Faces of Texas

. . .

. . .

"One second. My whole life changed."

.

- Abdul Saleem, owner of a convenience store called The Panther Pit, talking about the death of his son. Abdul had had a successful wholesale business in Pakistan but left everything behind when a local doctor told him his son needed treatment outside of the country. He brought his son to the United States for medical treatment, but shortly after arriving his son died. With a few thousand dollars in pocket money, he remade his life here, refusing to return to a country and a life that would remind him of his son.

.

Saint Jo, Texas

. . .

. . .

"It's mainly just remembering to feed him and run him on the weekends."

.

- Twelve-year-old Austyn J., a Clay County Junior Livestock Show 2nd & 3rd place winner, on the secret of his success. I ran into Austyn in the animal corral section which was situated behind a large auditorium filled with people. He was in line to show his animal up front where locals and business owners would bid a premium on the animals, the proceeds of which went directly to the animal raiser.

.

Henrietta, Texas

. . .
. . .

"That's him! The guy on the front page of the paper!"

.
- Couchsurfing host Katrina Morgan pointing me out to other customers in a convenience store. Katrina and her roommate hosted me for two days, introducing me to friends and giving me much-appreciated access to a computer. When I learned that a local interview had been published, Katrina and I went to a nearby store to pick up a copy. Katrina's excitement at seeing the story on the front page rose to an unanticipated level.
.
Wichita Falls, Texas

. . .
. . .

"I came here as a little girl with my father. I remember thinking how much fun it would be to rollerskate on the second floor. For some reason he didn't think too much of my idea."
.

- Gayle Cleghorn, library assistant at the Tom Burnett Memorial Library in Iowa Park, on an early experience with the building. The library is a beautiful two-story renovated home in the center of an entire city block sharing the land with only two other buildings, all of which had belonged to Tom Burnett. The building was later donated to the city for the explicit purpose of being the library.
.

Iowa Park, Texas
. . .
. . .

"I had my husband dig out the barbecue pit from the snow and set it up in the laundry room, so I could make Christmas Eve supper."

.

- Ardis Jensen with husband Roger on how they handled the blizzard that hit North Texas around Christmas 2009. The snow came down so heavily it eventually led authorities to close down a stretch of the highway. Many travelers had to spend the night in their vehicles, arriving on or after Christmas to their destinations. Several inches came down and power went down in parts of the entire Wichita Falls and surrounding area. Undeterred, Ardis employed a very Texan solution to address the problem.

.

Iowa Park, Texas

. . .
. . .

"I thought it'd be real casual. Maybe a customer or two.

I'd make their food. We'd talk."

.

- Kerry Pruitt, owner of K&R Kitchen in Quanah, on his expectations before the business opened. Both he and his dad were laid off from the oil industry and decided to try their chances in food service. On the first day, there were so many people that the wait was upwards of an hour. Kerry and his family treated me to a steak dinner after they heard I was passing through town. It was the best steak I've ever had. The restaurant was busy, and I watched Kerry bouncing from table to table like the General Lee on the dirt roads of Hazzard. What's more, he still made time to talk.

.

Quanah, Texas

. . .
. . .

"Every town is 30 miles away. It's the distance a wagon could do in a day.

At least, that's what the old-timers say."

.

- William Reece Manuel, convenience store owner, on the layout of the land. When I first came in, he said, "It's our highway skier," a reference to my use of hiking sticks. Right off, Reece told me that he wasn't put off by my pack and that he knew I was out here hiking on purpose. This understanding gave way to a great conversation that ranged from the local economy to local history. We chatted for over an hour.

.

Estelline, Texas

. . .
. . .

"We're as local as you can get."

.

- Dale Redd, owner of the This "N" That convenience store, to me when I expressed an interest in shopping local. His store contained a wide variety of things from glass collectibles to hot Mexican candy. I bought graham crackers.

.

Turkey, Texas

. . .
. . .

