Desert Rat's Xmas in the Basin
The days began to blend together. It wasn't long before I lost track of days. Sense of time was quickly shed once I was on the road heading down there. One time when stopping to fill up the Sherpa's gas tank at the local store in Study Butte, I asked someone inside what day it was. She smiled and shrugged: "
Don't know! And don't really care." I empathized remembering the many days in the woods of Maine that bore no name or numerical date. Many days and weeks over several years were seamless, punctuated only by the sun and moon or weather changes.
I found myself subconsciously slipping back into that mode of timelessness. There, it is called '
Terlingua Time'. It is quite comfortable and I can adapt to that quickly. Whereas most people used to living in the city can't seem to. I tried to explain this to one of my fellow riders that lives in the city. I think he understood, but I caught him unconsciously stuck in the expectations and constraints of 'city time'. People don't hurry down there; there's no need to. So don't expect them to, especially for your sake.
After the others returned from breakfast I was reminded that it was Christmas Day. That had mixed responses from me. My family is elsewhere, I live alone and I'm not religious. Thus I don't subscribe much to everyone else's expectations and observations of that holiday. I've been known to go off somewhere alone, such as the Oregon coast or the woods, and enjoy my own solitude. It was my present to myself.
This year's present was to ride up to the Chisos Basin alone and take it all in unhindered, on my own time. Gearing up, packing camera and water in the tail bag on the Sherpa, a book to read and my journal, I was ready to roll out. The others had their own plans and I rode part way to the park with Ed who had decided to do a similar solitary ride.
Passing the empty park station at the west entry, I rode the now familiar Maverick Road to the Basin junction. There I began the seven-mile drive to the Chisos Basin. The road winds up through Green Gulch to Panther Pass, then descends down into a basin within the Chisos Mountains. The bottom of the wide canyon which the road dissects is shrouded with green vegetation in contrast to the relatively barren desert floor.
Shortly after the road junction desert plants typical of the Chihuahuan Desert mingle with woodland plants such as pinyon pine, oaks and junipers. The road is like a magical mystery tour: cacti and succulents growing under pines and junipers, sparse grasses filling in holes on the canyon floor. On each side and in front are massive jagged stone ridges, their bottom skirts bejeweled with green trees to contrast the colorful and stark stone cliffs.
It reminded me of a scene in the
Lord of the Rings movie where the Ents, a race of giant trees, befriend the hobbits. And more appropriately, the Rockman in Harry Nilsson's
The Point. Rockman attempts to explain to Oblio, banished because he lacks a pointy head, that simply because one does not have an apparent or visible point (on the top of their head) they are not in fact pointless. (the moral of the story is "The point of The Point is that everything has a point, even if that point is to be pointless.")
No, the giant stone cliffs didn't talk to me, but their whispers of grandeur could not be ignored.
Green Gulch was heavily grazed by sheep and goats raised by ranchers in the 1930's and early 1940's. Overgrazing and several years of severe drought in the '40's and 70's nearly denuded the lower canyon. The toll on the oaks and pine was devastating. Return of normal rainfall and protection against domestic grazing have allowed mountain vegetation to gallantly recover. Because of the more protected terrain and cooler micro-climate in the Chisos high-country, the canyon has fared better than lowland areas of the park which suffered the same fate of overgrazing, farming and drought.
Switchbacks wind up to Panther Pass, the highest point on the road: 5,679 feet above sea level. Because of the extraordinary micro-climate of the Chisos it is a biological island in the Chihuahan Desert. A few plant and bird species can be found only in this special biological habitat. I was too overwhelmed at absorbing everything on a grand scale to really observe the small details like birds and other little creatures. '
I guess I'll have to come back again; and again', I thought, smiling.
I pulled off the road and stopped to just turn around in a complete circle and absorb the vistas. Like a cyborg on reconnaissance, I even used the camera's zoom to check out details on the cliffs.
