Big Bend National Park South Rim Backpacking

Big Bend is a park I still haven't grown tired of visiting.  At the end of the Fall 2016 semester, I guided what is most likely my last UT RecSports trip to Big Bend National Park.  It was a great long weekend, with a wonderful group of participants as well as two excellent co-guides (Cade and Sara).

Thursday: Left Austin at 5am.  Had an early lunch at Mi Casita in Fort Stockton. Obtained permits at Panther Junction ranger station.  Set up camp at La Noria 4.9 miles down primitive Old Ore Road. Went to Hot Springs.  Back to La Noria to cook dinner.

Welcome to Big Bend!

My 1-person tent at La Noria

Trail to the hot springs

The hot springs were popular!

Friday: Short hike in nearby Ernst Tinaja. Drive to Chisos Basin. Divide group gear and load packs.  Eat lunch.  Backpack to Laguna Meadow 2.  Sunset hike before couscous and pita dinner.

View back towards La Noria at breakfast

View away from La Noria at breakfast

Walking towards Ernst Tinaja

George pretending to slide down Ernst Tinaja

Ernst Tinaja

We met the guy behind Hotel Prius

We saw three men crossing illegally at the Boquillas Overlook

Watching sunset near Laguna Meadow

Looking towards the south rim from Laguna Meadow

Saturday: Backpack from Laguna Meadow 2 to Southwest Rim 3 via the South Rim and Southeast Rim. Set-up camp, watch sunset over southeast rim.

3-person tent at Laguna Meadow 2

The South Rim views never get old

I could enjoy these views forever

Justin at sunset

Sunday: Split into two groups: Emory Peak & sunrise.  I stayed with two participants to watch the sunrise over the Southwest Rim and causally hike out. Lunch at cars.  Drive back to Austin. Pretty epic day - starting out with an awesome sunrise right by Southwest Rim 3 and ending with the temperature getting consistently colder throughout the day.

Sun rise near Southwest Rim 3 - first shot

Sun rise near Southwest Rim 3 - second shot

Sun rise near Southwest Rim 3 - final shot

Hiking out with the 'sunrise' group

Big Bend South Rim Backpacking

After returning from my Turkey/Greece trip on Sunday, it was immediately time to prepare to lead guide a trip to Big Bend National Park!  Brad, Cade and I went on a food buy, repackaged food, and prepared gear on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, I met my 9 participants for the first time as they arrived at 6am (since I had missed the pre-trip since it was while I was at AAMAS in Istanbul).  They quickly packed all of our backpacking gear into their packs and then we loaded up the cars.

Brad, Cade, and I had agreed to work on a 3 hour driving schedule.  Hence, I drove to Sonora, and then got a break until Fort Stockton where I switched cars and drove the remainder of the way to the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park.  We stopped at the Walmart in Fort Stockton for everyone to get last-minute items - I picked up some $19 hiking poles since I had stupidly forgotten mine in Austin and I knew I would want them.

I woke everyone up to stop at the sign.  I think they were eventually happy about it.

Once in the Chisos Basin, I went to obtain our back-country permits around 3:20pm.  However, the ranger suggested that we obtain a camp site first since they were in very short supply.  He suggested we talk to the camp host about obtaining a group site.  Hence, we loaded back into the cars and drove over to the camp-ground.  We found the camp host, and he did indeed have just one group site left - site P.  Site P was pretty much just a pavilion with tables on a hill - there was not a flat site to be found.  But it would do for a night.  As everyone else was setting up camp, I hurried back to the ranger station to obtain our back-country permits before they closed at 4pm.  I made it just in time, but found that our original plan to camp in Boot Canyon one night and Pinnacles the other night would not work as too many site had already been taken in each.  Trying to get back-country permits in Big Bend for a group of 12 is difficult!  However, I was eventually able to get our backup plan of staying in Colima 1 both nights.  In hind site, this was certainly the best plan for our group.

Sloped site P

My back-country permit

Once back at the camp with my back-country permit in hand, we presented the various hiking options to the group.  Despite an oncoming storm, they decided on the Lost Mine trail.  We drove to the trailhead, and I opted to put on rain gear before starting since I was certain it would begin raining soon.  As we climbed up the trail, the visibility got worse and worse.  When we hit the one mile point and a ridge, we found we had very little visibility.  We waited for a bit, and then the group decided they wanted to continue on the to summit and hope it cleared.  I figured there was little to no chance we would see anything from the summit.  However, as we kept climbing, the visibility did get better and better.  From the top, we could see very well - even the valley had cleared.  Lost Mine is certainly the best 'half-day hike' I've experienced in Big Bend so far, and there are plenty of places at the end of the trail to sit and just enjoy the views.

