spring and headed to the wash up the canyon that I “knew” was going to take me out.  When I got to the wash I found what appeared to be a 30 ft. pour-off leading to sheer walls cut into the canyon.  At the top of the pour-off, stuck between the shear walls was a large bolder.  Mother f-er!

By this time it was late in the day and I was tired.  Walking through sand and into the wind most of the day had pooped this kid out. So, I did what any exhausted back packer would do – I desperately continued on to reach my destination.  As I was taking a route up the side of this drainage over an impossible rock field in an attempt to get over the pour-off, I came to my senses.  This is not a route.  It is too steep, and besides, you just stepped on the second rock bigger than you that moved when you stepped on it.  This is no place to be.

A slot canyon just past the first spring down-canyon from Oso Spring.  If you've come here you've passed the out route.

I still had not given up.  I thought maybe I’d just read my map incorrectly, so I kept walking down-canyon to the next spring to see if maybe there was another wash that maybe I’d missed on the map.  There was not.

The second spring down-canyon from Oso Spring.  Its also the view from about a quarter mile away from what ended up being my campsite for the night.

Another view from camp that night
Like I said, I was tired, and now it was getting dark.  The realization of defeat set in and I started to look for a place to camp down in the canyon.  The wind stopped, camp was made and dinner was devoured.  Clearer thinking kicked in and I finally saw very clearly on my topo what the correct route was to ascend from the canyon. 

This night I learned a very important lesson.  Never bushwhack in the desert through the many thorns and needles and then sit down on your air mattress with same pants you were hiking in.  That night was the first of several in which it became necessary to roll over every hour and half or so to blow up my air mattress.

Until tomorrow

More....

[Ay Chihuahua!]

Good to know you brush your teeth. 

 
Yes, its a rare occurence, but its always a good idea to impress the rangers...even the "junior" ones. 

Just guessing, but do you know for certain that Pila Montoya 3 has a fire ring?  My appologies, if you're not who I think you are.

[jr ranger]

Good to know you brush your teeth. 

 
Yes, its a rare occurence, but its always a good idea to impress the rangers...even the "junior" ones. 

Just guessing, but do you know for certain that Pila Montoya 3 has a fire ring?  My appologies, if you're not who I think you are.

Sorry to disappoint, but I am not. Don't know about the fire ring. No need to impress or tip this jr ranger either, but I do fancy finely distilled winter wheat. Rye works too. Great report so far. 

[homerboy2u]

This night I learned a very important lesson.  Never bushwhack in the desert through the many thorns and needles and then sit down on your air mattress with same pants you were hiking in.  That night was the first of several in which it became necessary to roll over every hour and half or so to blow up my air mattress.

  That was a tough lesson to learn, none the less a hard lesson to digest but worthy for your future trips. And ours. It is thru these sorts of trips where one REALLY forms part of your surroundings and beggins to think in a different matter: Survival mode.....Great trip report, salud.

[Ay Chihuahua!]

Day 3 (Dec. 28th) 12 miles
Today is the moment of truth.  I am behind schedule and need to catch up.  During my orientation on the first day I learned that there would be a bit of gap between water sources.  I was told that along my route, between Rancherias Spring and Rincon Mountain (my destination the following day) that I would not find water until I reached Mexican Falls in Arroyo Segundo.  So, Tony offered to cache some water at my campsite at Javelin.  His thoughts were that a) this would help me not have to carry so much water along this route and b) when he came back to retrieve the containers, he would know whether or not I was on schedule and had made it out of the canyon. 

I took Tony to mean that if the water isn’t picked up in a timely fashion that he would send folks to look for me…SAR…search and rescue.  No sir, that ain’t gonna happen to me.  No way in hell will I ever need an SAR team to come looking for me.  I’m a self-sufficient bad ass!  Besides, don’t you end up having to pay for your own rescue?  That sounds expensive.

I got up before sunup and was on the trail at first light.  The route I figured would get me out of Tapado Canyon involved hiking back up the canyon a short ways to the first spring down-canyon of Oso Spring.  Once there, I was able to hike southeast up to a plateau that rises above the drainage I previously thought was my route out.  Turns out there is clearly a trail that leads up this way.  After a 1,000 foot ascent I was atop Guale Mesa looking out at some real pretty views.





A series of pictures showing the progression out of Tapado Canyon

At some point while I was making the climb out the canyon my cell phone rang.  I was already punch-drunk on the reality that I was almost out.  The views had me even more elated.  When I picked up it was my wife.  The news she was to deliver made me even happier.  She told me to stay put when I was done with my hike - she was coming out to the park to spend New Years with me.  And, she was bringing a couple of friends. 

Eventually, you will think to yourself, why didn't he call Tony while he had phone reception and tell him about being behind schedule?  The answer to that question can be answered first by saying that it this point I was 100% confident that I would catch up and be back on schedule.  The other reason was that even though I was happy to have heard from my wife and the news she brought, it still seemed an abomination that I even had a cell phone with me.  Even more so, it seemed an abomination that I should "check-in" on this epic journey.  I'm out here being a self reliant bad ass, right?  No...that's wrong...I'm depending on someone else to provide water for me.  I am not self reliant.  Looking back, I should have made that call.

Now I'm out of the canyon and standing atop Lower Guale Mesa - 1,000 feet higher than I was when I woke up that morning.  I was relieved and generally happy knowing that all I had to do was find my way to the Guale 2 campsite and once there hop on a "real" trail and then walk a road to the Javalin campsite...easy, right?

