I was thinking about this one part of our visit to Inks Lake that, in retrospect, was the best part. The path to the Gneiss Oak cache turned into rock face at a certain point, and just followed along the lower edge of a hill. On the way back, J went all the way up that rock hill, billy goat style. Then, he gestured for me to join him. I was a little nervous about my bum leg, but I followed him anyway.
Then we just stood still for a while and listened to the wind. Watched the rocks. J was scanning the area with his binoculars, looking for interesting things. I was thinking about a Texas version of that cliche saying, “get lost, find yourself”. I was wondering what part of me would I find in this quiet moment in nature.
Then we found a half-naked woman.
She was across the water from us, on a different trail. We contemplated if she was hot. Kinda. That was our cue to get up. It broke the spell.
As we were walking down, we saw a little cactus growing out of the side of the rock. J marveled at this, and I told him about an article I read in Texas Highways on the way up here about a Bed and Breakfast near Big Bend that does paleontology tours, and the owner of the establishment marveled at very similar things.
“Life finds a way,” the owner had said. And that seemed so profound on this morning hike.
And then we saw the half-naked chick coming up the trail. We asked her how she got across the water, and she told us what trail to take. And we realized she was probably like eighteen and so we felt a little dirty for checking her out. But, in our defense, she was hiking in the hill country in practically a bikini. I just have one word for that: Cacti!
