Big Bend 2004 - Bill's pictures and story...
(Click any of the images to enlarge them)
Well, since I took this journey on the Red Devil (my
motorcycle) instead of Sherman (my Land Rover) my story
is going to be from the point of view of my trip on
my motorcycle to Big Bend. Hopefully the others who
went on the trip will share their stories as well.
And, I could write up a bit about Big Bend in
this story, but what’s the point? All you ever
wanted to know about Big Bend can be found here: http://www.nps.gov/bibe/
Wednesday
I left for Big Bend (called BB because
I am too lazy to keep typing B i g B e n d) on Wednesday
morning
around 7:00AM. The plan was to leave around 5:00AM,
but as happens to most well laid-out plans… I
left at 7:00.
I took I-10 into San Antonio. The wind was completely
miserable. It was beyond miserable actually. It was
blowing out of the north at around 20-30mph and didn’t
let up for about 250 miles. Since I was heading west,
it was a nasty cross-wind. It was hitting me at about
80º, so I had a portion that was a bit of a head-wind.
It sucked. It more than sucked! I usually average 200
miles on a tank of gas. With my bike loaded down and
the wind, I was getting 150 miles to the tank. What
made matters worse was that there was a storm trying
to drench me. Driving over the completely flooded Colorado
River, I don’t think that area could have stood
another drop of rain. I found myself thinking of the
trail we used to drive in Columbus; it had to be completely
under water. Just a nasty way to begin a vacation...
Yuk!
Anyway, once I got to San Antonio, I took 90 to 385,
which is the road into BB. 90 goes through Del Rio
and several other towns that run along the Rio Grande
River. There was a long section between Del Rio and
Marathon (the little town where you turn off of 90
onto 385) with very limited fuel stops. I found one
little place while running on fumes. Gas was $2.39
per gallon! What are you going to do though? I mean,
you need gas; they have it; you either pay it… or
walk. Since I only need 3-4 gallons at each stop, I
chose to pay. The lady working at the store was really
nice though. I was looking at chips and crackers, and
she asked me if I would like a BBQ sandwich. “Sure!” She
went into the fridge and dug one out for me. She nuked
it, and she and I sat with Miss Muffy (her dog) and
watched a little Columbo on the television.
After my little break, I continued my journey to BB.
It was still light outside when I arrived in Marathon
and paid $2.39 again for gas. I didn’t know the
road from Marathon to the park was so long—like,
80 miles of nothing. I finally got to the park at 7:00PM
to find everything closed. I tried the cellular phone—no
service. I dug my flashlight out of my tank bag and
looked around the bulletin boards for a note. The little
yellow sticky note the guys left me told me that they
were at Cottonwood campground. What it didn’t
say was that the campground was 25 miles away. I finally
made
it
to the campground
and found Steve-O, and his boys, Clay and Billy (Clay’s
dog), and Susan, Donna and Logan (Donna’s dog).
I got my tent set up, ate a hamburger, drank a coke,
and went to sleep.
My total mileage for the day was 630.
Our camp
was at N29º 08.228, W103º 31.363.
Thursday I woke up to a sunshiny day Thanksgiving morning.
Steve-O made us egg tacos! After we loaded up all of
the gear, we took River Road to Santa Elena Canyon
and hiked up into the canyon a bit.
Next, we headed up Old Maverick Road and had lunch
at the Basin. On the way there, we saw Walter, so he
followed us up there to have lunch. When we arrived
at the Basin, Susan and Donna ate at the restaurant
while the rest of us ate in the parking lot and took
in the sun and scenery. We saw Erik’s truck in
the parking lot; he and his roommate had arrived on
Tuesday and had backpacked up into the mountains to
camp. About halfway into my turkey sandwich (it was
Thanksgiving after all) Erik comes around the corner.
He and his roommate had literally just come in from
the mountain and headed to restaurant to get something
to eat. After mapping out a plan, we stopped at the
Chevron to gas up so we could continue our journey.
