Month of November 2024
by Nick
Posted on December 1, 2024
I feel like I have a lot to write about for this month but am having difficulty summarizing everything. Maybe i'll take some time to write some more focussed posts on what is going on and what I am working on. I seem to go through these phases where it feels like my mind is going a mile a minute and there are so many things that I want to do that I end up dropping the ball on things that are important to me. It would be nice if everytime that I sat down to write something it had a nice tidy conclusion but unfortunately that is not the way things work. It is something that stops me from writing regularly. The things that I am inspired to write about are often things that I am struggling with and I don't have a clear answer for or conclusion to. I am trying to make sense of these things and find the correct path forward.
Week of the 4th - Went to Big Bend Ranch State Park with JaredWe got our first big snow of the winter. We ended up having a snow days Wednesday and Thursday. Mitch and I went sledding on Thursday. I left Friday morning to go meet Jared Proegler at Big Bend Ranch State Park. I took the Prius and had to dig it out due to the large amount of snow that we had received the days prior. I hit pretty heavy snow on the roads on HWY 285 between Santa Fe and roswell. The road was actually blocked leaving Santa Fe. I watched them move the barricade out of the way opening it up. In Clines Corners there was a truck blocking the highway going south that had tried to pull into the store and had gotten stuck. South of Clines corners the road was pretty sketchy I felt a little unsafe at times in the Prius but I had taken all of my winter gear camping and also had my inreach GPS communicator which gave me some comfort. I ended up making it through fine minus the lost hour or so that I spent sitting in clines corners waiting on the stuck truck to clear and having to drive slow due to the snow covering the roads in areas. In hindsight I should have checked the road conditions and taken the interstate. Google maps had navigated me that direction, im surprised the maps did not take into consideration road closures, maybe it's a New Mexico thing. On the drive I listened to a few podcasts notably Martyrmade my response to the mob. And My First Million episode 646 Christina Cacioppo. One thing that I would like to work on is better tracking the valuable points and lessons that I learn from a podcast. The way I think about it is if it is something that I would like to remember forever. I would like to have a better system for tracking these things and reviewing them.
On my way to the park I passed through Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It had some awesome geological formations and interesting plant life. It looked like it would be a cool place to spend a few days, maybe for a future trip. I stopped in Fort Stockton to get food for camping and gas. The route that I was on took me through Marfa and I was wondering what the timing would be like to see the Marfa lights and it turned out I would be going through at 7:30 pm just about the perfect time to see the lights. The viewing area was about 15 minutes out of the way, but who knows the next time that I would be going through that area at night so I decided to take the detour. I pulled up to the viewing area after the sun had set and there was just a hint of sunlight, nautical twilight im thinking (according to google this is when you can just see the horizon but also the stars). There were roughly 20 people or so there when I walked up. I brought my binoculars so that I could get a better look. There are some pictures below that show somewhat how it looked. In person it looked like a reflection of headlights. They had the same sort of color ranging from bluish white to yellowish white with also some dark red ones. There is no road where lights occur but there is one ontop of the mesa behind where you see the lights and there is also a pretty busy road behind the viewing area. If I were to guess I think it is probably some sort of mirage effect where headlights and taillights are being reflected toward the viewing area. Looking through my binoculars it looked like taillights were moving across the cliff face. It was so far though you couldnt see these with the naked eye. I left the viewing area after 20 mins or so headed back toward Marfa and the remaining two hours or so to the campground that Jared had reserved.
I got to the campsite a little after 10 PM. The route that I had chosen to go was like 40 miles along the Rio Grande between Presidio and Lajitas with spotty cell service. I probably would have chosen to go the other way since it seemed possible that I could stumble across some cartel activity in the middle of nowhere that I would rather avoid. I passed one border patrol truck along the way but otherwise there wasn't any issues. I was a little freaked out on that stretch of the drive to be honest. When I arrived at the ranger station I was relieved because I thought the campground was in the park a little further away from the border but it turned out the campsite was actually on the Rio grande which I had driven by. We stayed at Grassy Banks Campground which I initially drove past on my way to the Lajitas ranger station which was irritating considering the time of night. I just had a bad feeling about staying in a secluded area right on the border like it was. When I arrived there were a few other campers at the site which was a bit of a relief. I set my tent up and Jared showed up around 30 minutes later. We ate dinner and caught up for 30 minutes or so then went to bed.
