Epic Biking and the Mule Throws a Shoe

On Thursday, 2/16, Rog joined the hordes attending the mountain bike festival and rode a portion of the 60-mile Big Bend Ranch State Park “Epic” ride. He started at the East Contrabando Trailhead and road about 20 miles of the designated route. He had a great time and I always feel better knowing there are other riders on the trail. The portion he rode took him past several old ruins, in addition to ranching, there were several old cinnabar mines in the area. They extracted mercury which was in demand for explosives, especially during WWI. The last cinnabar mine closed in the early 70’s. 

The “Contrabando” moniker is a nod to the history of smuggling in this area. The rugged terrain was a favorite of the “contrabandistas” in the early 1900’s. Rum was brought over from Mexico during prohibition and candelillia wax was also smuggled in from Mexico in the 1930’s to avoid high tariffs. Hmmmm… will history repeat itself?

Ruins and teeny, tiny mountain bikers in the distance. 

"You are here."   Lol.

Interesting stuff to explore along the trail.

Rugged terrain is right.  The area is full of hidden ravines, perfect for contabandistas! Lol. 

On Friday we drove the CRV to the Sauceda Ranch Visitor’s Center. That sounds a lot easier than it actually is. The turnoff for Sauceda Ranch is about 40 miles away and then you drive another 27 miles of gravel road to get the visitor’s center. The draw for us was a whole slew of hiking trails. Usually our little CRV mule follows docilely behind the RV, hauls our toys, and does the occasional grocery run, but here it gets to be the star of the show. Lol. Given the distances and uncertain roads, we'd miss a lot without it.

The first hike we did was Ojito Adentro, a short trail that lead to a spring and seasonal waterfall. You can tell where the larger springs are by the groves of cottonwood trees tucked into the ravines. Interestingly enough, winter is the dry season here so while we found a lovely pool, there was no waterfall.

Quite the change of pace from the dry, scrubby desert!

The trail is hidden behind this giant snag...

... and we had to squeeze between boulders ...

... but the pool at the end was well worth it!

The second hike we did was a 5-mile roundtrip trek to the Fresno Canyon Rim Overlook. This was a great hike that wound up and down and around desert mesas with a gorgeous payoff – it ended at a 700-foot cliff overlooking Fresno Canyon with great views of the flatirons of the Solitario. The Solitario is one of the signature landscape features of the park, almost 10 miles across and nearly symmetrical, it is a collapsed and eroded volcanic dome. The southwest rim is made up of distinctive inverted V-shaped rocks called flatirons.

Trail marker pointing towards the flatirons.

Up one hill and...

... down another. Lol.

Great views all along the trail.

Solitario and flatirons from the Fresno Overlook.

Not very hospitable, but still beautiful.

Close up of the flatirons.

Still happy campers!

The road to/from the Fresno Canyon trailhead was sketchy, while it was rated for high clearance 2WD, some spots were washed out and pretty rough. The CRV was hanging in there, at least until the poor mule threw a shoe. We abandoned our plan to do another short hike when the tire pressure idiot light came on. Rog checked and everything looked ok, maybe the sensor just got rattled and damaged. (Hey, we could hope!)  We drive a few more miles and he checks again. Dang. Rear passenger tire is nearly flat. He puts on the spare and we hobble towards Presidio, the closest town. As soon as I get any cell service I start hunting for a tire place and manage to locate one, but by now it’s 5pm on Friday and they are rolling up the sidewalks. The repair place agrees to wait for us for which we were extremely grateful. We pull in around 5:30pm and luckily the tire was repairable, so 15 minutes and $20 later we are good to go.  Yeah!

Well, maybe not such a happy camper at the moment. Poor little mule threw a shoe.

Our plans for Saturday include a visit to the Terlingua ghost town and a farmer’s market. Here's hoping the mule doesn't go lame again. :)