Our 11 participants were easy-going and fun - about half of the group was freshmen, but we also had some upperclassmen and graduate students. Most seemed to just be excited to get outdoors and away from campus.
We left Gregory Gym around 8:15am, and reached Longhorn Caverns at 9:45am. I went in to buy tickets for the 10am cavern walking tour, which were $13/person with my state parks pass (instead of $16/person). We wandered around the gift shop for about 5 minutes before heading outside to wait for our tour guide. Our tour started right at 10am as scheduled.
The actual tour covered the same route as it did in Spring 2014, but this time the guide gave better insight into the history of the cavern. One particular fact I learned this time was that the individual who sold the cavern's land to the state during the Great Depression required that the cavern never be operated by the state. Hence, this explains why Longhorn Cavern is the only Texas State park operated by a concessionaire.
Our cavern tour had 32 people on it this time, so 18 people outside of our group were also on the tour. Our tour ended around 11:40am, so we announced to the participants that we would stay at the caverns until 12:45pm in order for people to eat lunch, sunscreen, and generally explore if they wished.
Our group in the Cavern (photo from Sara's camera)
Then we drove over to Inks Lake State Park, which was rather crowded and party-like on this Labor Day Weekend Saturday. We struggled to find a place to park the trailer, but a spot opened up just as we finished unloading the stand-up paddle boards and kayak. Sara gave a short safety and skills talk, and then everyone easily got out onto the lake.
Cade went out near the middle of the group, and Sara and I went last after helping everyone get out on the water. However, when we got onto the water, we noticed our group had become very split up. Sara paddled over to one group, and I went to join another group that seemed to be heading towards Devil's Waterhole.
Once at Devil's Waterhole, some of the participants wanted to jump off the rocks (like we saw many other people doing). I told them I did not recommend it, and it would be at their own risk, but that I would not stop them (which seems to also be the park's stance). A few people did indeed jump from the rocks, and we had a few cuts and scrapes as a result (nothing serious though). However, as a program we should probably re-evaluate how this trip is ran - should we not visit Devil's Waterhole and instead just paddle along other parts of the shoreline? The trip description on the information sheet for the trip listed Devil's Waterhole as a place we would visit - and it seem poor to not let people jump if they want to - so perhaps we should re-work the information sheet for future trips.
Everyone seemed to have a great time on this trip. We got many positive comments on the evaluation forms - cool guides, good safety, fun trip - and the only negative comments we got were a couple people suggesting that we should provide lunch. Overall, it was a fun day trip!
