This weekend found Chris and myself in beautiful
Pedernales Falls State Park, where we planned to bike in to the primitive camping area, set up camp and then do some biking around the park. If you have never been to the park, I definitely recommend it - nestled into the
Texas Hill Country east of
Johnson City, the drive out was awesome in itself, especially at this time of year when everything is still green! The park is a popular weekend destination, so if you are planning a trip, it's a good idea to call ahead and get a reservation if you want a campsite or find out how crowded the primitive camping area is going to be.
OvertureThe weekend actually started on Thursday at
Headhunters, with
The Humiliators followed by
SuperCrash - lots of good ass-kickin' rock,
Godzilla 1.1b made an appearance, Kay learned elementary beer physics, and much fun was had by all! I had so much fun, in fact, that it was 3am before I got home... then had to be at work by 9am (ugh - the things I put myself through for rock!). After I got done with the Friday Grind, I went home and started assembling my gear for the camping trip, when Chris called me on the 2m rig and wanted to know if I would like to go to
REI... like he had to ask :) He picked me up and we went to pick up an intermediate pack for him to use this weekend... I was good and didn't buy anything, but don't think it was easy :) Once he found his pack, it was back to the house to finish packing, have some chow and hit the sack.
Act I
Chris picked me up at 093o and we were on our way to the park. We took the scenic drive, not going anywhere in a hurry but enjoying the drive - and looking for a
Whataburger for Chris to grab some breakfast :) Oddly, we must have been in the only part of Texas that has almost no Whataburgers - we only saw
one the entire time, and it was on the wrong side of the road for our purposes... so we did the next best thing, found a
Dairy Queen in one of the small towns along the way and grabbed some early lunch. Small town Dairy Queen's are the best - they still remember that the food is the reason you are there! Dairy Queen's in Austin / Round Rock are too genericized... they end up just like McDonalds, Burger King and the rest... ugh. Once back on the road, we soon enough found ourselves at the entrance to the park - and we also noticed that the 2007 Austin stop of the
Muddy Buddy was being held just down the road - cool! We had been told about this by
Michelle, but it was sold out by the time we learned of it - but you can bet that next year we are gonna give it a crack!
Once we arrived at the park office and took care of the entry/usage fees, we drove over to the parking area for primitive camping, parked and started unloading the gear. I was somewhat anxious about biking a trail with my
new pack, since it is much bigger than the hydration pack I normally carry while riding, and my pack + food/water + gear weighed in just under 30 pounds - and that was after I spent 2 days trimming the load down to just the necessities! That's a pretty middlin' load, but I have never tried to bike while wearing it :) Fortunately, the trails were fairly wide, mostly gravel and occasional rocky stretches... and hills (you must
not forget the hills, Best Beloved). We shouldered our loads, and started the 2 mile ride to the campsite.
After about a quarter-mile, I found that the pack had settled into a comfy position and my only care became to make sure that I didn't overbalance since I was fairly top-heavy in this configuration. We started to make pretty good time, and in short order we came to a small stream... after which we started to climb the hill on the other side (have you forgotten the hills, Best Beloved?). This was a bit harder since I was burdened with about 30 extra pounds, but no pain, no gain, right? I pedaled as far as I could and then walked the rest of the way up the hill. Of course, Chris climbed the hill with relative ease and was waiting for me at the top. Once I was at the top, back on the bike I went and onward! Chris gave me some hill-climbing pointers, the best one being gather speed on the downhill and use the momentum to carry you up the far side... duh! This is one of many reasons I hang out with Chris :)
We biked on for another half-mile or so, and then a long downhill run to the second creek, and then on the other side, a hairy climb with a switchback-left halfway up (
Have you forgotten the hills?). I did my best to climb it, but had to walk just before the turn... Now, I am sure that most people in any kind of
real physical fitness would just laugh at these hills and climb them without slowing down much at all. However, I am not there just yet - but I am getting there, slowly but surely. I am happy with my progress, and that is all that really matters. I am not one to blame the hammer for the carpenter's mistake, but I am rather limited by a bike that is too small for me - it's more like trying to use a pair of vise-grips to remove a lug-nut: it can be done, but not very well, and there's usually much pain and cursing involved :) Suffice to say, these hills were kicking my butt.
Act II
Once we got to the primitive camping area, we found a suitable campsite and set up camp - Chris found a primo spot for his tent, and after a bit of measuring, I found two trees to tie my
Hennessy Hammock to - if you have never seen one, these are the Cadillacs of the hammock world - roomy, fully enclosed, and you enter from the bottom via a self-closing Velcro entryway... slick! They are also built so that your back is not forced into a banana-shape, but you lay flat, and can even toss and turn as you would in a normal bed! (end commercial :) )
After camp was set, we rode back to the
Jeep for our hydration packs, and were about to set off for parts unknown, when we decided that it would be best to go back and get some energy bars to keep me from crashing like I had
last weekend at Barton Creek - so, after that trip to / from the camp, we had already logged 8 miles - and had gone no farther than from the parking lot to the campsite! Our next destination at this point was the swimming area on the Pedernales River. A quick look at the map gave us the trail and off we went...
