Walt's Corner

One of my favorite times of the year is our annual pilgrimage to Big Bend Ranch State Park in southwest Texas. It’s remote. No phone signal. Temperatures are mild. You might get into the low 40s at night and almost 70 during the day. For reference, we are hauling a 2015.5 year Lance Model 1995 with our 2018 Dodge Laramie with 5.7 Hemi with all available features.

This year’s trip started as one of those occasions where I woke up in the morning and checked my local temperature as well as the temperature of where I would be come evening. I was immediately saddened that it was currently 18 degrees. My high would be 36, while when I reached my final destination for the day I would be sitting in 22 degree temperatures with overnights down to 12 degrees. Ouch. We’ve made this pilgrimage every year for what would be our 8th year. Coldest. Ever.

As soon as I had finished my work for the day, I headed home, loaded up the truck, hooked up to the Lance (which I refer to as “Runabout” in my Star Trek nerdiness) and shoved off towards Big Bend Ranch (BBRSP). Our reservations for BBRSP started on the following day. My intent was to spend the night at the Van Horn RV Park, Van Horn, TX. This gives us plenty of time to make the remaining 170 or so miles to our final destination. Most years when we start this trip, we leave after work, and spend the night in Van Horn. Since it’s already evening, it allows us to get a good 100 miles under our belt.

The Van Horn RV Park appears to be an old KOA that has since left the franchise, but all the “k” monikers are still in place. All the usual array of discounts to apply here that will give you 10% off. We ended up paying $40 for the night. We’ve never had to make reservations, but this year I did simply because I knew we would be arriving after they closed. I wanted to go ahead and pay up front, providing us a simple pull in and pull out without ever having to step inside the office. They have plenty of pull through sites. Internet. Full hookups. Propane (though they were out this time – more on that to follow). Tent sites. A few cabins. Pool. Fishing pond. Included access to a nearby golf course. Pet friendly. Chickens running around. Cafe. Very friendly staff. I can’t recommend this place enough. One year as we travelled on Christmas Day and decided to stay there, they even had a full Christmas dinner with all the fixins provided by both the staff and residents – for free!

The next morning was frigid. The furnace was running most of the night. It would turn off for maybe 5 minutes before firing back up. This was part of the “once a generation” arctic storm that most of the US was experiencing. 12 degrees when we got up that morning. Before we shoved off from Van Horn I decided to check the propane status. One of the two tanks was now empty. No problem. Other than it being below freezing outside. I unsecured one of the two spare tanks I brought along and swapped out the empty cylinder. Also, I set the temperature of the Runabout to 60 degrees. There is nothing more satisfying than pulling over to use your bathroom when it is below freezing outside and you get to walk into a 60 degree trailer. Yes we always travel with the furnace running. For 8 years now. Never an issue.

I’ll also take this opportunity to take a stab at those who, for whatever reason, are “against” running your fridge and furnace while on the move. Y’all can go fuck yourselves. Feel free to have yours on or off for whatever reason you choose. Do whatever makes you sleep well at night. You’ll get no judgement from me. My beef is with those who feel the urge to try make me explain myself or even worse, try to convince me to not do it. That’s what they are for. If it was so dangerous, Lance would have put a bunch of inhibitors in place to prevent us from using them while on the move. I’ve even had one person try to tell me (imagine a squealing, annoying voice, as I did), “but… but… you don’t trust your fridge to keep your food cold for 2 hours of traveling without being run and wasting all that propane? There must be something wrong with your fridge.” Nah bitch. I just don’t give a fuck. I turn the fridge on the day or two before I leave. I don’t turn it off until we get back home and are taking everything out of the fridge. /end rant

Before going any further, I feel the need to differentiate Big Bend National Park from Big Bend Ranch State Park. Both are in south-western Texas. Both can get hot as fuck. Both appear to arguably be roughly the same size when viewed from google maps. Both are next to each other. Both can be reached via Study Butte. Both get conversationally abbreviated down to “Big Bend.” Most times, when I’m telling others that we went to Big Bend Ranch State Park, and I’ll literally add the “Ranch State Park” just to be clear, they like to tell me how they’ve been there too when it turns out they have not.

They were at the National Park. A much more consumer/vehicle friendly park. They have paved roads for fucks sake. There are even a couple gas stations and stores in the park where you can buy groceries. Water hookups. A restaurant. A hotel. Depending on what part of the National Park you are in, you could be at a hot spring, desert trail, or dense pine forest. This is what makes Big Bend National Park so awesome. But these two parks, while near each other, are two totally different experiences and environments. It was funny one year when the National Park was shut down as a result of a government shutdown, the National Park-ites then naturally gravitated towards the State Park. They were complaining about the roads. No hookups. “It broke my car.” I just laughed.

