Tyler State Park Camping, Hiking, Geocaching

Our time in Texas is beginning to grow short. This week we are headed to Covington to look for a new house, but last weekend we decided to attend a geocaching event at Tyler State Park and do some camping. 

Of course Pandora decided to hog the air mattress, but luckily she also added a little heat because it was quite cold during the nights, especially Friday, as it was misty and drizzling rain when we arrived. By mid evening it had cleared enough to go find a night cache! A night cache is usually along a trail and utilizes some form of fire tack. A reflective push pin that you can stick in a tree branch. When you shine a strong flashlight at it it will glow brightly. 

Saturday we woke up and had breakfast with friends then headed over to the main event which promised a lot of fun outdoor activities. We chose to go on a ranger led nature walk and had a great time. We saw a ton of deer near the end of the hike as well as ample evidence of the wild pig problem they have here. 

Overall it was a great weekend. After a rainy and chilly start the skies cleared and we had great 70 degree weather. Tyler State Park is a great place to camp. They have newly redone bath houses and the animal life in the park is diverse and plentiful. Well worth a visit and right off the I20 corridor. 

2013 Where Have You Gone?

So.... I am still alive, and I am still interested in continuing with this blog. But I hit a roadblock this year that made it hard to motivate myself to sit down and write anything. Work has been really rewarding but also much busier than normal. That's a good thing, in the past I have become incredibly bored with my career. Back in school I had the same issue, if I didn't feel challenged I could not bring myself to do the tasks I needed to complete. Even to this day trying to get me to do something more than a few days before it is due is like pulling teeth. I do not consider myself a procrastinator, I just like to be challenged.

Caution: Do not wake ZSandmann

Geocaching is still very fun and important to me as my number one hobby, but I have found fewer caches this year than any since I started. I have attended many great events and hung out with my caching friends though. And a good event is more rewarding than a hundred park and grab caches. I'll certainly up my numbers some when we go home for Christmas and with our impending move... More on that in a minute.

I made my 6,000th Geocache "Find" at the Texas Challenge

My biggest regret in terms of geocaching this year is that I didn't get to explore more places in Texas. It's a massive state and our three years here just have not been nearly enough to see all that there is to see. We are going to try and make a trip to El Paso over Thanksgiving, and if we get our passports in time we might even jump over to Mexico just to say we did. The passports are for a cruise we have planned in February for our ten year wedding anniversary. Ten years!  That's just awesome to me.

Pandora: No context to this post, but... this picture, ha!

Ok, so the move huh? I've been transferred to Covington, Louisiana effective January 1. We are excited and also a bit overwhelmed by the process. But in the end it will be great to be back closer to home. Hopefully there will be new adventures to blog about once we are there. Which leads me to my last point, I think I will try and open up this blog to more than geocaching. That gives me more ground to cover and I'll likely get more stories to tell. One such story is the antique dresser set we recently got from geocaching friends of ours. We've been stripping it and sanding and all the fun things to try and get them in shape for a place in our guest bedroom. When that project is completed I'll post it here.

GC62: Tombstone - The oldest active geocache in Texas. I found it earlier this year.

Until then, Cache On!

 

A Fairy hole or a geocache? You decide.

Blue Bell Creameries - Brenham, Texas

N 30° 09.753 W 096° 22.708

We decided to attend a geocaching event in Brenham, Texas last weekend. It was planned as a fall gathering of the Texas Geocaching Association and sounded like a good excuse for a short road trip and a visit to Blue Bell. My wife and I both grew up with Blue Bell ice cream, but we had never visited its source.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The factory is located just outside of town and has fantastic saint augustine grass lawns (which we haven't seen since leaving Louisiana) and a nice little ice cream parlour attached to the museum and factory. A tour costs $5 a person but we get free ice cream at the end. No cameras (even cellphones) are allowed on the tour - trade secrets and such.

