Big Bend update

The last week or so has been most interesting. We took a needed break from our training at Big Bend and drove to San Antonio to spend a few days with the Hubbards, friends from more than just a few years back.
Ed was my boss back in my Vietnam days. Had a great visit which included a Louisiana style shrimp boil.
We did get into downtown San Antonio and spent some time in the morning on a boat tour on the river walk. Very enjoyable.

The drive back to Big Bend was also nice and we stopped to load up on groceries. Our closest store from where we live in Big Bend is about 70 miles so we must take any chance to get groceries especially perishable goods like milk, bread, fruits, and vegetables. Milk at the local “stop and shop” store is $5.50/gallon.

As volunteers at Big Bend, we get to spend one day doing nearly anything and counting the time we spend as volunteer time.
Hiking the 200 miles of trails in the park counts and that fits well with us. Each hike we take increases our familiarity with the park and enables us to help park visitors. We also wear our uniforms when hiking which shows official presence. Big Bend has way too few full time rangers to adequately patrol the park. We hiked a 7 mile out and back to Dog Canyon and Devils Den.
Flat terrain made this a relatively easy hike until we started to bushwack (leave the trail and go cross country) in search of devils Den. The rocky, cactus covered mountains are not an easy walk but we find considerable satisfaction in seeing the many different types of cactus, an occasional lizard, or unique fossils or geologic formations. On occasion we get to see larger wildlife. We have high hopes of seeing the occasionally sighted mountain lion or black bear while we are here. No cats or bears this time but we did walk up on two small herds of Big Horn Mountain Sheep.
The first was a herd of males near the mouth of Dog Canyon. What a magnificent animal they are. The second herd was three ewes each with a yearling. Seeing the sheep made for a great outing.

We spend three days a week manning the Visitor Center at Persimmon Gap. I think in time we will get to enjoy helping park visitors from this remote location but the extremely inadequate training makes this tour of duty far from an enjoyable one. I think that once we figure out how to do what we need to do and finally figure out what the expectations are we will probably enjoy ourselves more. The training we got to familiarize ourselves with Big Bend was exceptional and better than any we have been exposed to anywhere but the training for our on-the-job duties is not even marginally acceptable. We finished up our first week at the Visitor Center and were glad it was over. We are essentially teaching ourselves and I expect next week will probably be a little more fun. I sure hope so.