Lower Guale Mesa was relatively flat and easy to negotiate.  The vegetation was not too thick and pick'n my way through not a problem.  I arrived at the Guale 2 campsite and made use of the picnic table to boil some water in preparation of some beef flavored Top Ramen.  I can't typically eat this crap at home, but on the trail ramen noodles have never failed to satisfy.

A view from Guale 2 of Lower Guale Mesa

After lunch I opened up the topo map and worked on getting myself from Guale 2 to the Rancherias Loop Trail, which would take me to Rancherias Spring and then north to the old jeep road that makes up the northern section of the Rancherias Loop. 

After two hours of unsuccessfully searching for the correct route, I finally got it.  It was 2:30 p.m. when I wrote a note, tied some flagging around a rock and set the rock upon the note on the picnic table.  The note said something along the lines of, "I was here on Dec. 28th, left at 2:30, and was heading to Javalin.  Don't send out the freaking SAR team!"

It turns out that the route from Guale 2 to the Rancherias Loop Trail is not on my topo map.  It is on the new park map, though.  The problem was that I was not getting the fact that the park map is not quite to scale, or at least not the scale I was imagining.  The route lay back down from where I came in on Lower Guale Mesa.  The way to the Rancherias Loop Trail intersects the old jeep road you can see in the above picture...much further south than I had imagined.

Found the trail...hot damn!  This is like Rick Perry's Trans Texas Corridor.  It's the Autobahn.  I'm movin' now.  This is the first time so far I had been on a real trail. 

For those of you whose experience hiking is on the likes of the Pinnacles Trail, Lost Mine, or Windows Trail, you would probably crack up on my description of this section of Rancherias Loop Trail.  While it’s a trail, it’s still a difficult one to stay on.  I inadvertently left it a couple of times. 

A trail marker along the Rancherias Loop Trail

I managed my way to Rancherias Spring and grabbed a gallon of water.  As I was hiking from the spring, I heard a noise that stopped me in my tracks.  Hee-haw...hee-haw.  What the F was that!?  Scared the shiite right outta me.  Oh...I've heard that sound before.  Then I saw them.  About 8 wild burros came charging out the brush a couple of hundred yards in front of me.  These guys were pissed!  They put on quite a show.  They were hee-haw'n at me and stamping the ground.  Maybe they thought I was there to shoot them.

"Endangered" wild burros

I'm hiking the road now towards the Javelin campsite.  I still have about 6 mile to go and it will be dark in a couple of hours.  Oh well...I'm on the road from here on out, so night hiking shouldn't be too difficult...right?

I just booked it across this section and didn't take any pictures...sorry for that.  After dark I had to put my headlamp on.  I have never seriously considered the possibility of doing any kind of serious backpacking in the dark.  It has always seemed unnecessary to me.  Now here I am with my crappy little headlamp looking all of about 10-8 feet in front of me.  Well, 10-8 feet is a hell of lot better than none at all.  Not even a small pop was heard when my bulb burned out.  Mother f-er!  It’s dark out here.

I am 40 years old and my brother is 36.  Our mother still requests a wish list from us at Christmas time.  I actually prepared one for her this year.  Even got a couple of things from the list.  One of the things I put on the list was a Princeton Tec real fancy headlamp that works off of LED lights.  This little beauty claims to blast light something like 120 meters.  It’s also pricey.  More than I would ever personally spend on a headlamp, but what the hell...might as well put it on the list.  Mom saw the price for the itty bitty little light and decided she could get me mo betta for the same price.  On Christmas morning I got to open up a bright and shiny hand held spot light that works off a rechargeable 6 volt SLA battery.  The thing weighs about 2 pounds and would never see the inside of my pack.  At this point I was really wishing Mom had got me that headlamp.  Actually, had I known I would be hiking through the Chihuahuan Desert at night with no moon, I woulda carried the 2 pound spotlight.  Hell, Ray Charles could see with this light!

I dug the abominable cell phone from my pocket and utilized its light to find my spare bulb.  Replaced the bulb and had light for the night.  The spare bulb burned out the next night.  Hmm...maybe you're not supposed to use lithium batteries with this light.

I got to the Javelin pens at about 8:00 p.m.  I searched all over in the dark for the campground until about 10:00 p.m. and never found it.  I made camp, fixed dinner and went to bed without ever having found the water.

MORE....

[jeffblaylock]

Enjoying the adventure, Ay C, and I'm glad a SAR was not necessary. I wonder if you still have to pay if they find you but you decline the rescue part since you're not lost, just merely behind schedule. 

[Ay Chihuahua!]

This seems to be the best I can do for now in displaying the route I took.

Enjoying the adventure, Ay C, and I'm glad a SAR was not necessary. I wonder if you still have to pay if they find you but you decline the rescue part since you're not lost, just merely behind schedule. 

Good look'n pup.

[toejam]

I didn't know you were planning to go that far down Tapado Canyon. Guale 2 was out of the way. I think I'd have stopped at Rancherias Springs, but that's not fair to say since I'm familiar with the area. At least you were on the most obvious section of trail after it got dark.


FWIW I bought a Petzl Tikka XP last summer for climbing Mt. Rainier in the dark. It's the brightest lightweight LED headlamp I've seen. They've been on sale for ~ $40.

[xseption]

Grand adventure! Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to the rest of the story ...

~ edd

[bdann]

This is really great, thanks so much for sharing.  Looking forward to the rest...

[Wisconsin]

Thanks for sharing your pictures, they are wonderful, especially for a fat old lady that will never be able to do the hikes you are doing.


Safe travels

[Ay Chihuahua!]

Thanks for sharing your pictures, they are wonderful, especially for a fat old lady that will never be able to do the hikes you are doing.


Safe travels

Wisconsin, you just made my day.  Thanks