From wikipedia:

The Brenham Creamery Company opened for business in 1907 to purchase excess cream from local dairy farmers and sell butter to people in the Brenham, Texas, area. Beginning in 1911, the creamery began to also produce small quantities of ice cream. By 1919, the creamery was in financial trouble and considered closing its doors. The board of directors hired E.F. Kruse, a 23-year-old former schoolteacher, to take over the company on April 1, 1919. Kruse refused to accept a salary for his first few months in the position so that the company would not be placed in further debt. Under his leadership, the company expanded its production of ice cream to the local area and soon became profitable. At his suggestion, the company was renamed Blue Bell Creameries in 1930 after the Texas Bluebell, a wildflower that is native to Texas, which, like ice cream, thrives in summer. Until 1936, the creamery made ice cream by the batch. It could create a 10 gallon batch of ice cream every 20 minutes. In 1936 the company purchased its first continuous ice cream freezer, which could make 80 gallons of ice cream per hour.

We found it to be well worth the visit. The employees are happy and excited to talk about ice cream with you and are very knowledgeable. The parlour has about fifty flavors of ice cream and I am sure these rotate seasonally but there are many that are regional to certain areas like Rocky Mountain Road and limited release like Peach Cobbler.   



Pictured: Strawberry cheesecake and Krazy kookie dough. Eaten: Rocky Mountain road and Peach cobbler.

If you don't take the tour, or just want seconds, a large scoop is $1. Can't beat that. I discovered a flavor I've never tried before, Krazy Kookie Dough, which was awesome. It's a bit scary at first with brightly colored pieces, lots of food coloring I am sure. But the ice cream is cake batter and the cookie dough is sugar cookie, how can that not be amazing? I wish they just made the cake batter ice cream, I would eat way too much of it!


Blue Bell butterfly

One last thing to note. As we were heading down to Austin we took a wrong turn and ended up in Mason, Texas. I know there are some exposures of igneous rock in this region, but I had no idea that Mason is the type locality for Texas Topaz, the state gemstone. We also learned that for around $15 a day you can go to one of several ranches around town in non-deer season months and search for the stones in the local stream beds. This sounds like a LOT of fun and we are already planning a trip, maybe in March of next year!



"Milking" the cow



Guadalupe Mountains: Permian Basin Geology Field Course

I spent last week in the Guadalupe Mountains around Carlsbad, NM with a group of co-workers ranging in expertise from Geologists to Engineers. The purpose of our trip was to better understand the geology of the Permian Basin as it applies to oil and gas production in the subsurface. Since I have gone fairly in depth in the past on this area when my wife and I came over to the more touristy areas like Carlsbad Caverns I will make this post a photo journal of our trip instead of a long exposition.

Looking at gypsum and dolomite varves in the Castile Formation.

Creative graffiti on this piece of Permian age reef

Excellent exposure of Crinoid stem fossils

Exposed gastropod, not sure of the species

Hiding from the recent flash floods, see the mudline?

We found this guy hiding from the heat in a small grotto

View to the west from the Escarpment. To the left you can see part of the Brokeoff Moutains

Another view to the West from a small side canyon

A Horny Toad! He just flattened out and refused to move.

You have no idea how much the wind was blowing. See the rain coming in from the north behind me?

A Huge barrel cactus colony!

A view from the highway of the hills near Van Horn, TX. All this land is owned by the owner of Amazon.com

The Chinese Hat (previously know as The Breast of Venus). Every time I go to Carlsbad I want to touch this thing...

Maybe one day when I'm a Big Boy I can be a Park Ranger

Checkin' what's under the skirt in White City

Excellent fossil reef exposure near White City, in the middle of the picture... a Neptunian Dike. Make your own joke.

View of the Shadduck Escarpment from Dog Canyon Camp Ground in the north side of Guadalupe NP.

Sunset over the Indian Basin

Fantastic road cut of the Castile gypsum between Carlsbad, NM and Pine Springs, TX

My favorite picture of Capitan Reef. Taken from a rest area south of the park.

Most of our geology group, wearing our stylish safety vests.

Labor Day Weekend: Fort Davis National Historic Site (62)

N 30° 35.640 W 103° 56.707 

We woke up early and had a great breakfast at the Indian Lodge restaurant. I chose eggs cooked to order and bacon, while my wife braved the enormous "short stack" of homemade buttermilk pancakes. I think she maybe ate half of it, they filled her plate! Afterwards we decided to take an early morning hike up the trail that starts just behind the Lodge and goes up to the bluffs above. We didn't see any javelina this morning, and with no breeze in the canyon we were eager to get to higher elevations.

