My Canoe Camping Trip

[JohnRich 4]

Last month I returned once again to Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas, to canoe another stretch of the Rio Grande River on the border with Mexico. The river in this area runs through deep canyons and is very scenic. This trip was only three days on the canoe, and the remainder of the week was spent hiking in the area.

The canoe plan was to paddle a stretch of river 21 miles long, through Santa Elena Canyon. Day one would cover about half the distance leading up to the deep canyon. Day 2 would be spent camping on the river and hiking up a mountain. And Day 3 would finish off the canoeing through the deepest part of the canyon.

Photo 1: I've joined up with my five fellow participants, and here you see the caravan of canoes, from a unique perspective, headed for the river put-in site.

Photo 2: The boats have been taken off the vehicles and placed next to the river near the small town of Lajitas. Here we are tying down our loads of camping gear, sufficient for three days in the wilderness.

After that chore, one man remains behind to guard the boats, while the others drive the vehicles to a local outfitter shop. There, the trucks are parked on his lot, and you hitch a ride back to the river put-in location again. This keeps the vehicles safe from break-ins while we are away, and the outfitter is retained to pick us up three days later at an appointed place and time downstream.

Photo 3: We're on the water! There are just small cliffs at this part of the river.

[JohnRich 4]

1) Interesting cliff, with a dark layer on the bottom, and a light layer on top. I think this represents volcanic rock on the bottom, and ancient sea deposits on top, which are now limestone.

2) We've pulled our canoes over at a gravel bar for lunch break, with nice scenery. You sit on your life vest for comfort amidst the rocks along the shoreline.

3) Back on the river again with nice scenery. The blue jug you see in the bow of my canoe is a 5-gallon water jug - that's my fresh water for three days. I bathe in the river, but the jug water is for cooking, washing dishes, washing my face, brushing teeth, etc. The orange buckets are cheapos from Home Depot, but they have snap-on waterproof lids and are very handy for storing items that must be kept dry. Everything is tied down with rope so that if the canoe tips over, the camping supplies don't go floating away and get lost.

Next up, some ancient Indian pictographs: paintings on cliff walls.

[airtwardo 7]

Nice pics John!

You seem to have WAY too much fun for an 'Old Guy'!!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[shropshire 0]

Have to agree with you there.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Royd 0]

What a great piece of territory. I loved the diversity on the trip up to the Chisos Basin.

[JohnRich 4]

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You seem to have WAY too much fun for an 'Old Guy'!!

And I aim to keep doing it for as long as I can.

[JohnRich 4]

These ancient Indian pictographs were found on the Mexican side of the river, on a narrow, smooth band of rock on the cliff wall.

Photos:

1) Me (for scale), with pictographs.

2) Close-up of the critter line-up.

3) Close-up of one animal. What kind of creature is this with the puffy lips? Notice that there appears to be some liquid spewing from the animal’s mouth. What is that? One thought is that this was the way the Indians represented the noise the animal would make.

All the pictographs were marred with modern graffiti scratched on the rock.

[JohnRich 4]

Back on the river:

1) That peak up ahead is called "The False Sentinel". I think it's a "sentinel" because it stands straight and alone, and it's "false" because there is another one very much like it farther along. And the 2nd sentinel marks the beginning of the really deep and narrow canyon. So this one is "false" because it doesn't have that significance as a landmark, and if you don't know there are two of them, it could lead you to believe you're farther along on the river than you really are.

2) Making camp on a sand bar for the night. Everyone spreads out and tries to find a piece of soft, flat ground. The camp tables are set up in a central location as a gathering spot for meals and relaxation. Canoes are turned upside down so that if it rains overnight, they won't fill with water.

3) Relaxing in our collapsible chairs, facing the river watching the moonlight dance on the water, and enjoying good conversation.

[NewGuy2005 53]

More!! More!!

[turtlespeed 226]

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More!! More!!

I cuncurr.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[jdthomas 0]

very nice trip.. i would like to load up my kayak for a trip like that sometime.

joe

www.greenboxphotography.com

[JohnRich 4]

River Day 2.

On day two we just stayed put, camped on the riverbank, and hiked up to the top of a peak overlooking the desert and surrounding mountains and mesas.

Photo 1) We started out going up the bottom of a canyon, headed up from the riverbed. That came out on top of a mesa, which we are crossing here to get to the peak.

Photo 2) One of the scary parts. This involved going sideways across an area with a lot of loose rock, at the top of a high cliff. Ack! I found out here that Louis, in the photo, is afraid of heights. When I asked him to stop and look up at me for the photo, he didn't like that much at all. Now I know. It made me nervous too – concentration was required, as a slip and tumble would be fatal.

Photo 3) The final stretch; up some steep talus, and then hand climbing up about a 15-foot rock wall to the top.

Photo 4) We made it! Wow, what scenery there was! We are about 1,500-feet above the river where we started. (I'm the guy in the middle.) That jagged zig-zag canyon down below cutting through the mesa is where we will enter with our canoes the next day - that's when the fun really starts... That canyon is 100 to 200 yards wide, up to 1,000-feet deep, and 10 miles long. Once you go in, there's no turning back.

[JohnRich 4]

Photo 1) A nice fossil, found by Terry, the archeologist: It’s an ammonite, an ancient snail-like sea creature, over 65 million years old. Wow.

Photo 2) We spied two horses on the climb up. Are they wild leftovers from the pioneer days, or escapees from a Mexican ranch? One is standing behind the other, and it looks like one horse with a head on both ends...

Photo 3) Back down off the mountain. Dinner time on the river. Downright civilized. Even had salad. That's me on the far left.

Photo 4) My canoe on the riverbank: It’s a bit disorganized at the moment, since I'm living out of it in camp. But before going on the river, everything gets stashed away neatly and tied-down.