"Here, everybody knows everybody, and they all look out for each other. That's why we stayed."

.

- Marsha Valdez, manager of the Turkey Hotel, on the advantages of small town life. I stayed at the hotel which was built in 1927 and hung out mainly with her father-in-law Albert who sent me on my way back to the Caprock Canyons Trailway with a sack lunch of biscuits, sausage, and bacon.

.

Turkey, Texas

. . .
. . .

"People have asked me about encounters with wolves and what it is really like, and I have answered honestly that it is an unique experience but the sort of thing that gets less surprising each time."

.

- Charles Goodnight on his experiences in the wild. Often referred to as the "father of the Texas Panhandle," he was a legend in his own time and the inspiration for Captain Call in Lonesome Dove. Goodnight managed the JA Ranch, part of which later became Caprock Canyons State Park.

.

Quitaque, Texas

. . .
. . .

In the News...

I got interviewed in Galveston quite a while ago and wasn't aware the interview was net-accessible until now. I have a couple of good quotes, but then there is a completely bizarre statement (See if you can find it!). Though I can't remember saying it, I can't deny that I said it either. I really hope it was just an error. Click here for the interview and a couple of pictures.



I submitted another article last week which papers have just been publishing. There's a picture of a collapsed tarp, too! Click here for the whole thing, published by The Lone Star Iconoclast.



And that's the news!



Until next time...

The Caprock Canyons Trailway

(The Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway's office is located at 850 Caprock Canyons State Park Road, Quitaque, TX 79255. Their number is 806-455-1492, and the current park manager is named Donald Beard. While I am a volunteer at Caprock Canyons, I do not speak for Caprock Canyons. The story below represents my thoughts, actions, opinions alone. Before planning a trip, please consult the park office for prices, instructions, and advice.)

. . .

When I first read the phrase "Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway," I naturally imagined that the trailway was within the park's boundaries. Not so.

.

There are in effect TWO state parks, both under the Caprock Canyons label. One of these parks is 15,000 acres in size and located three miles north of Quitaque (pronounced KID-UH-KWAY). The other is a 64-mile long rails-to-trails path extending from Estelline to South Plains, with several access points along the way. I used the latter to reach the main park.

.

As the trip to Caprock Canyons was a rather long detour away from the Texas perimeter, I was grateful for the 64-mile reprieve from the roads. While the trailway does run close to some roads and crosses several properties due to the path that the old train tracks took, I felt I was walking across the land in virtual privacy and away from the lights of civilization.

.

The Caprock Canyons Trailway is divided up into several doable segments, though hikers can do whatever mileage suits their abilities and temperament. I did the following schedule for no particular reason, though knowing what I do now about the location of landmarks, water availability, and the location of the state park, I would probably do things a little differently in the future.

.

Every trail segment has a name, and every access point has a name. To simplify matters, I'm omitting the trail segment names and using exclusively the access points as reference points, followed by how many miles I did that day.

.

Estelline Terminal: Camped near start (Day 155).

Parnell Station: Camped just before I got here, about 10 miles (Day 156).

Tampico Siding: Camped three miles beyond this point, about 15 miles (Day 157).

Turkey Depot: Stayed in Turkey at the Turkey Hotel, about 7 miles (Day 158).

Quitaque East: Camped at Caprock Canyons State Park, about 10 miles (Day 159).

Quitaque Depot, Monk's Crossing, South Plains Terminal: Got dropped off at QD and picked up at SPT, about 22 miles (Day 162).

.

These are the basics. Of course, I'd never leave you with just the basics.

.

At Estelline, I had a really nice conversation with the owner of one of the two stores there. He told me how to find the trailway (it's just north of town, outside the city limits), and we chatted about his workers, the changes in the economy, his girlfriend, my project, and life in general.

.

Then he tells me this: "You passed Kirkland back there, right? That's where the Texas Chainsaw Massacre took place." He didn't know much beyond that, and our conversation drifted back to more pleasant topics for the rest of the evening.

