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Shannon Camps Solo - Day #2
Location: Hill Country State Natural Area, Bandera, TX
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2003 (Aerial Photos from August 9, 2003)
Weather: Hot (mid-90's), humid & hazy
Activities: Camping, hiking, photography & writing
GPS Tracks & Waypoints: 6 Mile Hike | West Verde Creek Area
Submitted by: Shannon Moore
6-Mile Hike & Lots of Wildlife
After eating a quick breakfast, I departed my campsite by car around 7:45 AM, parking at the Trailhead Equestrian Camp Area located about a mile away. The focal point of the day's hike was Cougar Rock, a scenic "peak" (elevation 1,676 feet) which provides panoramic views of the park and the lands of neighboring Dixie Dude Ranch. The hike would also provide a glimpse of the Wilderness Camp Area, a primitive camping area situated 2 miles from the trailhead but only a short hike from Cougar Rock. Hiking alone, at my own pace, afforded the perfect opportunity to evaluate this potential future campsite.
According to the GPS data from my hike, I reached Cougar Rock (N29 37.931 W99 12.481) at 9:34 AM, about 1.5 hours after beginning my hike. After taking numerous photos and enjoying the steady breeze atop the Rock, I continued to Wilderness Camp, reaching it at 10:10 AM. A section of the trail, just prior to the Trail 6 junction and Wilderness Camp, is quite steep and rocky; I noted it as a GPS waypoint named "STEEP RCKY" (N29 38.047 W99 12.655,) for reference. A couple in their early twenties were camping at Wilderness Camp primitive campsite during my visit. The campsite includes a picnic table with ample shade; towering bluffs rise behind the site and several hiking trails and a large grassy field are accessible a few steps away. The field is large enough for multiple horses and contains a fire ring and wooden hay shelter. Unfortunately, my GPS coordinates for Wilderness Camp (N29 38.127 W99 12.658) are slightly off, since I neglected to save a waypoint until I'd hiked a couple hundred feet past the actual campsite.
During my return hike, I noticed two teenaged mule riders approaching and stopped to take their photographs. Soon, I found myself in the midst of a perfect photo opportunity as the rest of their group, about fifteen riders in all, approached my position on the trail.
One of the riders greeted me with the line, "What happened? Did your horse break down?!" My response, in light of the heat, humidity and more than 2.5 miles I still had to hike: "Right about now, I'm definitely wishing I had a horse!" The mule riders were a great bunch -- as Texan as you can imagine in all the right ways, and more than willing to let me take their photographs. After the riders and I parted, I continued back to the trailhead, while most of the riders headed up a peak in excess of 1,700 feet elevation and the remainder headed up Cougar Rock. Watching the grace and speed with which their horses navigated up the peaks made my slow and methodical hike up Cougar Rock seem downright pathetic!
Justin and I definitely need to try horseback riding someday; there are certainly enough dude ranches in Bandera and the surrounding towns to provide guidance to two "city slickers" such as ourselves!
SPECIAL FEATURE:
View more riding photos from this trip.
I returned to the Trailhead Equestrian Camp Area by 11:30 AM, tired but pleased with the hike. Consulting my GPS logs, I hiked 6.07 miles at an average pace of 2.6 MPH. A nice feature of the GPS unit is its ability to track the total time you spent moving (2 hours, 21 minutes, on this hike) and contrast it with the total time you spent stopped (taking photographs, observing nature, resting/relaxing). This detail means the days of "guess-timating" how long one spent actually hiking are over, replaced with an accurate log of every trip!
Back at campsite #130, the Northern cardinals, Northern mockingbirds, tufted titmice and lightning bugs (which I learned to spot in daylight thanks to their fluorescent abdomens) were all in attendance. I'm also fairly certain I saw a summer tananger, though my birding skills are rusty. I ate lunch, changed clothes and drove around to check out the other facilities in the West Verde Creek section of the park. My excursion turned up several more walk-in tent camping areas, including one site that is handicapped-accessible, as well as the Chapa's Group Camp Area where I photographed the buildings and RV campers.
Upon returning to camp, I spotted an Eastern cottontail crouched in the underbrush with its neck and forepaws extended. I grabbed my camera and took several photos of the rabbit before realizing the cause of its wary posture -- a five-foot-long snake* climbing out of a small burrow!
The dense undergrowth and my healthy respect for all snakes conspired to keep me from getting too close to the encounter. Being a bystander to the snake's and rabbit's interactions was a real treat. Despite the rabbit moving dangerously close to the snake's head, the snake did not strike; each advance of the rabbit was met with the snake simply hissing more intently and buzzing its tail on the dry leaves. Eventually, the drama ended as the rabbit stotted off towards a clearing.
*
Fooled by the snake's "rattling" tail during the encounter, I had assumed it was a species of rattlesnake and, thus, venomous. It wasn't until I returned home that I identified the snake was actually a prairie kingsnake (nonvenomous) which also has the ability to vibrate its tail to ward off prey.
I would have been happy to call the trip's wildlife viewing a resounding a success, but Mother Nature had still more planned. Just before dusk, I noticed a large lizard (Texas spiny lizard) clinging to the bark of a nearby tree. I took my time, letting the lizard grow accustomed to my presence before creeping in a little closer. I was losing the light, but still took numerous photographs of the lizard. I actually had to delete some photos just to free up storage space on my digital camera's 1 gigabyte (GB) Microdrive card, thereby making me wish I'd brought my laptop on this trip as a secondary storage device! Long after I had stowed my camera for the night, a juvenile armadillo wandered through the edge of my campsite before heading toward the creek and out of sight.
Around 6 PM I was surprised to see the group of mule and horseback riders I'd photographed earlier in the day making their way down the ridgeline trail behind my West Verde Creek campsite. I realized the riders had probably covered at least thirty miles by now! Shortly after 10 PM, I heard still more riders on the single track behind me; apparently, the moonlight was sufficient to navigate the trails by. I envied their view and mobility compared to being on foot.
While returning from an after-dark visit to the composting toilet located about 1/4 mile from campsite #130, I realized my vision had adapted to the darkness -- the white gravel roadway several hundred feet to my right literally glowed in the moonlight. No longer needing a flashlight to find my way back to camp, I walked on the moonlit roadway, enjoying the spectacle as hundreds of lightning bugs blinked on and off, causing the trees and sky to twinkle with their tiny lights.
Little wood satyr butterfly
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| Learn more about satyr butterflies in the "Sprightly Satyrs" article by Robert A. Behrstock, September 2003 issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine. |
Hill Country SNA is peaceful at night in a way that, sadly, many of our other Texas parks are not. Hill Country is not near a highway or busy street, and there are only a couple aircraft overflights on any given day. And since the park has neither electricity nor potable water, it does not devolve into a theme park atmosphere where campers are packed shoulder-to-shoulder each summer night. I was struck by these facts each evening as I lay in the tent documenting the events of the day, listening to the sounds of crickets and an occasional moth slapping into the walls of the tent. I was even treated to the hooting of a distant owl; within minutes, the owl's hoots were answered by another owl situated much closer to my campsite. Had I not blown my cover by sneezing four times, causing the owls to flee, I might have enjoyed their company until I drifted off to sleep!
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