Geocaching – Page 6 – State of Wilderness

Fulshear Afternoon

We went out west this afternoon.

It’s been a long time coming, this latest trip to Fulshear. We hid some geocaches out there in 2012, and a few of them haven’t been found in a while. One of the things on my list that I wanted to do when I recovered from my leg injury was this very trip: cache maintenance, exploration, and a little cache finding.

The kids didn’t want to leave the house but we didn’t care. I did try to sweeten the trip with a stop at Essence House II for cookies and drinks before we started our journey in earnest, though. Once they got outside, they had a good time. The following are their portraits of outdoor play near the Brazos River bank:

This area is one of TPWD’s canoe launch sites they built in late 2011. I have yet to see the canoe launches they built out here show up on an actual paddling trail listing on the TPWD website, but this place does seem to be popular with people wanting to fish, play in the river, and shoot guns. The boys almost always find 12 gauge shotgun shells down here when we go.

In the top picture, the fishermen on top of the bridge support had just walked up there – that was not possible last time we were down here. The waters have receded a lot. You can see the pile of branches on the supports showing the level the water had been at before. We have been to this canoe launch quite a few times, although never to actually launch a canoe. There are a lot of trails that go on past where we have our cache hidden. Someday, we might hide more. I let the boys explore a little within eyesight of me, but the inclines on the trails were too great for me to follow them right now, being just a week and a half post leg surgery. I still have stitches in my leg and barely can handle any distance or terrain changes for the moment.

After this, we headed to the other canoe launch out here, about 3.4 miles away. For people who don’t canoe, we sure seem to spend a lot of time at the launches. We were here to check on another cache, named for a Sasquatch story a cop told us out here. It is also the site where a cross marker lay in remembrance of two people who were murdered near here and whose bodies were found in the river.

Today, there was another body out here, although we are fairly certain from the shape it was animal in origin, and not a human. We noticed it when we parked, a brown roundish lump laying on the ground in between the parking spot and the cache site, not 20 feet from the cross. We thought it was a dead deer, but when we got closer, we realized the brown color came from the blanket that was thrown over it. There were maggots crawling on the blanket, and when my oldest son (foolishly) threw a small rock at the decomposing body, you could see the ripples underneath of what certainly was a huge colony of maggots making work of this carcass. It started to smell and we were disgusted and walked away, none of us having the guts to lift the blanket and see what was underneath. From the body shape, we suspect it was a large dog, or perhaps a pig or other small livestock. This picture of the kids sitting on the culvert just to the right of this disturbing find.

Ew. After this, we were going to head for a small series of caches we have hidden on a country road about 6 miles east, but we decided to take a scenic backroad diversion to get there and then ran out of time. Instead, we found a shady country road that might be ripe for a new cache series (although the nearby residents that we saw outside their homes were causing us to question this choice – it seemed like sort of a rough area – it had a “Deliverance” meets South Africa kind of feel to it, with unfriendly eyes and condemned shacks – which was a surprise because the road backed up to a very nice high end neighborhood).

So we drove back up to the main road (1093) and then entered the neighborhood of Fulbrook and found a couple of caches there. Here is my log entry for one I particularly enjoyed:

JustKeely found Rocky Trail

I really enjoyed this cache, it was everything I like about caching. It was a short, scenic walk from parking, and we saw a blue heron and a great white egret in the pond. While signing the cache log, we saw some striking red, purple, and white flowers, as well as an interesting looking beetle. We saw a spider web with a small black spider with a white back on the walk back, and then we heard some bird just going at it, so we looked around to identify them. The smallest of our boys said it was probably a boy and girl boy talking to each other, and even though he got in trouble for talking so loudly and potentially scaring them off, he did appear to be right. Team Four Paw was also right when he speculated about it being woodpeckers. Two red bellied woodpeckers were getting into it, chasing each other around and tweeting. Well, on second thought, maybe it was two males and not a male and female – maybe they were fighting over territory or something. It was neat to see though. Thanks for the fun little outdoors experience for the day.