.

I stayed there for over an hour. I had arrived in Estelline at night (not my usual M.O., but that's what I did) and left the store around 9 pm. After a few minutes, I got to the northern end of the trailway at Estelline Terminal and looked around. There was a huge empty parking lot covered in snow. I was relieved not to see any other footprints across the parking lot, but then I got to thinking that I was leaving tracks everywhere, a nifty easy-to-follow trail for the weekend chainsaw enthusiast.

. . .

Estelline Terminal at Night, Day 155

. . .

I had been talking with Annie up until the entrance, but when we hung up, I realized how quiet everything was. So quiet. Maybe the occasional car off in the distance. Then quiet. Then the crunch of my steps. I look behind me. Still quiet. Then an imagined sound. I stop. More quiet. I crunch again, I stop. Only quiet.

.

(While the picture above may make it look like it wasn't so bad, the one below is much closer to what I was actually seeing.)

. . .

Estelline Terminal Kiosk, Day 155

. . .

I was freaked out. I started looking for a place to camp, hoping a little shut-eye might calm me down. When I found a latrine by the side of the trail, I didn't think twice about what to do: I went inside, locked the door, and broke camp right next to the crapper.

.

The next day, I woke up in one piece and never looked back.
. . .

Mile Marker 238, Day 156

. . .

My subsequent days on the trail held nothing of the self-created fear of that first night. I passed trees and brush covered in snow and ice, lots of critters who just wouldn't stay still for a photo (at least, not after I made a move for the camera), farm land, and of course, the canyons.

. . .

'W' is for 'Whistle!', Day 159
. . .
At first, I thought all the 'W' signs I saw were water spots (I didn't see this particular 'W' sign above until a few days later, but they were all over the trail). Water is not available along the trail during the winter time. Since the weather was freezing, I simply didn't pack any water. I drank back in Estelline and figured I'd muscle my way to Turkey or Quitaque for a refill. The idea itself wasn't terrible given the mildness of the winter sun, but I hadn't counted on the difficulty of hiking in the snow.
.
The first day out was really tiring. Though I had eaten a few snacks, I chalked the fatigue up to the lack of water. And every time I saw one of these 'W' signs, I swore at the summertime hikers who had it so easy. I later learned, however, that the 'W' signs were reminders to the train conductors that the train was approaching a public crossing and that they needed to blow the whistle as a warning.
. . .

Icicles, Day 156

. . .

During the next three days, I took to eating icicles. It takes a lot of icicles to make even a few ounces of water, but I would patiently pop them off plants or trees and crunch away. I'd think how easy it would have been to pack a little water and sleep with it in my sleeping bag to keep it from freezing. Then I'd pop some more icicles.

.

I saw wild pigs all throughout my first few days and saw where they had rooted up the earth even more. I thought they were nocturnal, but I saw them during the day wandering around in packs. These guys are everywhere.

.

What came as a real surprise was camping near a turkey roost. I heard all the turkeys going up into some nearby trees at night, then coming down the next morning. I camped about a quarter mile before Parnell Station. There were well over a hundred wild turkeys, and in the morning, they gobbled and swooped down just ten yards away from my spot.
. . .

Mile Markers 255, Day 157

. . .

I was eating peanuts and bread and icicles, and in spite of the snow and dreary sky, I really put some effort into the second day. These mile markers do wonders for the psyche, as they are posted every mile. The big signs are the old train signs; the smaller ones belong to the state park. I'd see one or the other the entire time and gauge my progress accordingly.
. . .

Canyons!, Day 157

. . .

The land had been mostly farmland with tree groves along the way. Then beautiful snow crusted canyons appeared from nowhere. The sight invigorated me. I had read about how the Comanches would escape into the canyons of the Texas Panhandle for decades and winter there to escape the winds. I tried to imagine the tepees clumped together on the canyon floor, wisps of smoke rising into the sky. I wish I could have been there. Though I was more than a century late, walking through the land made me feel that I had connected with that distant past just a little bit.
. . .