The road to the swimming area (yes, road - asphalt and cars) went down the biggest hill I have ever ridden (
now you know why you were not to forget the hills!), up again, and then down in a winding manner to the parking lot for the swimming area. According to my GPS on my bike, I hit
23.8 mi/hr at the bottom of the first hill - dangerously close to the 25 mi/hr posted speed limit! Not wanting a ticket (
heh), I gently touched the brakes for a second and then started pedaling to the top... which I did not make, unfortunately - that hill was
mighty! Once at the top, the next part was fairly easy as we wound our way down to the parking lot. At one point, Chris blew by me but I had almost caught up by the time we got to the car park... all the while trying not to think about all that uphill riding on the way back. Ugh.
We walked our bikes down the trail to the top of the stairs that led to the river, chained them to the fence, and started down a set of stairs that would have been at home in the Mines of Moria... but once we made it down, the water was cool and refreshing, the current was strong, and we spent a couple of hours just chilling. Some sort of river shoes are almost mandatory due to the nature of the rocks, and there were many times that I thought I was going to break an ankle, but I'm just clumsy that way :) It's a really beautiful area, and there are lots of fantastic views... I'd love to go back once I have a camera worth using.
Once we had refilled our water supply, courtesy of Chris' water filter, we climbed back to the bikes, and thence to the parking lot. After pausing to wash the sand out of our shoes, it was back on the road... I had eaten a
Clif Bar and some beef jerky while at the river, and it was a good thing because the climb out was a bit harder and I was already feeling a bit fatigued (ok, more than a bit)... but again Chris was a great motivator and made sure I pushed myself. By the time we made it back to the camp for the evening we were both worn out, but I felt pretty good because my stamina and climbing kept getting better as we went, and my recovery times are getting shorter and shorter... by the time I can afford a bike that fits me, I should be much more able to ride it!
After we cooled down a bit, it was chow time! Cooking gear was assembled, water boiled, and the menu was
Beef Stew for me, and for Chris it was
Kung Pao Chicken :) I have to admit - the stew was tasty, but the Kung Pao was really good - then to top it off, we split an ice-cream sandwich - dehydrated, of course - hey, don't laugh, it was
good! After dinner it was time to kick back and recap the day, swap stories, etc. One bad thing about bike camping is that it's very difficult to justify bringing a cooler full of beer! Maybe if you had one of those bike trailers... hmmm.... :) It wasn't long before we both decided it was time to rack out, especially since the bugs were starting to develop defenses against the bug spray we were using... but before we went to bed, we got to see a really cool sight - a waxing crescent moon, and not more than a few degrees away, Venus shining brightly against a deep blue sky! You' will probably be able to see the same view over the next few evenings... if the sky clears off :)
Act III
Once in our racks, it was crash and burn till the morning... then it was up with the sun, fix coffee and breakfast, and pack for the trip out. The good thing was that we were a few pounds lighter in food/water :) So after suitable morning routines were performed, we found ourselves back on the trail for the final leg to the parking lot. On the way out, we stopped by the trash bin that was placed near the campsites and dropped off our trash - plus some that we found from previous occupants. This is one of my sore spots - please, people,
don't put your trash under a
rock,
don't tie a sack to a tree and leave it, and
please don't just walk out... take your trash with you! It's not that hard!
The trip out went much like the other trips on that trail had, except my quads were really unhappy and were letting me know... so I had to walk a bit more than I would have liked to do. But, we made it back to the Jeep without mishap, loaded our gear and bikes, and headed back to
Round Rock... on the way, it rained on us - which was fun since we had the top down on the Jeep - but hey, it's just water, right? It didn't last very long, and we enjoyed a nice drive through the Hill Country to cap the trip. We both agreed that there were some good points and bad points to bike camping - on the plus side, it combines two of our favorite outdoor activites; as long as the trails agree, it is a good way to cover lots of ground; and it's just plain fun :) On the downside, by the time we got into camp and set up, we were kinda tired and that cut into our trail riding... of course, the extra trips we took because I forgot my powerbars probably didn't help at all :) The consensus was that we probably would do it again, but not anytime really soon. There are plenty of other camping options to explore, and Field Day is not that far away!
Epilogue
Once Chris dropped me at my house, I spread all my gear out to air, threw the grubbies in the washer and then hit the showers... since I had to be at rehearsal by 3pm for
The Humiliators' Inaugural Road Show and Booze Cruise! We have new material we are unveiling at
Jiggers in
San Antonio this Friday the 25th of May, so we crammed one more rehearsal in before the day... and don't forget that we are playing at
Trophy's on Saturday night at 9p for the
Freebird FU - we have lovingly rehearsed the most awesome rock song ever, and Todd's come up with some updated lyrics to make the evening's performance the best!
fin