[jdthomas 0]

man you guys really packed in the stuff.. I want to go a bit more minimal when i go down the river.. but I say if you can pack it in and do that comfortably then by all means camp in comfort.

i went camping this past weekend, 7inches of snow and windy as could be. I was part of a crew for a friend that was running an ultra marathon on unimproved trails. it was freaking cold and not at all like your canoe trip but still nice.

keep it up John, you have good adventuers.

www.greenboxphotography.com

[JohnRich 4]

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man you guys really packed in the stuff.. I want to go a bit more minimal when i go down the river.. but I say if you can pack it in and do that comfortably then by all means camp in comfort.

Well, it's just basic living stuff: tent, sleeping bag, clothes, water, food. The only things I might consider "luxury" items are a camp table and a folding chair. That's better than sitting on a rock and eating off the dirt. The canoe has a capacity of 1,100 lbs., but I don't come anywhere close to that. I probably have 100 lbs. of gear for canoe trips, and most of that is a 5-gallon water jug and a big cooler.

For land hiking, of course, I travel much lighter, and camp more primitive.

The photo attached, is my basic truck camping setup at a primitive campsite: camp table, chair and cot. If it looks like rain, or if the flying bugs are annoying, I'll put up a tent. At a developed campground, a picnic table is usually provided, so the camp table and chair aren't needed.

[JohnRich 4]

Now we’ve finished the day in camp on the river, and are ready to head back out on the water again, on day 3.

1) A pastel river sunrise.

2) Entering the canyon, narrow and deep. There is no going back, now...

3) Narrower and deeper! Light barely penetrates down here, unless the bends of the canyon just happen to align with the direction of the sun, as it does up ahead around the corner.

[JohnRich 4]

1) The “ugly” part of the canoe trip, where “Rockslide Rapids" lives. Part of the cliff sheared off and dropped house-sized boulders into the river canyon, creating an intricate maze through which you have to weave, all the while being pushed along by a swift current.

We had a guidebook with us (written by Louis, the expedition leader), which shows an aerial view like this, and we studied it the day before. I memorized the recommended route through these boulders the same way I memorize a sequence of skydiving moves - by reducing each move to a one-syllable word, coupled with mental visualization. So, if you ever find yourself approaching this maze in a canoe, just remember this: "left, right, middle, right, left". That's the secret!

I only crashed into a couple of rocks, but nearly everyone else did too, so I didn't feel overly clumsy. It's a good thing these plastic canoes are tough.

2) Here I am running Rockslide Rapids. Donna stands by ready with a camera and rescue rope. You enter from the left side of the picture, and have to make a 90-degree right turn, with the current pushing you towards that giant boulder. I made it, and only scraped a little bit.

3) On the downstream side of Rockslide Rapids, we pulled over to the shoreline to take a short break, and see a few things there.
Here, Natalie examines an inscription carved into a boulder, by R.T. Hill, of the U.S. Geological Service, who first surveyed this canyon in 1899. Why does his “G” look like a “C”?

[NewGuy2005 53]

Awesome trip, John. Thanks!!

[Dougjumper 0]

Really nice pics!

Wow!

[Stumpy 284]

That looks like a great trip John - glad you had fun!

Never try to eat more than you can lift

[Shotgun 1]

Nice pics, John. Looks like fun...

Who was guiding the trip?

[JohnRich 4]

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Who was guiding the trip?

No official guide. Just a bunch of experienced canoeists (except for me) who get together and do things informally. These guys have been canoeing all their lives, and I'm the noobie of the bunch.

[Beerlight 0]

Great pics John, keep em coming! btw, what kind of chow did ya'll take and did anyone in the group pack a weapon for security purposes?

[JohnRich 4]

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Great pics John, keep em coming! btw, what kind of chow did ya'll take and did anyone in the group pack a weapon for security purposes?

When I go camping by myself, my food is real simple. I just heat-up canned goods, or eat military MRE's. For breakfast I might have eggs.

But one of these guys on this trip loves to do wilderness cooking, so he has a "meal plan". He fixes all the meals, and you just pay your share of the grocery bill, then help out with preparation, like dicing onions, and with washing dishes afterward.

And he prepares some magnificent meals. When camping and hiking alone, I lose weight. But I come back from his trips with extra pounds. He makes things like chicken & dumplings, spaghetti, and jambalaya. Breakfast can be anything from oatmeal to eggs & fried potatoes. Lunch is simple sandwiches. Fresh fruit. Salad. It's luxury camping, meal-wise.

No firearms on these Big Bend trips. It's a National Park and they are forbidden, although I do keep a handgun in my truck. If caught with one on the Mexican side of the river, you're really in deep trouble, although I've never seen any law officers over there. But I worry about banditos and mountain lions... As far as I know, that area is fairly quiet as far as violence goes. There are some illegal crossings, and auto break-ins. But mostly you're in such remote canyons, that no-one else can get to you anyway.

[JohnRich 4]

Beauty and the Beast.

1) “The beast”: a very odd boulder with a polka-dot configuration of two types of rock.

2) "The Beauty": I finally figured out how to make the camera focus on a tiny little object in the foreground, for a crisp clear shot of this delicate purple flower.

3) After that excitement in the rapids, it was time for a lunch break, on a beautiful soft grassy bank, inside the canyon walls.

4) We didn't eat this plant, however. This is datura, commonly known as jimsonweed. It is highly hallucinogenic, and is what the Indians would take to see "the spirit world". That prickly part is thought to be the prickly item often seen painted in the hand of a shaman on ancient Indian cave paintings. People who abuse this plant today, often end up in mental hospitals. No thank you.