The rain got a bit worse on the hike back down, but we made it down with no issues.  Once back at camp, we cooked our chicken noodle and tomato soups and grilled cheeses.  It was a popular meal, and everyone seemed satisfied. We were treated to a nice view of the sunset through the window from our camp-site as well.

Thursday morning I awoke feeling miserably hot.  I was sharing a tent with two of the participants - Monica and Stephanie - and quietly packed up and got out.  The tent was so much hotter than the outside air!  I got ready and then just sat and enjoyed the early morning.  People slowly began waking up around 7:30am, and once about half of the participants were awake I woke up Cade and Brad and started our bagels and yoghurt breakfast.

After breakfast we put the items we would not need backpacking back into the cars and packed the items we would (as well as the refrigerated items).  We moved our cars to the visitor's center parking lot and hit the trail slightly before 10am.

Brad led our way up the Laguna Meadow Trail.  Once we finished the climb and could see the meadows, we found a nice viewpoint off trail to have lunch at.  I was pleasantly surprised how little I struggled on the climb as long as I went slowly.  Since some participants were struggling with the weight of their backpacks and/or their muscles, this was not an issue.  After lunch, and resting for about 45 minutes, we hiked onward to camp.  My pack got really heavy near the end of this hike, but I was still pleasantly surprised that I was not miserable like I was during the 2014 Thanksgiving trip to Guadalupe Mountains despite almost certainly carrying more weight on this trip.

Plenty of flowers in May

Flowering cacti

My group relaxing after lunch

 The hardest part of the backpacking trip is over!

We finally reached our home for the next two nights - Colima 1.  Colima 1 was a group site that could hold up to 15 people in 5 tents, so 12 people in 4 tents fit nicely.  It was equipped with two large bear boxes, 1 medium bear box, and three smaller, older bear boxes.  It began raining as we reached camp.  In hind sight, we should have waited for the rain to stop before setting up camp - but we attempted to set up our tents in the rain.  This lead to the bottom of our tent being wet.  Of course, by the time camp was set up, it had stopped raining.  We took the rain fly off our tent in hopes that it would dry.  I also organized all of our group food and cooking items in one bear box.  We used the other large bear box for personal items and food, and the medium bear box for water.  We used the smaller three bear boxes to store trash.

We took a group trip to the nearby composting toilet after everyone relaxed for an hour, and then we sat around and played games until it was time to cook dinner.  Dinner was quinoa with brown sugar salmon - it was actually the best quinoa dinner I have had.  I'm not usually a fan of quinoa, so this is a big statement.  It started getting cool during dinner, so most people hurried to bed after dinner.

Friday morning I awoke first again, and got out of my tent.  I got ready for the day, and then enjoyed sitting on a log and just listening to the birds.  Cade's head stuck out of his tent shortly after his 7:45am alarm and we started our hashbrown breakfast shortly after.  The participants woke up as we started cooking, and breakfast was served soon after.  However, even after all of the participants had gotten food, Brad had still not gotten out of his tent.  I went to check on him, and he claimed he was being slow because he was cold.  Getting up and ready before the participants was drilled into me during guide school, but it seems that since the latest group of guides did not go through part 2 of guide school, they missed this part of the curriculum.

We eventually took off on our day hike to the South Rim.  Multiple people had some nasty bruises and blisters on their hips from carrying heavy packs the previous day.  We did not have much mileage, so we could hike slow and enjoy the day.  We did just this, stopping for a long time at three different view points.  The first view point, seen after climbing out the the meadow, makes a real impression.  Multiple people in our group actually said 'man, this makes it all worth it'.  We chilled at the South Rim until the participants decided they wanted to head back to camp around 3pm.  We got back to camp around 4:30pm, and played cards until dinner time.  Dinner was supposed to be mango, mandarin orange, and bean tacos - but I had spaced out when repackaging food and did not remember to put tortillas with this meal.  The meal was still great though - I do not think anyone really missed the tortillas.  After dinner it started to rain, so we all retreated to our tents.  I was amused by the international group (a UK guy, an Australian guy, and a French girl) playing American country music in their tent.