A rest at the top of the bluff

I was eager to make my way up to the bluffs that rise behind the Lodge as there was a geocache there that had not been found in over a year since it had been hidden. I also knew another geocacher, grumpyoldtexan, was planning to attempt this cache again today. Even though it was still early the temperature was quickly rising and you are almost in a box canyon at the trail head so there was little to no breeze. Luckily, once we reached the ridgeline a fair breeze was blowing which made the hike much more enjoyable. About half way up we ran into grumpy and his wife as I seached for another tough geocache and from there on we teamed up to finally find this elusive hide. With four sets of eyes, a leap of faith, and determination we did indeed find the cache after a fifteen minute search of ground zero.

View of the Indian Lodge from the bluffs above

N 30° 36.006 W 103° 53.496 

Returning from our hike we checked out of the Lodge and drove down to Fort Davis NHS. This is the 62nd National Park Unit that we have visited. It is not a very large park but it isn't near the smallest one we have been to before. (That would be Minuteman Missle which is only a single Cold War era nuclear missile bunker and silo.) We were greeted right away by a very friendly Ranger asking if we would like our picture taken together. This is a rare thing for us, most of our photos are of one or the other at the places we visit, because we travel alone mostly. We took her up on her generous offer and got an excellent shot with the large special occasion parade flag in the background. We then went to the theater and watched a short film on the history of the fort narrated by Kareem Abdul Jabar of all people. My wife had no idea who he was but I cracked up when he walked on screen in full regalia. We then stamped out National Parks Passport in the visitor center and walked around the grounds. I really enjoyed our short stop here, and hope to return in cooler weather.

Fort Davis National Historic Site

One last thing I wanted to mention was Murphy's Pizzeria at 107 Musquiz Dr. in Fort Davis. They came heavily recommended to us by grumpyoldtexan earlier in the day so we decided to stop for a bit. It is very tasty pizza with a super thin cracker-like crust. The toppings are all fresh and they have all you could think to had to a pizza. Although we did not order a salad I saw several brought to other customers and those looked amazing too, loaded with all kinds of toppings in very large bowls.

Tree in the patio at Murphy's Pizzeria

Labor Day Weekend: Davis Mountains State Park & McDonald Observatory

Sorry to delay posting the rest of our Labor Day trip. Sometimes RL "real life" gets in the way.

After a day of swimming at awesome Balmorhea State Park we had to cover some ground to get to The Indian Lodge in Davis Mountains State Park where we had a reservation for the night. Now the funny thing is I never intended to go to the Davis Mountains on this trip when I booked a room I thought the Lodge was in Balmorhea, oops... But happy accidents and all that, and we found ourselves there in the late evening. It was more than we had expected having stayed in many state park lodges in many states, the Indian Lodge is a beautiful adobe conglomeration of loosely connected rooms, breezeways, and different levels with great views of the valley. It was one of many structures built by the CCC in the park and we would highly recommend it. We ate dinner at the on-site restaurant which serves diner style Tex-Mex, it is reasonably priced and while it isn't the best place I have ever eaten it was certainly palatable after the long hours of swimming.

Courtyard at the Indian Lodge

Later after checking in and having dinner we decided to drive the Skyline road to grab a couple geocaches, but more so to see the fire damage and great a better look at our surrounding in general. The day was warm but a stiff breeze made it pleasant enough to drive with the windows down. From the crest of the road the 360 degree views are quite amazing. What shocked me most was that although the fires were widespread and devastating here there is new green growth to be seen everywhere. There hasn't been much more rain since the fires, but burned-out yucca and mesquite have new green sprouts and the ground is covered in little flowers. Even the pinons have new green needles it seems! The worst we saw of the fires was the destruction of the historic picnic area at the overlook. It has lost its roof and been cordoned off. Also, there are many antenna array up top that I assume are weather stations and temporary cellphone towers. Cell reception is poor at best and absent except on the highest points.

Wild Javelina in Davis Mountains State Park

As we walked a nature trail to find the Davis Mountains State Park Geocache we spooked a young whitetail deer and watched her easily pick her way through the desert foliage and down into the valley. She then leapt over a burned barbwire fence and made her way up the hill on the other side of the valley. This was the first but not the last major wildlife we would see in the park. Thankfully this must mean there is still enough food and habitat for them even with the fires destroying so much.