While there, I met Phil and Kate from the UK. They
were on an 1100GS that they had shipped over from the
UK. They told me they had taken off 18 months and were
riding around the US and Canada. Kate had a bike just
like mine (650GS), but it was at their campsite.
The plan was to go
to our next campsite, Talley, via Glenn Spring Road
then to take Black Gap Road, which is an un-maintained
road in the park. We had to meet Sergio at the main
building in the park, so we assembled there and waited
for a while playing fetch with the dogs. We got to
talking a bit and decided we would split up. The majority
of us would head out to the camp, and Clay and Steve-O’s
son Steven would stay and wait for Sergio. So off we
went… with the sun setting on one side, and the
full moon shining on the other, we had a very enjoyable
journey. The pictures don’t do it justice.
Sergio, Clay and Steven arrived an hour or so after
we did. With them, they also had David and a friend
of his in a Jeep bringing up the rear. Sergio’s
truck was acting up, so he did a little work on it.
We also had a nice dinner that Steve-O cooked. Walter
broke out the fancy gear—table cloth and all.
The total mileage for the trip was up to 718 (88 for
the day)
Our camp was at N28º 59.695’, W103º 11.254’.
Friday
The sunset and sunrise in the morning were both amazing.
We got up around 7:00, and Steve-O cooked egg tacos
again!
After breakfast, we had to hang out because
the dew was everywhere. While we waited, it was very
interesting to see all of the fossils of seashells.
We were in a desert, but millions of years ago, we
would have been camped on the ocean floor.
We finally decided to head out around 10:00. Everything
wasn’t dry, but we were tired of not doing anything.
Friday we spent most of our day on River Road, though
we ended up in Terlingua and visited the Terlingua
ghost town in the afternoon. Again we had lots of beautiful
scenery along our route. Sergio’s truck started
acting up again, so we pulled over for a trail repair.
First, he replaced the fuel filter, but it was doing
the same thing, so he then proceeded to replace the
fuel pump. Yes, the fuel pump. Yes, he carries an extra.
After about 45 minutes, the fuel pump was replaced
and his truck was running perfectly.
We ate lunch at Johnson’s Ranch and had a nice
day taking in the scenery. We ended up in Terlingua
late in the afternoon. We were going to have dinner
at the little restaurant in the ghost town, but decided
to set up camp and eat what we had. Again, Steve-O
cooked! We had steak fajitas!
The total mileage for the trip was up to 800 (82 for
the day)
Our camp was at N29º 19.653’, W103º 32.021’.
Saturday
Saturday morning we woke up to the moon shining. My
plan was to take off and head back to Houston. Steve-O,
Clay and Sergio were going to spend some time in
Terlingua and explore some more 4X4 trails. I knew
I had a long
ride ahead of me, so I got on the road about 10:00AM
and headed up 118. I knew it took me 12 hours to
get to BB. Since I left at 10:00, I knew I wouldn’t
get home until 10:00 at night.
In theory, I could have
made it, but reality set in when I literally saw
35-40 dead deer along the side of the road around Kerrville.
I pushed on until San Antonio, but it was dark and
there was way too much traffic on the road, so I
opted
for a hotel room in Seguin. I stayed at the Super
8, and although it was ~$60, it was money well spent
given
I was tired of a few days of riding and camping and
it was now dark and I was getting tired.
I was up to
1300 miles (500 for the day).
Sunday
Sunday morning I got on the road around 8:00AM. I
arrived at home around 10:30. Total trip: 1456 miles.
I also checked the GPS and found out my butt had been
in the saddle for 26 hours and 39 minutes over the
course of the trip. Aside from freezing a few times,
it was a great time. I would have liked to hike more,
but we simply didn’t have enough time. The park
is HUGE! It takes quite a bit of time to get from place
to place… more time would have been good. Next
time, I need to spend an entire week at the park to
take in all of it. 
Thanks for coming along on my trip!
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