These are some of the flowers I saw. Took me a while to identify these flowers because I am not that good at it, but I finally found it: Turks cap, or Malvaviscus drummondii. Here is another shot of them up against a tree.

Too bad I didn’t get a picture of the woodpeckers. I did get one of the beetle we saw, but it is not in focus. The spider web would have been cool, but was too hard to try to capture with my cell phone camera.

I think the boys had fun, even though they were quite happy to be headed home after this. I feel good about finally maintaining my caches, and about getting out of the house. Hopefully, after I get my stitches out, my leg will actually heal up with no more problems and I can start hiking again.

Hill Country Highways: Burnet, Durn it! Episode 1

Over the weekend, we headed out to Burnet, Texas for a weekend getaway. This was a trip that ended in adventure, education, and eventual disappointment.

First off, I will admit that originally I was mispronouncing the name of this town. I was telling my “sisters” about the trip I had planned there, and Stevie Muree corrected my mistake. She told me a funny story about being interviewed on the radio, in which she told a story about being recognized as the rock star that she is, in Burnet, of all places…only she also said the name wrong. The DJs went quiet, shook their heads, and set her straight, and she vowed to never make that mistake again, even to the point of putting a bumper sticker on her guitar case to remind her that it’s “Burnet, Durn it!” (can’t you learn it? is the rest of the expression).

We came to Burnet with a single purpose, which I will eventually explain. However, we had a whole day to kill. We decided to spend it geocaching at Inks Lake State Park, checking out the caves at Longhorn Caverns State Park, and tasting some Texas wines at Perissos vineyards. We also soaked up the sun dipping our sweaty bodies in Lake Buchanan after a long day of being out in the hot Texas sun.

I had never been to Inks Lake SP myself, actually, but had intended to go there on an ill-fated trip back during the Spring Break of 2007. That is a story for another day, but suffice to say, I never made it there, since my vehicle was totaled in Luling and our trip had been cut short. J had been there once for a Texas Challenge years ago but hadn’t explored the park hardly at all.

We were a little mystified at first at how to access the trails we wanted to hike on, but we figured it out after burning some time driving through the park. You could get a start on the trail from the camping area, but it would be a much longer hike than parking at the trail head outside the park proper.

We had a great time hiking around the Pecan Flats area, grabbing the TPWD 2013 Geocaching Challenge cache and another cache called Pecan Flat. There were some cactus hazards, though. During the hunt for the first cache, there were these small tubular cacti that kept getting caught on my legs, leaving little spines that I continued to rub across for the next twenty four hours. The second cache involved crossing a whole field of prickly pear. I tried to avoid them by going a different way than J to the cache, only to end up brushing against stinging nettles and then whining about it until I got some cream on those spots. Nothing turns me into a bigger baby than stinging nettles! Scenes from this hike:
After this, we went across the road to the trail on the other side, grabbing TSP 4 – Gniess Oak and Rocky Top. At this point, we had been out there for about two and a half hours, and were both starting to get overheated. We got in the A/C, drank another entire bottle of water (each had a water bottle along the way), and stopped at the Hoover Valley Cafe for lunch. It was delicious. They use a special bun for their sandwiches that is sweet and fluffy (I read online later that they obtain them from Sweet Mesquite in Houston – will have to check that source out). I would recommend this as a great place for lunch if you are in the area. Here is a down-home youtube commercial if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KC4zYBZ45M

We were still pretty hot, even after the lemonade and A/C, so when I suggested going to the winery across the street, J balked at first. He had this idea that a winery visit would involve walking through the fields looking at the grapes, maybe a grape-stomping; outdoor activities that he wanted nothing to do with at this moment. When I convinced him there was indoor shady seating just to taste the wine to pick out a bottle to take home, he went along with the plan. I liked one of their reds the best, but was too cheap to spend almost $50 for the bottle, so I got a 2010 Sweet Lucy white wine for about half that price.