Historic Picnic Area on Skyline Drive

Greenery and life returns to the Davis Mountains

Dusk was falling, quick as ever when you are in mountainous terrain, we could see the McDonald Observatory in the distance from Skyline drive and decided on the fly to go check it out. Neither of us had ever been to a star party before, all I knew is I shouldn't drink any Kool-Aid offered by the host. It seemed to take a long time to get to there even though it was just over six miles as the crow flies because the road does anything but go straight between the park and the observatory. First we headed west, the north, and lastly we almost passed the observatory before turning off the highway and looping back around to the visitor center. We bought our tickets for the star party and sat outside watching the hummingbirds fly around in the waning light. As it turned out the clouds did not blow off as much as we would have hoped so they gave a "virtual star party" presentation in the theater and then let us take turns looking through the many telescopes behind the visitor center looking at fleeting star clusters and galaxies, nebulae, etc. peeking out of the clouds. The highlights of the evening were seeing the International Space Station pass over head and seeing several shooting stars. The moon was also visible as a waning crescent. My take home though was that I really want a green laser pointer, those things have amazing range!

Sunset at the McDonald Observatory

Product Review: Vibram FiveFingers Komodo Sport LS

I have heard a lot about Vibram FiveFingers over the last few years. At first I only knew one person that had them, but now I know several and see them around quite often especially in the geocaching community which tends to have a larger proportion of outdoor types than the general populous. For mixed outdoor use the KSOs have always been the tried and true model, but there are a new line of FiveFingers that claim to offer the unique ground feel of a individually pocketed toe shoe while providing even more traction and control. Enter the Komodo Sport LS.
I walked into the only store in Midland that sells FiveFingers, Run this Way, with only a vague idea of what I wanted. I had never tried on these shoes before, so I had to be sized as they run according to European sizing. According to the guide my 11.5 US sized feet fit a 43 EUR. I tried on the KSOs first and while I liked the general fit they only had bright red ones left as they are being discontinued. I wanted something a bit more muted; they tend to draw enough attention without the addition of bright colors! Next, I tried on the Trek boots. Instead of the lightweight fabrics most FiveFingers are contructed from, these are made of a thin leather material. The soles are a bit thicker which allows for more heavy terrain handling, but the downside is that the toes are  much stiffer. I could not get my stubborn little toe into its compartment despite many tries.

Lastly, I found the Komodo Sport LS in Castle Rock coloring. I like the light weight of the shoe and the raised tread on the sole. The quick lacing system secures the shoe against grit and stone while the velcro fastener keeps the laces from flopping around and collecting debris. Once you guide your big toe into the first spot all the others find their way with little manipulation. But the true test came later on in the Davis Mountains when I was able to get on trail in these unique shoes. The retail price for the Vibram FiveFingers Komodo LS is $110.

I had worn my Komodos around town a bit to get the feel of them. I am very flat footed so I was worried my feet would really ache after a little while with the thin and mostly unpadded sole. However I found them comfortable for the most part. One thing I noticed was pressure in the middle of my foot after standing still for prolonged periods of time on level terrain. The Davis Mountains were a different story though. Once I left the parking area behind the Indian Lodge and started up the trailhead everything I thought about these shoes changed. I could feel every rock and pebble beneath my feet like being barefooted but there was no discomfort. I walked over a few boulders and felt the soles of the Komodos grip the rock. I even climbed a live oak looking for a geocache.
 

The shoes respond to what you are standing on while allowing you the foot feel to know its there. The last thing I wanted to see was how these shoes handled a little bouldering. There was a cache on top the bluffs overlooking the Lodge that had gone unfound for months. With few clues to go on me and another cacher I met on the trail started searching. I searched high while he went low, and after fifteen minutes or so the cache was found on a rocky outcropping part way down a close to vertical cliff face. Stepping from one rock ledge to another I could feel the rock with my tiptoes and actually curl my toes around the ledge. This is something that is impossible with any other shoe I've ever worn. At the end of the day despite several miles of hiking with no socks and thin tight fitting shoes I had no blisters at all.

I love these shoes, I want more already, maybe giving the Treks another shot as I would love a thick soled version for true off trail hiking. The only test I haven't done is to see what happens when a mesquite thorn finds its way into my sole. I'm not eager to see or feel the result. Also, I don't recommend  these shoes for casual wear in town, the sheer flatness does start to ache your feet after standing around for extended periods.