Views from the South Rim never get old

 South Rim

South Rim

The next morning we tried to get moving early.  Breakfast was instant oatmeal with toppings, so it was easy to prepare.  We took down camp, packed our now substantially lighter backpacks, and headed for the Pinnacles trail.  We stopped about a mile in at the Emory Peak turn-off.  Most of the group wanted to hike to the peak, but two participants did not want to go so I stayed with them.  We decided to stay with everyone else's bags at the turn-off, but in hind sight we should have made the rest of the group carry they packs and we should have headed down to the cars.  Waiting at the turn-off in the rain was by far the most miserable part of the trip, as we were all very cold due to the combination of rain, wind, and inactivity.

The boot in Boot Canyon

Me, on the trail

The rest of the group returned 1.5-2 hours later, and we broke into a faster and slower group for our descent.  I trailed the slower group, but I literally saw the faster group running down the trail!  Once at the bottom we gave everyone 30 minutes to visit the Visitor's Center and store.  In the meantime, we went to the Visitor's Center to try and get a primitive site by Rio Grande Village for our final night.  However, since it was Memorial Day weekend, all of the sites easily reachable were already filled up - and especially considering our group size, there was nothing available for us except a few sites about an hour down a rough 4x4 high clearance road.  With all the rain, and one vehicle without four wheel drive, we decided that would be a bad idea.  All of the group sites at both Rio Grande Village and in the Chisos Basin were fully reserved online.  We started to have serious concerns about finding a place to camp.  We eventually found phone numbers of Big Bend Ranch State Park, and convinced the ranger at the visitor's center to let us use their phone to call.  The state park claimed they had plenty of space, but it would be a 1.5 hour drive west from the basin to reach the campsites and we could not reserve over the phone.  We opted to go with this plan, and went to serve lunch.

After lunch, the participants really wanted to go to the hot springs down by Rio Grande Village.  We knew this might make it difficult to get a camp spot at Big Bend Ranch State Park, but we decided to just go with it.  I dropped my car off at the hot springs and went to double check that there was indeed no space at the Rio Grande Village group site.  The sites were all empty, but all reserved, so we could not take any of them.  They looked nice and grassy though.  When I returned to the hot springs, everyone except Brad and one participant were waiting in the parking lot.  Apparently they had not seen Brad and the participant since they left the hot springs!  After waiting in the parking lot for 15 minutes, I began to worry and sent Cade and another participant to look for them.  About 30 minutes later, I finally saw Brad and the participant climbing down a hill!  I was relived but angry - it was selfish and irresponsible for Brad to leave the group and disappear for 45 minutes.

Once we were all in the Suburbans and ready to go, we drove the two hours to Lajitas and self-registered at Big Bend Ranch State Park since they closed at 4pm.  Then we drove onward to the Grassy Banks primitive camp.  There was one area where water was running across the road at a depth of 6 inches (according to the pole by the road).  I hesitated, but having seen two other vehicles just cross safely, I went for it and crossed without issue.  Once at the camp, we were relieved to find many open spots.  We claimed spots 5 and 6, and set up camp.  As we were cooking quesadillas for dinner, we were treated to yet another great sunset.  After dinner many of us stayed up playing cards and enjoying the stars.  Staying at Big Bend Ranch State Park for the last night ended up working out perfectly!

The next morning we awoke at 7am and cooked pancakes for breakfast.  Everyone got as many as they wanted, but there were none left at the end.  The strawberry jam worked surprisingly well on the pancakes.  Cade had fun manning the grill, and ended up making cute Mickey Mouse pancakes at the end.  We left our site at 9:30am and reached the Big Bend Ranch visitor center in Lajitas to pay just before 10am.  After paying, we were off towards Austin!

The drive home was uneventful.  We ended up arriving back in Austin at 6:30pm.  Brad, Cade and I dealt with some of the gear, and agreed to meet on Tuesday to finish repacking, cleaning, and putting everything away.

The evaluations for our trip were good.  Lots of positive comments, and no real negative comments - the only ones were (1) serve more pasta and (2) reserve campsites.