After this, J really wanted to go swim in the lake, but it just didn’t make sense to drive back to the Willow Point Resort where we were staying, only to turn around and come back down this way to check out the Longhorn Caverns. Plus, the caverns are only open from 10 to 4, so it just made sense to stop by there first. It was fifteen ’til two when we walked in there, and so we caught the two o’clock tour.

There is a lot I could say about the Caverns, so I think I will continue the story on Episode 2. We are currently addicted to watching Breaking Bad on Netflix, and it has been slowing our stroll, but I hope to pick up the story within a day or two.

Lake Livingston State Park

On the Fourth, we headed about an hour and forty five minutes northeast of us to a state park that I particularly like, Lake Livingston. Lake Livingston itself is the second largest lake in Texas, being 39 miles long and 7 miles across at its widest. It covers 93,000 acres, 635.5 of which belong to the state park. It is notable for its white bass fishery, but also holds catfish (mostly blue), largemouth bass, striped bass, and crappie.

We were going up there to chill for the day and go hiking. Once there, we met up with my friends Diane and Misti, and were joined at various points by a geocacher named Linda (it was technically a geocaching event, but very low-key) and some members of Diane’s family. We all sat around in chairs in the shade by a picnic table in the swimming area of the park for a couple of hours. People had brought various treats to eat, such as chips, guacamole, salsa, orzo salad, couscous, and pound cake. We grilled some veggie burgers, hamburgers, and hot dogs and had a group lunch. After this, Misti, J and I went for a little hike. We ended up walking almost all the trails in this little park in about two hours. It was a little warm outside but it was bearable.

Initially, we took the Livingston Trail from the swimming area. We did the entire loop. At the beginning of the loop, you cross over a bridge that takes you over very inviting looking water. I wanted to swim in the lake today, but J didn’t think it was a good idea given my complications with my leg injury. We are fairly certain that last time we were here, this bridge was out, and also this part of the lake was dry – it was probably a drought year when we were in this section of the park last, so that doesn’t surprise me.

We found one of the few geocaches left in the park that we hadn’t already found while we were over this way. After this loop, we walked past the swimming area again on this same trail – which, in its entirety, is 2.73 miles long – and then skipped off of it just before it ended and took the Pineywoods Nature Walk trail, which is about 0.95 miles. This is a boardwalk path that leads you through a butterfly garden and bird blind observation area. I liked the educational signs inside the bird blind building.

We noticed as we were walking that some of the trees in the park had been completely taken over by poison ivy. This picture below is actually of a pine tree, but it has been enveloped nearly completely in the poisonous vine.

All in all I think it was about 3.5 miles that we hiked.

This state park has a lot to offer, but apparently can get crowded with both people and poisonous plants. There were a lot of people here on this holiday afternoon. The parking lot to the swimming area was so full that the TPWD state park police were parked at the front of the lot, blocking access to it and directing traffic. In this area, there is a swimming pool that is about $2-3 entrance fee, and it was completely packed with people. I really did not check out the lake access swimming area, but I imagine it was crowded, too. We found some occasional trash along our walk to pick up at first. At some point we just kind of gave up on that – especially after two incidents where I picked up 1) something nasty and 2) something that had ants all inside of it that bit my fingers pretty good. The park volunteers or rangers were going by on golf carts to pick up trash, but towards the end as we got closer to the swimming area, I noticed quite a bit of trash piled up near one family’s little claimed spot, and a collection of soda or beer bottle tops piled up near a little bridge. It is a little disheartening to see, and it made me consider the idea of hosting CITOs at state parks after holidays like this.

This park also offers horseback rides through their stables only (public is not allowed to bring their horses) for about $30 an hour cash, and you can also boat, paddle and fish here. There is a nice fish cleaning station at the marina. Diane was camping for the weekend, and said she was not too thrilled with the camping areas – they were very close to each other, she said. It is not her favorite park, but it is nice that it is close enough to Houston for a weekend getaway.