This story? To be clear, it’s about the State Park. The state park is bordered along the south by FM 170 that runs along the Rio Grande from Presidio to Lajitas, TX. Each of these cities contains a State Park visitor center – Fort Leaton State Historic Site and Barton Warnock, respectively. Each contains gas and food. That is the exterior of the park and is totally accessible by most vehicles. There are several campgrounds along this route. Grassy Banks. Madera Canyons (upper and lower). A couple others. It’s a green scenic view along this route. Family friendly. The interior of the park is a different story. It’s a 27 mile trip to the Sauceda Visitor Center up and down the interior of the park that will take you a few hours to traverse due to the harshness of the road. There are several other even worse roads that branch off from the Main Park Road. Some of these have a posted requirement of high clearance, four wheel drive, and a recommendation of 2 spare tires. There are no hookups at any of these sites. No central water. Interior camping sites are remote and far from each other.

This year we had reserved a site on the interior of the park, a site called Rancho Viejo. Amenities include a covered picnic table, fire pit, and bear-proof locker. Like all sites on the interior this is a pack it in pack it out site. While only about 12-13 miles from FM 170, it is a long, hard 12 miles up and down an unkept, waterboarded road that twists and curves into the interior of the park. We have had plenty of flat tires just on this road in years past. So many sharp stones. It takes us a little over an hour until we reach our Rancho Viejo Trailhead road, which holds our site for this years’ adventure. Next to the site is an old metal windmill and water holding tank. Dry of course. The Rancho Viejo trailhead is about .2 miles from our site and takes you on a windy trail up top of those mountains with glorious views of below into the canyon. This trail is a little over 4 miles long before it intersects with other trails that will take you even further and eventually connect with the Yedra trail system, about 9 more miles down the Main Park Road from where we are camped.

We rode our “me powered” mountain bikes 5.5 miles further into the park to the Ojito Adentra trailhead. This one of the most beautiful trails in the park in our opinion. It starts you off in the desert environment just to drop you off in less than a mile inside a canyon full of trees and water. We also hiked just past the Yedra Trailhead and back. This is one of them high clearance, 4×4, 2 spare tire roads.

We could hear the pack of coyotes howling and yipping and barking at dawn and dusk but didn’t see them. Last year we were able to spot a pack of 15 or more running around. On one of our climbs up a mountain we came across a full coyote skull.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t check on my latest mod to my Runabout – replace and relocate my power. I replaced my 200ah AGM battery with Renogy 200ah LiFe battery. That installation held up rock solid to the jarring it received for over 2 hours of that Main Park Road.

About that follow up to the propane issue… I prefer to have more propane than what I think I can use. Since we will be an hour or more away from civilization at our destination, I don’t want to have a reason to have to travel to civilization. No propane in Van Horn. Cool. I’ll stop at Marfa. Same thing in Marfa – no propane. I’ll try Presidio. Same. I stopped at 2 different places in Presidio and was told by both there were no propane exchanges. They hadn’t been restocked for 2 weeks due to the supplier which supplies everyone in that particular region. Not good. A park ranger told me of the place where the propane exchangers get their propane from and would be able to fill our tanks. However, it turned out that we really didn’t need any. By our 4th day, and with 2 spare tanks left, I decided not to worry about it. We ended up having plenty. By the time we made it home, I still had a mostly full tank on the Runabout and and a spare on the truck.

What camping article of mine would be complete without talking about my camp cooking? There was a big pot of chili that we ate for 2 nights of our expedition. Since we spent a Tuesday out in the field, I of course made my field expedient tacos – ground beef. I already had some ground sirloin taco meat made up and frozen so we just brought that along to heat up. Coincidentally, during the hike we did Tuesday I chose Taco Bell Supreme Taco flavored sunflower seeds.

Another day I field tested the newly installed inverter with a crock pot with a roast, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, and only an Au Jus gravy packet mix for seasoning. Matched with some flaky layer biscuits done in the oven and it made for a splendid pot roast with ready made gravy. Highly recommend this to those with power to spare.

Another usual field meal I like is my Barley Lentil Stew served with saltines and shredded swiss cheese. Also enough for two meals. In between, we enjoyed sammiches and chili dogs.

Spirits of choice was just two this year. A bottle of the 28th Voyage of Jefferson Ocean and Don Julio Cristolino.

We like to leave our mark here in an inconspicuous spot. Someplace where only we would get to. On a mountain top. One that has no trails. So mountain climbing is required. But we know it’s there. And if you know just where to look with some binocs, we can confirm that it is still standing.

Till next year, I’ll have these memories to fall back on.