Along the Geronimo Creek: Big Bend Natlional Park Hiking and Terlingua Chili Cookoff

This year's cast of Big Bend hikers included Mike Sanders(Kerrville), Erwin and Patricia Lehmann (Boerne), Larry and Debbie Bailey (from Victoria), Paul and Cathy Reinermann(Goliad), Mark Schneider(Halletsville) and I (from Pearland - just in case you haven't already heard).

As is our tradition... we met Wednesday night at Chisos Mountain Lodge restaurant for dinner and made our hiking plans for the next few days. Thursday would be Mariscal Canyon hike, Friday would be west end of park with lots of short hikes, Saturday would be split between those hiking to Emory Peak and those wanting to do Cattail Falls and head over to Terlingua Chili Cookoff. Not everyone wanted to do Mariscal Canyon hike so we split up for the first day.... Most of us went to Mariscal Canyon on the four wheel drive river road (two vehicles so we could back each other up). This is a two to three hour drive each way as the road is really rough and top speed is about 15 mph. Along the way we saw a black-tailed rattler crossing the road and our lead truck spotted Bighorn sheep. We stopped briefly at the old Mariscal Quicksilver mine(mercury)and ended at the Rio Grande River on the western side of Mariscal Canyon. It was mid-day and 90+ degrees and not a shade tree to be found. Tough hike that I would not wish to attempt again and it would not be on my recommendation list. Uneventful trip back to Lodge restaurant where we shared stories of our day.

Day Two - Perfect weather and very enjoyable. I had in mind spending this day looking at the hikes through the eyes of a child. We are bringing the entire family out here in the spring and I wanted to find just the right kind of trails for the kids to try and make their experience the best possible time. We started out with a quick stop at Sam Nails Ranch for bird watching. Great grandkid stop... remains of adobe house, old windmill, sheds... Second stop was Apache Canyon which was recommended by the Baileys. Lots of thorny bushes along sides of narrow trail but nice winding trail that has only a moderate grade. There were so many unusual rocks that would be interesting to kids and adults alike. I put this one on the list for spring. Third stop was Burro Mesa Pour-off from the bottom. Nice short wide trail with interesting rock formations and saw a couple lizards, giant centipede and met some interesting folks from Dripping Springs and London. Great spot for lunch. Up in the wall of the pour-off was a cave that could be climbed to by the older grandkids. Fourth stop was Santa Elena Canyon. Because Terlingua Creek which enters the Rio Grande before the Santa Elena hiking trail starts was flooding, we were not able to hike into the canyon this year. The creek water wouldn't have stopped us, but the soft mud from the flood meant sinking down to your knees in muck and so we backed off that one and headed back to lodge and dinner. We decided to break into three groups for the next day. Paul and Cathy were to climb Emory Peak, Mark and Mike were going to do the Basin Loop trail. Larry and Debbie Bailey, Erwin and Patricia Lehmann and I were going to Cattail Falls. Leaving the basin that morning, we saw a black bear. I have been to the park some twenty or so times and never seen a Big Bend bear. There it was just right beside the road and it meandered on into the trees but never ran off. So finally after all the wild goose chasing that I have done on trails to find a bear and bushwacking through thorns because I heard the sound of large animal in the distance - success came on the road. Cattail Falls was flowing more than usual and for awhile we had its beauty all to ourselves. I decided that this trail would be a little too difficult for the younger grandkids. This is and will always be one of my very favorites... just might have to wait til the kids are older before I take them on this trail. After Cattail, we drove back to Basin and cleaned up for a trip to Terlingua Chili Cook-off. We expected the Chili Cook-off to be kind of crazy... It is kind of like a biker rally with four-wheelers. The four wheelers are on constant parade... Confederate and Texas flags flying and women of all ages flashing the crowd. Once we got our bearings we headed for the chili awards ceremony. There are thousands of people, hundreds and hundreds of RVs and not much organization. At the awards ceremony, we each got a quart of chili(free) from one of the 332 entries. I don't know if mine was an award winner but it sure was delicious. One of the reasons that I wanted to go to the cook-off was to visit and support a friend of mine (Steven Miracle) from GBRA in Seguin who was in the chili contest. It turned out that he won 12th place out of 332 entries which is outstanding. I think that we might have left a little early for Mike but he went along with us anyway.... a good nights sleep important for the drive home the next morning.