Farmland!, Day 157

. . .
While I would have preferred diving into the canyons, I knew the trailway continued along more farmland. With the snow, many of the fields took on a strange psychedelic look, whimsical even.

. . .

Redberry Juniper, Day 157

. . .

The small details as well as the large were stunning in all of the snow and ice. As Redberry Junipers (or Pinchot Junipers) started becoming more numerous, I noticed that the ice froze differently on them and tended to make large clumps instead of icicles because of the shape of their leaves. This affected me because, while pretty and different, I couldn't eat the ice as easily.

.

Luckily, I pulled into Turkey, Texas not long after. I sat down to a meal at the only open restaurant in town, Galvan's, and had a big Mexican platter with lots of water. Later, as I was leaving town, I got lured into the Turkey Hotel which is just a few blocks from the trailway. I got quoted a great price, breakfast included, and just went with it.
. . .

Wilddeath?, Day 159

. . .

As I was hiking into Quitaque, I stumbled upon this hog skull. This is no 'akunamatata' animal. While most of the live ones I saw ran away from me, a hungry hog is something to stay away from. The farmers and rangers out here are sick and tired of these guys. It's the same story all over Texas. They cause a ton of damage and are very hard to control.
. . .

The Plains, Day 162

. . .

I made it to Caprock and holed up for a few days. During that time, it rained and snowed and was generally cold. When the sun finally made a cameo, I dashed through the rest of the trailway, all twenty-two miles of it.
. . .

Los Lingos Bridge, Day 162

. . .
This is the longest bridge on the trailway. I was cruising and stopped only to take a quick picture.

. . .

An Ephemeral Trail, Day 162

. . .

. . .

Bat Tunnel, Day 162

. . .

During the summer, the Clarity Tunnel, shown above, attracts many visitors to see the exodus of a large group of Mexican Free-Tailed bats. The bats migrate during the winter, so I was left going through a 580 foot tunnel with the smell of guano in my nose. They say smell is directly associated with taste, but at that moment, I didn't want to think about it.
. . .

The Light at the End of the Tunnel, Day 162

. . .

The Clarity Tunnel is not that long, but it felt like I couldn't finish it fast enough. My eyes were dilating and adjusting, and I couldn't see if anything was along the sides of the tunnels. Someone could have been standing next to a wall, and I wouldn't have seen them.
. . .

Wide Open, Day 162

. . .
. . .

South Plains Terminal, Day 162

. . .

My Caprock Canyons supervisor Karen Lanier was nice enough to pick me up at the end of the trailway. She took this shot of my glorious finish.

.

The Caprock Canyons Trailway was a wonderful way to spend a few days. If you plan well, you can cruise through all 64 miles with relative ease. The grade never varies from 2% (because of the old train regulations), and the most difficulty I had hiking was from the snow and mud. It's a great trail for getting away from the hubbub of city life and allows for ample sight-seeing and learning.

.

(Don't make my same mistakes! You can get food and water in Estelline (at the store before 9pm), Turkey (convenience store, hotel, restaurant durign business hours), and Quitaque (in town or at the park). Hotel accomodations are available in Turkey (Turkey Hotel: 806/423-1733) which is the halfway point.)
. . .

Until next time, trail walkers...

In the News..., Next Mail Drop & Caprock Canyons State Park

I am currently in Turkey, Texas (I love saying that!). I have hiked about 32 miles of the Caprock Canyon Trailway (click to see it), a rails-to-trails route from Estelline to South Plains. More on that in an upcoming post.