As a guide, I feel like although I did a lot of things right.  Some specifics are:

• The participants really felt the trip was theirs and seemed very happy with how it turned out.
• Keeping the participants informed about our schedule.
• Meals were adequately sized (except for the last dinner, which was a feast).
• Going over the plan for the next day during dinner works well, since everyone is naturally together during that time.  Likewise, reviewing the plan for the day at breakfast also works.

However, I do have some things to improve on as well as some things I would do differently in the future:

• Reserve campsites early if going on a holiday weekend.  If state park or national park group sites, reserve online.  If primitive, reserve all of them ASAP upon arrival.
• Do a better job critiquing new / less experience guides.  I dislike confrontation, so I had trouble talking to Brad about his actions / lack of actions that I had an issue with.  Being a good lead guide is not just about how you plan a trip and interact with the participants, it is also about how you mentor the other guides, and I need to improve in that aspect.
• Implement interviews at the pre-trip to determine ability, and then assign particular gear piles to particular people based on ability.
• Make an active effort to learn names ASAP.  On this trip I really struggled with names, and when this was discovered on day 3, a few people got rather upset that I did not know their names.

Overall, this trip was really enjoyable for me.  In many ways, it was a walk down memory lane through parts of my guide school experience.  I was also happy with how I was able to carry so much weight without it really killing me like it did during the Thanksgiving 2014 trip to Guadalupe Mountains.  The trip was executed well, and the problems we did have ended up being minor in the full scheme of the trip.  I look forward to leading more trips, and to getting back to Big Bend at some point to do more backpacking (either on the Outer Mountain Loop or in the Mesa de Anguila).

Guide School Day 14: Emory Peak Hike

Today Sebastian and I were leaders of the day!

I woke up at 5:35am.  I wore my clothing for the day to bed the night before, so not much preparation was needed to be ready for the day.  I got my daypack completely ready before waking everyone up at 6am.  Countdowns for events and expectation were stressed throughout guide school, so I tried to give them throughout the day - starting by noting 30 minutes until breakfast when I woke them.

We ate breakfast - tortillas with peanut butter, dried fruit, Nutella, ect as well as leftover bagels and oatmeal - at 6:30am.  I had a bagel and two packets of instant oatmeal, as I wanted to be on top of my game, and I knew snacks and lunch might be somewhat sparse.  I mixed some red Poweraide into my water too.

We had our safety talk and day overview at 7:30am - this was also the time at which we had asked for everything to be bear-proofed.  I did the introduction, Sebastian led the warm up and stretches, I went over the general plans for the day, Sebastian presented the weather (which I had smartly found on a bulletin board near the bathhouse in the camp ground), I discussed trail etiquette and potential hazards, and Sebastian mentioned Leave No Trace considerations.  Under Leave No Trace, we decided to break our group of 16 into two groups of 8.  We said one group would leave in about 5 minutes and would take a more relaxed pace to the top of Emory Peak.  The other group would finish bear proofing and cleaning up the camp site and leave in about 25 minutes.

My group - Emily, Jakub, Zack, Hannah, Tessa, Ellie, and Manuel - left first.  We drove to the trail head and began hiking at 8:06am.  I originally was first and Jakub last, but my pace was a bit too fast.  I slowed down, but still had some trouble getting the pace right.  Emily suggested that I ask someone of moderate speed to set the pace, and suggested Ellie.  Hence, at the next water break, I asked Ellie to go first and set the pace, with me following right behind.  We chatted about favorite trails and our trips to Turkey as we climbed.  We stopped for short 2-5 minute water, snack, and pee breaks about every 0.8 miles.  Manuel had a GPS, which made this mileage goal between breaks easy to measure.

 Me showing the group what we would be hiking on a map at the trail head (photo by Hannah).

Tessa was struggling a bit to keep up and was cold during a break, so I suggested that she start a bit earlier than the group.  In hind sight, this was a mistake for two reasons: (1) she learned that she liked not having anyone around and (2) she ended up being out of sight too often, which was bad especially in bear and mountain lion country.

This Mexican Jay was very interested in our snacks at a rest break (photo by Manuel)

Nearing the top of the Pinnacles trail with my group (photo by Manuel)

We reached the Emory Peak turn-off, and stopped to take a short break and put our lunch foods in the bear box (since we planned to eat lunch when we returned).  The other group caught up to us, and we all decided to walk the last 1.5 miles to the Emory Peak summit together.  However, the other group wanted a 5-10 minute break first.  As I was talking with the other group, I saw Tessa starting to walk up the trail to Emory Peak.  I felt I was left with no choice but to follow her, as I could not stop her and I did not want her to be on the trail alone.  Much of my group followed, which left us breaking our agreement with the other group to summit together.

