Big Bend: Homer Ranch to Juniper Canyon

I had a pretty fitful night sleep last night. I felt like I was radiating warmth until well after midnight and this kept me more or less awake. Finally around 2:30am I think I fell asleep. The late sleep time correlated well with the late wake-up time..... 6:30am. I apparently just ignored the 6:00 alarm. No matter. I was still packed up by 7:15. Since we still needed to pick up our cached water, I left early to make two trips to the bear box and bring the water down to the ranch (then a 3rd trip to get a waypoint.... oops! I forgot my GPS in my pack the first two trips). After filling up my own water and getting ready to go I waited a little while for Michel and Patrick to arrive but I was expecting them to come a little late because Michel's tent was still up when I left camp.

We finally got started on the Dodson Trail at 8:20. Unfortunately, a little too late to avoid much of the heat of the sun. About 1.5 miles in, Michel decided to throw in the towel. It turned out to be a really good choice but Patrick and I were still sad to see him leave. He will be hiking to the road at Homer Ranch and then plans to hitchhike to the car.


I say is was good that Michel left because today was much hotter, drier and harder than we had expected. Patrick and I averaged around 1 mile/hour (including breaks and lunch). We took frequent breaks (every 45 min or 1-1.5 miles). It was hard to find shade but when we did we would throw down our packs and catch some rest. The hope was to keep the body temperature down and prevent exhaustion. In the end we were exhausted anyway but we made it at 6:00pm. The first thing we did was lay down and try to get our body temperatures to normal.


During the hike we saw a dead skunk, a snake (pink/orange body and about 5 feet long), and believe it or not... about 4 white tailed deer near Dodson Spring. The highlight was easily the Fresno Creek (near Elephant Tusk trailhead). We were lucky to find a trickling stream of water. We sought out pools to cool ourselves off by dipping our clothes in it and we even collected some water. The was the recharge we needed and I worry what the afternoon would have been like without that oasis.

(Patrick)

The Dodson Trail was easily the most desolate, rugged 10 miles I have ever walked. It is amazing that anything lives out there!

Tonight we are camping in Juniper Canyon 2 campground (technically a car campsite). We plan on getting up early to hit the trail before 6:00am. Tomorrow is a 8.5 miles (3200ft) hike up the Juniper Canyon Trail.


I thought about Soren and Sy today because I saw the moon and remembered last week how Soren kept asking me to sing him a song about the moon. I don't know any songs about the moon! After telling him that a few times, Sy came in the room and made one up on the spot! Impressive. He one up-ed his Dad!