I heard a rumor that the state park was looking to kick this park out of their system, but that might not be substantiated. It looked like a very popular park, and I think it has a lot to offer in terms of recreational activities. TPWD is hosting a Birding 101 walk there July 13 and August 10, which could be interesting – unfortunately, I have conflicting events going on those days. I wouldn’t mind going back to this park again – at least to grab that one last geocache we have left to find in the park. It was also a nice excuse to see Misti again- hopefully it won’t be so long in between our next outdoors outing together!

WG Jones: The Namesake of Our Favorite Forest

This morning, a group of intrepid geocachers hiked along the front part of the south side of the W.G. Jones State Forest Area. A total of fifteen finds were had, including five different kinds of cache hides (traditionals, letterboxes, puzzles, multis, and an event cache). Even though it was approaching 95 degrees in the Texas sun, there was a little breeze going. Everyone was sweating and exhausted by the end of two and a half hours, but a really good time was had.

On the way out to the park, J and I were discussing the origin of the park’s name. He was getting the park confused with Jesse Jones Park (also a great place), and thought they were named after the same people. They are not, but I didn’t know a lot about W.G Jones. I decided to look it up, and this is what I learned:

WG Jones park is named for William Goodrich Jones (1860-1950), who is touted as the “father of forestry in Texas”. He was born in New York, but his father was a jeweler from Galveston. When the Civil War loomed, this father, John Jones, headed back to Texas, soon to be followed by his wife and three children. They moved to Houston to escape the naval warfare, and then later returned to New York. After this, they went to Europe for two years. During this time, Goodrich visited the Black Forest, where he gained an appreciation of the beauty and advantages of a well-managed forest. He learned there the principle of sustainability, about when one cuts a tree from the forest, he should plant one in its place; a maxim which became an abiding principle in his life. Jones went on to obtain a degree in business from Princeton, and served apprenticeships in banks in Galveston and South Texas.
WG Jones
He became president of a bank in Temple and established himself as a civic and business leader. He urged the townspeople to plant trees. Jones advocated the adoption of an official Arbor Day to promote tree planting statewide. The state legislature eventually established this day on the third Friday in January.
Repeated trips through East Texas observing the lumber industry earned him an invitation in 1898 by B.E. Fernow, chief of the United States Bureau of Forestry, to make a survey of the Texas region and write a report on the condition and future of forestry in Texas. The resulting document became a blueprint for conservationists in Texas.

Jones denounced the haste and waste of the large logging operators and predicted that under current methods the great forest would disappear within twenty-five years. He recommended that the state and federal governments cooperate to regulate a planned-cutting, sustained-yield, systematic reforestation program that would prolong the life of the Texas forest indefinitely.

W. Goodrich lobbied lumbermen and the legislature to create what would become the Texas Forest Service in 1915. A major force was the Texas Forestry Association, spearheaded by Jones in 1914. Later the state authorized a system of Texas state forests, one of which has been named the W. Goodrich Jones State Forest (this forest!)

Jones was not a wilderness advocate but rather a supporter of conservation for prudent use of Texas forests. He promoted the multiple-use concept of the forests in Texas and was interested in conserving the soil, grasses, and wildlife, as well as the trees. He also constantly urged the establishment of parks. To make every town a “green town” would, he believed, improve the lives of Texas citizens.

After retiring from banking, Jones moved to Waco, where he managed his various properties and devoted his time to promoting the cause of conservation. He lived until he was almost ninety and was widely honored. He died on August 1, 1950, and was buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Temple.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fjo85

W. Goodrich Jones Papers, Special Collections, Steen Library, Stephen F. Austin State University. Robert S. Maxwell, “Life and Work of W. Goodrich Jones,” Texas Forests and Texans, May-June 1964. Robert S. Maxwell, “One Man’s Legacy: W. Goodrich Jones and Texas Conservation,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 77 (January 1974). Robert S. Maxwell and Robert D. Baker, Sawdust Empire: The Texas Lumber Industry, 1830–1940 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1983).