Tessa was out of sight again, and neither Emily nor I was thrilled.  Emily said I needed to have the tough conversation with Tessa that she couldn't keep walking this far away from us.  However, when we caught up to her at one point, we agreed to stop for a water break, but she hurried away when we stopped.  I eventually caught up to her again, and told her that walking that far ahead was not an option.  I proposed multiple valid options - like her walking with Jakub or myself ahead or behind our group.  She eventually agreed that we could trail her closely, but she seemed despondent and angry with me.  I was at a loss of what to do besides trail her closely, with the group moving slowly behind me.  When we reached the rock scramble before the summit, she sat down and did not want to go to the top.  I stayed with her for a bit with Jakub, but when the second group appeared I led them to the top.  I was at a complete loss for how to handle the situation, but felt sure I should be doing something different.

View from the Emory Peak trail (photo by Manuel)

 My group on the Emory Peak trail (photo by Manuel)

Most of the ladies at the Emory Peak summit (photo by Hannah).

Group picture at the Emory Peak summit (photo by Manuel).

Me near the Emory Peak summit (photo by Hannah).

View of the basin from Emory Peak (photo by Manuel)

After taking pictures and enjoying the summit, we all walked casually back to the split point and our food left in the bear boxes.  We had lunch together, and then split into two groups based on who wanted to leave now and who wanted to leave later.  Sebastian went with the now group, and I finished eating and carried the remaining food and trash with the later group.  Chris took Tessa with him, and I went with Jakub, Hannah, Manuel, Sarah B, and Zack.  I opted to walk in the back, as did Jakub, as I figured I could see the group and the trail was obvious and the same trail we came up on.  However, the group kept getting farther and farther ahead of Jakub and I (since we are both slow on downhills), until we eventually lost them.  We never caught them, and were physically unable to safely go any faster.  I felt like this was a failure as a guide, but no one else seemed to think this.  Chris and Jakub knew (since Jakub was with me and we caught up to Chris and Tessa on the trail), but I guess they were okay with it and I guess the four people in that group were also okay with it.  As Jakub and I walked down, we talked about our different PhD programs, job searches after PhDs, and defenses.  Jakub had just defended his thesis in December.

People were shopping in the general store and the ranger station when we came down at 2:16pm.  We had hiked a total of 9.26 miles.  I hopped in the first suburban to leave for camp, and told everyone they had 10 minutes to change before we left for the hot springs.  Then we drove about 45 minutes to the hot springs near Rio Grande village.  We saw some petroglyphs on the short hike to the hot springs.  The hot springs were empty when we arrived, and they felt good.  Many in our group enjoyed jumping into the cold river from the hot springs.  Brenden and Manuel even swam down river a bit.  We all had fun relaxing and chilling.  By the time we left, about 10 other people (9 men and 1 woman) had arrived.  Most of the girls were in sports bras and shorts or bikini bottoms - which was fine with our group but seemed kind of awkward with all these random men.

All of us relaxing in the hot springs (photo by Manuel)

(L->R) Sebastian, me, Ellie, Hannah, and Sara B sitting on the ledge to the hot springs with our feet in the river (photo by Jakub).

Then we happily walked back to the cars and drove back to camp.  The other car, which was driven by Sean and contained most of the girls plus Sebastian, was having a pretty humorous dance party ahead of us.  We had fun watching them bob around as we drove back to camp.

We took about 10 minutes to change out of our wet clothing, and then headed to the lodge for dinner.  Chris had walked up to the restaurant the night before so they were expecting us and were able to quickly handle all 16 of us at one table.  Some people went out all, getting the $22 duck special and dessert and/or the $6 soup and salad add-on.  I opted for a simple turkey burger and fries.  It was tasty and we all enjoyed just relaxing and being together.

