Go West old man!: Terlingua & Hiking Big Bend

Late last night we heard a loud hiss coming from my parked truck. Yup, a tire leaking air. I wiggled the valve steam and it got worse, wiggled again and it stopped. “DO NOT TOUCH IT AGAIN”. I walked around to the office & gas station and got the number of a local tire guy. Left a message for today. He didn’t open until noon but got right to me. It’s a home business, he has a garage in his back yard where he does tire repair. 7 days/week. Only takes Saturday morning off. I guess all the backcountry roads must keep him busy. I had just enough air left to drive it over there, 1.2 miles. In a half hour all’s well and I’m off. We headed up to the park and went hiking. I’ll get to that in a moment. Coming back we see 4 young women parked awkwardly in a random spot, waving. I pull over, park, put on the flashers and my red light (how often do I get to use my red light in another state!). Sure enough, they had a flat and were just getting to work and not entirely sure how to go about it. None of them had changed a tire before. They had all the tools and a mini spare. I just coached them through it, for the most part. I helped here & there, used my 4 way lug wrench when their short handle wrench just wasn’t enough. In a half hour we were all on our way. They are all in college in San Angelo TX, where we camped at the store lot 2 nights ago. Hopefully that’s my allotment of flat tires for this year!

For this afternoon’s hike we did the Tuff Canyon trail. It’s about 30 miles into the park. The trail goes down onto the floor of the canyon and runs maybe a half mile before you get to a place you can’t climb up. Or in our case, I was not sure how we’d climb back down. When we got back to the top and looked down at that spot we were glad we stopped. It was only 200 yards to a really big wall.

Back at camp we took Skye out for a walk. Being a National Park we can’t take her on any trails. So she stays in the camper. With the AC if it is a warm day. That’s why we camp in Terlingua, with power, water, sewer, and TIRE Service nearby!

After our supper we celebrated Skye’s first Birthday with a hamburger & candle! She was impressed!

Tuff Canyon hike