Here's a little something that came out in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times a day or so ago. I want to make one change, though: I never wrote that Sam Bass had robbed a bank in my mom's home town in Mexico. The sentence was not supposed to be written with those last two words "in Mexico." It's a tricky sentence because I wanted to say he had robbed a bank in her home town but to show somehow that neither she nor my grandparents had been living there or even alive for that matter. Sam Bass didn't wave adios to my grandmother, but he left his mark on the town nonetheless. It's a minor point in the story, but I just wanted to correct it. Click here for the column.

My next mail drop is officially in Higgins, Texas (You see? It's not as much fun as saying "Turkey, Texas."). However, I'll be volunteering at the park. I probably won't reach Higgins until some time during the first two weeks in March. Still, if you're curious how, here's the address:

S.Matt Read
c/o General Delivery
116 N. Main St.
Higgins, TX 79046-9803
***PLEASE HOLD FOR PERIMETER HIKER***
***EST. ARRIVAL: MARCH 20, 2010*** (It's a good idea to allow for more time.)

I am very very close to Caprock Canyons (the main part of it; click to read more)! I'm excited. I've been told some ideas about what I'll be doing there, but it will all be made plain to me in a day or so. And I will definitely be posting more from there.

Until next time...

Childress, Texas

Childress is white. White sky, white roads, white everything. What was walkable terrain yesterday is now likely a lot of ice, and that means finally using my Yak Traks. The Weather Channel has predicted flurries from the system moving through the region, and from the looks of the day, they're probably correct.

Night before last, I camped in this weather. I wanted to know what it was like to be in an ice storm. The day had been in the 60s and 70s, and when the weather's good, it's hard to feel anything but confident. While nothing much happened, this is obviously a dangerous attitude to have.

I rigged my tarp up between two bushes and staked the corners. This worked fine until the wind started blowing hard. After about an hour of trying to manage this from the inside of the tarp, I got up, didn't bother putting on pants, put my shoes on with no socks, and tackled the problem from the outside. Had it been raining, I wouldn't have been so careless, but the temperature was probably still 40s at this point and not unbearably cold. I made several new stakes and made sure there was something in every grommet. This, I felt, would do the job.

While I was working, I could feel the temperature dropping. Some people are naturals at knowing about what the temperature is, and while I've never been good at this, I've gotten a lot better on this trip. Five degrees can make a world of difference. I hurried my work, then got back in my sleeping bag and tarp before the rain started. I was dry and warm, and while I would remain such during the night and morning, things started to go very very wrong.

I got a few hours of sleep before a corner of my tarp whipping back and forth in the wind woke me up. I was a little frustrated. How many stakes would this job take? I wondered. As the night wore on, more and more stakes started coming out due to this strong wind. I would put them back in, albeit in a different spot where the ground wasn't loose, and weigh them down with my shoes. Fifteen minutes later, I'd have to repeat the process. I could've started a farm for all the tilling I'd done.

During all of this, not much of my stuff had gotten wet. I was still warm, dry, and in good spirits. My tarp structure had been reduced to junk, but I had not. When the sky turned from dark to white, I ate some ash bread I had made the night before and snacked on some trail mix. Whether you're home by the fire or in the middle of nowhere, life seems pretty good when you're eating homemade bread.

Then my body started churning. The party was over. I knew that sooner or later I would have to go out in the storm.

So I changed positions and procrastinated as long as I could. Trains went by in the background, likely carrying several nice bathroom facilities with them. The wind and rain continued like an inexhaustible orchestra. One last gurgle, and I got dressed.

From the outside, I could see what had happened. The freezing rain had coated everything with an ever-increasing layer of ice. The ice had weighed down the mesquite bushes I had tied my tarp to. This created slack in my tarp which the wind started blowing into like a kite. And that's why the stakes kept coming up.

My tarp was almost completely collapsed. While I had enjoyed a certain measure of warmth and dryness from the inside, I'm not sure how much longer it would have lasted. The side of my tarp had accumulated lots of water and hail, which was turning into a huge slab of solid ice, and after I had done my personal business, my rain gear was a little wet too. I decided to hoof it.

