Big Bend National Park. This park is so out-of-the-way that we almost skipped it. I'm still undecided as to the wisdom and worthiness of visiting it. Why? Well,....
This National Park is not along any major - or even minor - road. And it is south. Very south. And dry. Very dry. Which made it hot. Yes, VERY hot.
We did see some very cool towns on the way, including Marathon, which is home to the Gage Hotel and, I'm told, a regular destination for riders. It makes sense, since the drive there is very... um... I guess the best description is "varied." And very nice. I later came to regret not staying there... or at any other motel in the miles it took to get to Big Bend.
Most of the ride, though hot, was great. There were plenty of hills, turns, and picnic spots to rest in between. The road between I-10 and Fort Davis (118) was particularly fun. And the towns seem to be perfectly placed so that your bike isn't almost out of gas before you get to the next town... and the next gas station.
Other than the beautiful countryside, we got to have a lot of fun spotting wildlife. I mentioned the javelinas in an earlier post. We also saw - or dodged - deer, coyote, roadrunners, bunnies, and a rattlesnake. At least they were not as bad as dodging grasshoppers on our way out of the Chiricahuas a week ago. Those suckers were huge and kept jumping right onto us. Nothing like bug juice in the morning! [Navy reference]
Speaking of bugs, after we arrived at the campground that night, we discovered that we were the only people there. Period. In the dark. With a bright, creepy, full moon giving the whole landscape a very eerie look. Wait, that's not the bugs part.
The bug part comes right after we chose a campsite and began unloading our gear. Dennis, ever-observant of any type of exotic wildlife, noticed a black widow spider below the bear-proof box. We all gathered to look at it in the flashlight beam.
Yes, it was big. Yes, it had a red hour-glass shaped mark on its belly. Yes, we all started feeling like we had bugs all over us.
I grabbed the can of bug spray I had bought to fight the Chiricahua gnats and mosquitoes and sprayed the heck out of it - never mind the rules about messing with nature! This is a venomous spider, folks! Well, I found out that black widows look at bug spray as a pre-dinner cocktail. Then we noticed she had friends. Friends who seemed eager to join the party.
This is the point where I really wished we had stayed at the last town. Regardless of the spiders, we had to stay here. We did not have enough gas to make it to town (about 70 miles). And the gas station at the park would not open till 9am. We would have to wait till then... if we survived. Aside from Charlotte the Spider, we had just seen a coyote and a rattlesnake. I looked forward to a sweaty, sleepless night, followed by a hasty morning retreat.
After clearing an area of any debris that might possibly harbor any type of spider, bug, or other multi-legged critter, we pitched our tents by moonlight and headlight. Then I threw together a quick supper and we all crawled...wait, not "crawled". Spiders. We all slid into our... no, "slid" doesn't work either. Snakes. We went to bed. There!
No comments:
Post a Comment