After dinner, we went back to camp and met for the leader of the day debrief.  Sebastian and I both got a lot of positive feedback and no negative feedback.  I personally got the following feedback:

• I was confident and decisive when answering questions
• I was well-informed and knowledgeable about the hike
• I gave good countdowns, especially the humorous but useful 30 second countdowns during hiking breaks
• I was receptive to altering pace, and was smart to use Ellie to pace our uphill group
• Ellie said she enjoyed chatting with me on the uphill climb, and said she felt like I was accessible and was leading without trying (I agree - leading today did feel natural)
• I had a 'motherly' feel to my leadership - I did a good job looking after people and caring for them during the hike
• They liked the friendly/funny reminder the night before: 'This is your friendly leader of the day reminding you to pack your daypack tonight'
• They liked the happy tone of my wake-up

The four guides did not have much to say during the debrief.  Emily said on the uphill hike, as I was not sure what to do about Tessa, that she thought I was doing a good job.  Chris said that he thought we did a great job, and thought that the 6:30am breakfast ended up working on nicely.  We seemed to be the first group of the day to the Emory Peak summit (a guy who arrived after us seemed surprised that he was not first).

Chris talked shortly after the leader of the day debrief about the next steps.  Trips usually have 2-3 paid guides and then can have some volunteer guides as space permits that do not get paid but also do not have to pay to go on the trip.  Volunteering on a trip is a good opportunity to gain experience guiding as well as to gain experience in an area that you want to strengthen (like canoeing, climbing, kayaking, ect for me).  Volunteering at their outreach activities will help you gain priority on trips.  They also have some staff trips, and we can plan scout trips for potential new trips (they pay for everything except food, and will provide us a suburban and gas). We can volunteer until we get our wilderness first aid or wilderness first responder certification, at which point we can get paid if we are one of the trip leaders.

We packed up everything except for tents, sleeping bags, and pads (sleeping in what we planned to wear the next day), and repacked the box trailer.  Then I went to sleep.  I listened to Brenden play guitar for a while, as well as listened to some people talking outside the tent, as I contemplated the entire epic experience.

Guide School Day 13: Gourmet Gamp to the Chisos Basin

Today Sara B and Manuel were the designated leaders of the day.  The guides let us sleep an hour later today, waking at 7am instead of 6am.  This facilitated the campfire time the night before, which was great bonding time for us.

We had toasted bagels for breakfast, which was great with butter.  I ate at least two, as I was pretty hungry after the quesadillas came up a little short in quantity the previous night.

Sean taught me how to steer today.  His teaching style matched my learning style nicely, and he's just generally a great person.  Definitely a role model for me in how he acts on the river and in camp.  Sean taught me the various strokes and then coached me through when to use them.  He was a great person for me to be paired with, and I'm very appreciative of his patience and great attitude throughout the entire trip.

We stopped at Fern Canyon after paddling for about 1 mile.  We were supposed to take a hike into the canyon.  We started to change into hiking boots, but stopped when we learned that we would be hiking through knee deep water and mud.

Chris and Jakub paddled ahead to make sure the cars and keys had reached the take-out point as planned.  We thought Chris had said to hike left to the rock wall before entering the canyon to avoid knee-deep mud, but this led only to dead ends.  We finally backtracked and found a way to the canyon entrance, but this took about 30 minutes.

Many people in our group thought we should just leave since we already used 30 minutes (and the leaders of the day claimed we were only scheduled to spend 45 minutes at Fern Canyon), and the first scramble would require us to crawl on our stomachs through the dirt under a ledge next to a muddy pool.  The consensus seemed to be that we could either spend more time to explore Fern Canyon now or do the Window Trail in the Chisos Basin that night.

The leaders of the day decided to put it to a vote, but Sean and I insisted on making points before the vote.  Sean noted that the Window trail is a front-country trail that can be done in '6 minutes' whereas this was a back-country trail.  People objected that the Window trail would take more than '6 minutes' and lost the point.  Billy then said something that supported not exploring Fern Canyon, but I do not remember what it was.  And then I said what Sean later said he meant: The Window Trail is a front-country trail that can be done any time you come to Big Bend, whereas it will take a canoe and time to be able to explore Fern Canyon on a future trip.

We then took a vote -  7 people voted to do Fern Canyon, 2 people voted not to do Fern Canyon, and the remaining 5 people abstained.  Emily, Billy, and Tessa opted not to go into the canyon and instead stayed with the canoes.  I was super excited about exploring the canyon, and scampered 3rd (after Brenden and Sebastian) under the ledge next to the muddy pond.  It was a tight squeeze and then we had to climb up a smooth, narrow space between two rocks.  Brenden gave me a hand up, which helped a lot.  Both Brenden and Sean were great in the canyon.  There were a lot of rock scrambles in the canyon - and my river shoes did not provide a reassuring amount of traction.