When confronted with the warning sign for bear and mountain lion, I paused to wonder. Cougar? Panther? Puma? Panther is the zoological term for any big cat, but
Panthera is the genus name for leopard and jaguar. Or do they mean the jaguarundi, a smaller cousin of the cougar which roams southern Texas and Central America? No matter; watch out for big cats.
I would have liked to spot a Mexican gray wolf, but they were hunted to extinction generations ago. The icing on the cake would have been a black panther, or shall we say 'black mountain lion' (cougar). Any large cat can be black, or white. Many generations ago black panthers, all jaguars, roamed the southern stretches of the US. Natural changes in habitat and encroaching humans chased them south into the jungles or they were hunted for their hides. Black pigmented hair, melanism, is more common in jaguars (a dominant gene) than the other cats. But black cougars have been documented in this country (my sister and BiL saw one in NY). Like the mythical white buffalo, a black cougar would be a treat to see.
Finally reaching the ridge of the Basin, I stopped to admire the vistas below and around me. What a sight! I was on the rim of a big ancient giant bowl! Surrounded by rockmen!
Look closely at the winding road here: (wheeeeeeee!!!!!!!)
By that time my stomach was growling. A bowl of cobbler with ice cream and a tall sweaty glass of iced tea were swimming in front of my eyes. I rode down into upper basin to the lodge where the parking lot was full. I would have thought people had better things to do on Xmas day than be at the Lodge!
I found a buddy to park the Sherpa next to: a baby blue BMW with a side car. It was an older model but was in excellent shape.
Sitting outside on the deck I ate apple cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream and enjoyed a glass of iced tea. It was sunny and warm and the most beautiful day to do whatever I wanted. And I did. I basked in it all. Smiling.
Self-portrait:
Ed joined me later on while I was sipping a coffee; the warm sun made me sleepy and I wanted a jolt to stay awake for the ride back to camp. We geared up and headed back. The Basin and Maverick Roads melted away under our wheels and we arrived back in time to join in the holiday meal festivities.
Ed made cornbread and David, the Camp Chef Extraordinaire, fried a turkey. The dinner was outstanding!! Feasting in chairs outside we decided to wait a while before desert: Dutch over Black Forest Cobbler. Steve and Clayton had picked up ice cream earlier in the day, so it was all complete.
The center of action:
Camp Chef Extraordinaire, David:
Hardy and a masterpiece:
Topped it all off with a few glasses of Desert Antifreeze around the campfire and I would say, in all, it was a heck of a good day.
Near the end of the day I felt like I had missed something all day. I did; I hadn't ridden any desert dirt other than Roger's road and I felt like someone had yanked a lollypop out of my mouth.
The next day would make up for that: Pinto Canyon Road.
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Now to do further recon on status. Guess I need to make a run up to the Terlingua lodge...........
Too funny! I have often voiced the same fantasy, along with the flash drive I can insert into my brain and remove. (I 'compose' many essays/posts/etc in my head when riding)
I have a voice recorder (Olympus DS-2000) that can be set for voice activation or push to talk. It is about 3/8" thick, about 1-1/2" wide and maybe 4" long. If you get the right mic for it, you could easily have this sitting in a pocket while riding. I tried it at one time by hooking it into my communicator mic but that just did not work well. I was trying to make it so that I could hear myself in the earphones while speaking (like your phone). I found that not being able to hear yourself really messes with your head because you are never sure if the voice activation has kicked in 
Back when I had time to explore roads when I was looking for good tour routes, I kept it in my tankbag where I could get to it real quick. I would note the road numbers, my thoughts about the road, etc,... Then I downloaded all that to my PC so I could have an archive for later reference when planning trips.
I have not used it for several years but it still works. I just put fresh batteries in it to make sure. I use rechargeable batteries in it normally though (AAA). Batteries last a LONG time. There is a 3V DC socket in the side of it if you find the right size adapter. It is yours (TS) if you want it.
What did you do.......?
PM me a shipping address and I'll get it to you.