The following morning I slept in till 930 or so and then we ate breakfast and walked around the campsite. We decided to move down a few campsites after realizing that there were better options in the light of day and then decided to go for a drive to Terlingua. We stopped by the Lajitas ranger station and got a map and some recommendations for what to do in the park. Jared was interested in mountain bike and hiking trails. When we were on the way out I asked about needing to buy firewood or if we could gather it in the campground expecting the answer to be no. The park ranger said in an elevated tone “no you will get a big fine doing that”. Clearly I was asking so I avoided that which I made sure to mention. Just a strange interaction that I felt added some context to the kind of weird place that the area is. It's not like she was busy either just maybe an opportunity for her to flex some authority being that she was in the station? I assume power tripping park rangers is a thing. After leaving the ranger station for Terlingua we sat on the patio and ate at the High Sierra Bar and Grill. I had chili and a burger, Jared had a chicken burrito. There was a sign that said Terlingua was the home of the chili cookoff so I had to try it. Evidently Terlingua is the home of the chili cookoff which I read somewhere as we were waiting to be seated. We sat under the covered patio with a couple of other tables. The vibe was a bit grimy and half finished with a waitress that likely had some sort of addiction problem but she was nice. That was honestly how most of the town felt. Terlingua reminded me of a crappy beach town with a thinly veiled drug problem but no water if I had to try and describe it. But with a fair amount of Austin type hipsters milling about on vacation. We didnt have firm plans for what we wanted to do while we were there. We then went to the Terlingua Trading Company where I bought some souvenirs. There were some rental jeeps at the place next door to where we ate lunch and that seemed like a fun thing to do the following day. We then went to the grocery store in Terlingua and bought some firewood so we could have a campfire without getting a big fine. It was a little early as we drove up to camp so we decided to hike down Closed Canyon trail which was a pretty neat thing to see although it is incredible to think about the timeframes that sort of thing would require considering how arid the landscape is. That evening we sat around the campfire, made some dinner and drank beer. I just had backpacking meals but Jared had brought some better food. He made some raviolis and pesto. The fire burned out around 9 and we went to bed early.
The following day we got up around 7 and made some coffee. We went and picked up the Jeep in Terlingua. The lady that was renting the Jeep was an interesting person. She was roughly 5’4 had long white hair and was wearing a colorful ankle length skirt. She had a heavy west-texas country accent and tattoos. She seemed a little bit of a country woman with a hippie side. She had spiral tattoos on the palms of her hand. We were going to the state park which she was surprised to hear. She mentioned that there were wild longhorns in the state park that she used to ride horses to round up the longhorns. We looked for the longhorns but never ended up seeing them. We drove the jeep back through Lajitas and around through the ranch state park. We drove up to the Sauceda ranger station and stopped at a hiking trail that ended in a spring called Ojito Aldentro which was pretty cool out in the desert. We stopped at the ranger station that was closed but there were public bathrooms where we decided to take showers. It was probably just after noon at this point and we decided to eat lunch and then started heading back. The park is incredibly remote and we probably drove for 2-3 hours getting to the ranger station and only passed maybe 3 cars. Jared was considering taking his Subaru WRX into the park for backcountry camping and mountain biking after I left but it was pretty clearly too rough to be taking anything other than an SUV. On the way out we found a jeep trail to drive that took us near elephant peak. We spooked a covey of quail along the trail also. Most of the other driving that we did was on maintained park roads. We wouldn't have been able to make it in our cars though so the Jeep was worth it. We returned the Jeep and headed back to camp. After dropping the jeep off we decided to go to the Terlingua Starlight Theatre Restaurant and had some great cocktails and steaks. Definitely recommended to anyone who is going through Terlingua. That night we didn't have a campfire and I went ahead and packed up so I could leave early the next morning. I hit the road at 5 and made it back home around 1 Monday afternoon.
Week of the 11th
The following week was a bit of a rough one. In all that was going on with the trip I forgot to buy Tiff anything for our anniversary. That in addition to going hunting over our anniversary the year prior and an argument that we had gotten into about a work trip that I was going to take led to some major reflection on my part for the next couple of weeks. I feel like I haven't been giving Tiff the support and appreciation that she deserves and I intend to do better.
Week of the 18th
Steve and I went turkey hunting Saturday the 23rd. We went to the same place that we we had gone back in september and saw turkeys but didnt end up seeing anything this time. It seems like it may have boon too cold and that they had moved to lower elevation. We then went to Los Ojos in Jemez springs for lunch then drove forest road 10 looking for turkeys but didnt see anything.
Week of the 25th
For Thanksgiving Beach and Halley came up. We also had Steve over and Ryan, Hannah and their kids. I made a prime rib and Ryan brought oveer a turkey that he had killed a couple of weeks before. We had a good time and ate good. The following day we went down Santa Fe and walked around the Plaza. We then went to Tesuque Market for dinner. I ordered the chorizo chili rolleno which was phenomenal.
Pictures