Tight squeeze under a ledge by a muddy pool at the entrance (photo by Manuel).

Sebastian next to the ferns near the mouth of Fern Canyon (photo by Sara B).

At one point it seemed like we had to bolder up a rock face, but I froze about halfway up.  I told Brenden this and both he and Sean came over to help coach me.  Brenden originally encouraged me to downclimb, but Sean encouraged me to climb up as he felt it would be safer and easier for me.  Brenden spotted me from below and Sean coached me up and gave me a hand through the toughest part (but told me not to pull if I fell, as then I would pull him down since he didn't have a great hand hold!).  They both helped me find good hand holds and foot holds to get out of the uncomfortable situation.  We soon realized that this was the part of the canyon that Chris had meant when he said there was a section where you could either do a sketchy rock scramble or an easy climb thorough a tunnel and up a water fall.  Sean later apologized for pushing me past my comfort zone, but that he felt going up was ultimately going to be the safest decision for me.

Sebastian and Hannah exploring in Fern Canyon (photo by Sara B).

Exploring in Fern Canyon (photo by Manuel)

Sebastian and Ellie dealing with some tricky footing as Brenden helps (photo by Manuel).

After this, we scrambled around the canyon for a while.  Way too quickly, it was time to go back.  I led the way out with Ellie, and had a blast going down the water fall, through the tunnel, and finally down the last scramble to drop down before crawling my way out.  By this point, we were so muddy!  But I was so happy.  This was my favorite part of the trip besides Joel's Canyon.

I was so muddy after exiting Fern Canyon (photo by Manuel)

Once everyone was out of the canyon, we snacked and then took off.  I was still steering, but doing much better now.  I made a few poor decisions -  one caused us to slam into a wall shot, another caused us to get stuck on gravel (Sean had to hop out and push us), and yet another caused the front of the canoe (and Sean!) to run straight into a river cane thicket.  However, Sean was so patient and encouraging the whole time - such a great canoe partner!

Nearing the exit of Santa Elena canyon (photo by Manuel)

As we exited the canyon, we saw our first tourists hiking the short Santa Elana trail.  It was definitely strange to see other humans, and to have to consider how our behavior might affect them (be it singing, telling jokes, or peeing behind bushes).

Group picture near the canyon exit (photo by Manuel).

Now pretend you actually like each other (photo by Manuel)

Sean and I were the first to reach the take-out point.  We quickly unloaded all the canoes and then carried them up to the canoe trailer.  Then we ate lunch and loaded into the suburbans to go to the Chisos Basin - somehow ahead of schedule even though we spent extra time at Fern Canyon.

Sean and I approaching the take out point.  Note our flag (aka spare paddle). (photo by Jakub)

Once in the Chisos Basin, we found two non-reserved sites next to each other at the Chisos Basin campground.  I'm not sure why Chris did not know there were group sites.  Then about 10 of us went to hike the Window Trail for 2 hours while the other 6 put up three tents and cooked dinner.  Brenden cooked a delicious potato soup with bunches of left over food, like almonds, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, ect.

The Window Trail was disappointing to me.  The actual window was not that cool, and I was bothered by all the cement brought in to make a trail near the actual window.  We then took another tail to see an overview of the window, which was cooler.  However, this left us to hike about 1.5 miles back in the dark with headlamps, which is pretty much one of my worst nightmares.  Even with the headlamp, depth perception is still poor and hence hiking is difficult.  Jakub was hiking slow too, so we hiked back together although the rest of the group was hurrying ahead of us.  At least Sara B was kind enough to not push us to hurry.

Hiking towards the window on the Window Trail (photo by Manuel)

 

Group picture of the group that hiked to the window (photo by Manuel)

Once at camp, we ate dinner, bear proofed everything (which was surprisingly time consuming), and had the leader of the day debrief.  I do not remember what was said about Sara B and Manuel, as I was nervously anticipating my upcoming leader of the day status.

Sebastian and I decided to have breakfast the next morning at 6:30am instead of 7am, but still have people wake up at 6am (since we would not have to pack-up our camp).  After meeting with the 4 guides to get briefed on the upcoming day, we sat and talked about our schedule for tomorrow, our safety talk, and how we wanted to organize the hike.