The rest you can guess. It was a long fifteen or sixteen miles to Childress, though I walked fast. My gloves and shoes, which both had claimed to be waterproof, were not. My hands which at one point had started to heat up, lost all their warmth and started to go numb. I took off the gloves, put my poles on my pack, and stuck my hands in my jacket. I could feel the water in my shoes, but because I was walking, my feet generated enough heat to be okay.

Perhaps the most important thing I did was an assessment every twenty minutes or so. I'd go through each of my body parts and say how cold or warm they were and whether this was an improvement or not from the previous assessment. Then I'd assess my spirits, my will to continue. While my levels of warmth fluctuated due to weather or gear, my overall attitude never faltered.

I made it to Childress. Half the city lacked power, so I continued until I found a motel with the lights on. When I took my pack off and looked at myself, I found ice all over me. When signing my name, I lacked the finger dexterity to make it look like my signature.

From all I've heard, I'd say it was an appropriate introduction to the Texas Panhandle.

Until next time...

Quanah, Texas

I am in Quanah, Texas, by far the best-named town in Texas. Taking its named from the last great Comanche chief Quanah Parker (son of Cynthia Ann Parker, a frontier woman captured and taken in by the Comanches), Quanah pays tribute to its namesake via a local museum, memorial, and the local football team (as I was coming in to town a sign read "YOU'RE IN INDIAN TERRITORY").

(Short biographical note: Quanah Parker was a leader of the Comanches during the difficult transition years (as a warrior chief before 1875 and afterwards as well, when the Comanches surrendered and agreed to live on the reservations). He had the foresight to understand that the survival of their race depended on their cooperation with the whites.)

Today, I walked in to Quanah a stranger, but thanks to the Tribune Chief's newspaper manager Carol Whitmire and the Chamber of Commerce's Executive Secretary Bertha Woods, I will not be treated as such. After being tipped off by Mrs. Whitmire, Mrs. Woods met me at the library with an invitation to stay at the local Best Western and a meal out at a local establishment, both compliments of the city. In addition (what there's more?), I received a cap, a shirt, a postcard, and a paper describing the history of the town and personalities. Incredible!

A big thank you goes out to these women. I'm still in shock. I'll tour Quanah a bit more tomorrow, then head off into the sunset and the bad weather that is supposedly on its way. By then, I'll be thick on food and thin on adventure, so everything should balance out just fine.

Until next time...

In The News... and Some Silly Photos

My couchsurfing hosts in Wichita Falls Katrina and Christina deserve a standing ovation for how much they helped me out. It didn't stop at a couple of nights' sleep on a couch won on The Price Is Right. Oh no. Katrina went ahead and contacted her friend Katie who is a TV reporter for the local NBC affiliate in Wichita Falls. Click here for the news clip. Crazy!

.

Now I'm in Quanah, and the folks here deserve their own post for how hospitable they've been. So I'll keep that a temporary surprise and tide you over with some silly photos. Enjoy!

. . .

. . .

I've always wanted to take a picture like this!

. . .

. . .

My mom sent me some mittens which I picked up at the Quanah Post Office. By my mom's admission, the thumbs were "a little long." A little long? In each of these photos, I'm making a fist with each hand! My thumb barely even touches the thumb sleeve! I look different enough as it is; now they're going to pick me up for hitchhiking!
. . .
. . .

Is it a red cactus? A pac-man ghost with a question?

What Rocky wears in the off-season?

. . .
. . .

This is obscene, really. Even though nothing's exposed, if I wore these as is, I'd turn myself in. I give up! My mom made me do it! Forgive me Lord for I have sinned!

. . .
. . .

A shot only Wayne and Garth could be proud of. One thing's for sure: you haven't really given a winter thumb's up until you've worn these babies.

. . .

. . .
Hope you had a good laugh. Keep reading!

.

Until next time, my sillies...