12/1-7/02 Big Bend National Park Trip Report

Dec. 1-7, 2002
Big Bend National Park - by Lynda DeGroot
On a cool December 1st morning, six hardy souls including five "veterans" (Jerry Levenson, Jerry Smolinsky, David Justice, Bob Saegert and Lynda DeGroot) and one new member (Serena Horn) gathered in the Albertson's parking lot at the "Y" in Oak Hill, eager to board the "Big Bend Express," aka a rental van, and head off on another Trail Tamer adventure in Big Bend National Park. We hadn't worked on trails in Big Bend in a couple of years so this was an eagerly anticipated trip.

We arrived at our campsite at Government Springs about 9 hours later. Within minutes, another member (Del Grosenheider) rode up on his motorcycle followed shortly by Allan Weber and George Boemerman in Allan's car. We immediately went to work setting up our big cook tent and some of the tables, stoves, and other equipment the Park Service left for our use. We then pitched our own tents. Rather than cooking, we drove up to the Chisos Basin and ate dinner at the lodge.

Monday morning got off to a slower start than we anticipated because our Park Service crew leader's truck broke down about a mile or so from our camp. We drove Aaron back to his truck so he could load the tools in our van and he rode with us to Grapevine Hills where we began working on the trail starting up at the "window."

Some of us cut back lots of thorny vegetation that was growing out into the trail and others had to rework a couple of sections that were really steep and eroded by putting in steps and building a retaining wall. This was a major task because the trail was almost solid rock! Not to worry…our fearless "rock experts" came through and finished all that was required (and probably a lot more).

Still more steps were put in, more vegetation trimmed or removed and "illegal" trails closed as we worked our way back to the parking area. The first day was almost too hot and the second day brought cool temperatures and almost continuous drizzle, but nothing kept us from our appointed task!

Since we finished our work on the Grapevine Hills trail, on Wednesday we were diverted to the Lost Mine trail. The hike was absolutely gorgeous and the views (especially toward The Window) were breathtaking! As before, we hiked all the way to the top carrying our tools, and worked our way back down.

We carefully cut back bunches of yucca and numerous low hanging limbs, and removed LOTS of cacti that were growing out into the trail. A few of us ended up picking out thorns! While working our way downward, we also cleaned out most of the water bars and there were a lot!

On Thursday, the weather changed and frost covered everything. It almost looked like a light dusting of snow! It was a beautiful sight as we hiked up the trail!
Alas…Friday was to be our day off but we woke up to see fog that was so thick we couldn't even see the Chisos Mountains from our campsite! Actually, we could barely see anything! We had planned on taking a jaunt around the park to show our newest members what a beautiful place it is but, instead, we ended up heading home. All in all, it was a great trip, and everyone seemed to have a good time.