Category: Journeys
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Once Upon a Time in Big Bend
It seems that the most interesting feelings on spending thirty days in a tent occur on the first days home. With Boss in the driveway, packed full of soaking wet tent and dirt encrusted gear from our last two nights in a rainforest on the Florida panhandle, we sit on a cushy sofa in a…
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FBG BFD
The stretch of road on 17 between Davis Mountain and the I-10 entrance in Balmorhea is a fingerling wonderland. Rocks outcroppings shaped like the potatoes, stacked one on top of another, stretching high to the sky and long on the land; kind of like the hoodoos but in contemporary impressionistic sort of way. But once…
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Brand it: MARFA
In the West Texas region, MARFA is the reigning brand ambassador. We’ve been fortunate enough to pass through the area three times, five years ago in Betty, two in Roxie, and now in Trango. Like Air Jordans to basketball, Coca Cola to soft drinks, or Disney World to amusement parks, we have watched the progression…
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Alpine Marathon
It was 29 degrees last night and the review of the new Trango 4 tent by Mountain Hardwear is in. The Trango 4 is professional level tenting. You can tell immediately when you pull on a sturdy zipper. The material quality is tough. The design shouts experienced outdoorsman. And, when it is 29 degrees outside…
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Tenacious Fort D
There’s a West Texas Tri-County Triangle of Big Bend country in Fort Davis, Marfa and Alpine, with a Marathon extension. About 30 driving miles separate them from one another but they’re worlds apart in size and vibe. Marfa is an art mecca. Alpine is the largest town and county seat. Fort Davis is tenaciously trying…
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Slow Down in the Big Bend
We’re tech addicts. When there are no bars we’re in withdrawal and when there’s wifi we’re high. When the phone goes missing, we panic. When the battery hits the red zone we scramble for charge. We are dependent on it for directions, information, reviews and pictures. Technology poses as a helpful friend ready to make…
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Viva Terlingua!
Most all of its 125 residents and Big Bend neighbors donned their date nite duds to party at the Boathouse and raise money for local folks in need of a helping hand. Spirits were high and flowing to bluegrass and honky tonk bands while minglers bid on auction items and caught up on doings around…
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Ghost Town Tales
Alice Knight will be the first to tell you that no one is from Terlingua, TX. They all came here from somewhere else and forgot how to leave. Alice came in 1979 when she purchased 5 acres fronting the only paved road in the area for $5,000. She’s been making art and going through husbands…
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Rincon Squatters
California desert last spring, Hi Line last fall, Big Bend this winter. The evolution of 30 days in a tent continues; embracing a nomadic experience of ever nuttier excursions. Leaving progress with the express purpose to regress. To live primitive, away from unnecessary but relied upon conveniences. To find areas (in the lower 48) where…
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Shivering under the Guale Sky
Fresh off of a bunkhouse slumber, we were ready to take on the Guale expedition. Squeezing in one last Top Chef episode in the commercial kitchen before Sheri packed her knives to go, we ate all of the eggs that cracked in the cooler, posted a blog on the world’s slowest but surprising-to-have-any-at-all Texas Park…