A friend of mine and I embarked for Big Bend National Park, Texas to hike around the Chisos Mountain and canoe the Boquillas Canyon stretch of the Rio Grande. Likewise we had volunteered to document any significant Paleo-Indian / archaic habitation sites along our route. Rock shelters and habitation sites on silt terraces were the primary focal point. Both of which, we were informed may be blocked by river cane, mesquite and cat claw.
On day two of the river trip we observed a large rock shelter located off a silt terrace, which was completely covered by cane, mesquite and cat claw. The cane ranged in diameter from ¾-1 ¼ in diameter and towered 12-15. The mesquite was rather thin in diameter but tough. The younger cat claw branches tended to be almost vine like. Scott initially was quite reserved when I showed him the GR. No excitement or curiosity just thats a pretty big knife and lets just keep our distance attitude. He preferred the 18 machete.
I allowed him to take the lead in clearing our path from lands end inwards. We progressed only 3-4 feet when Scott stated that the machete wasnt working at all on the mesquite and only a little on the cane. Out came the GR, which sliced very quickly through the cane and young mesquite. The cat claw was little more flexible and took the weight and the strike of the GR only to rebound back. In fact, if you moved too slowly the cat claw would come back and get you in revenge!! Targeting the cat claw where the branch connected to the stalk was the easiest way to dispatch the nasty foliage, however, surrounding branches sometimes made those strikes even more difficult.
It became rather apparent that to exhaust an hour of brush clearing to reach a site was neither cost effective nor wise considering our limited water resources so we opted to modify our sites to those with limited dense cane. A second cave shelter presented itself with limited cane but the first problem was exiting the canoe onto the terrace. Water level was quite low and we may have been three feet below land. Though I wouldnt normally use a knife to dig with, the Ganga Ram villager acted like a perfect e-tool. Several footholds were made into the side of the embankment for us to exit the canoe up to the terrace.
Upon exiting the river below Cow Canyon we came into another area of vast flat open grazing land, for lack of a better word. It was here that we ran into three adult mustangs and two folds just outside our campsite. Before night fell, I gathered as much dead wood as possible on our little stretch of silt. Some were extremely straight, 4-5 in length and approx. 1.5-1.75 in diameter. Oddly they had been cut at one end and somehow ended up here. The wood was hard, small rings but not overly dense. With just a couple quick strikes, we had firewood for the fire pan. We later realized these were the flowering stalks of the Sotol plant, which rises 5-7 above the plant. They were used as walking sticks and as filler between structural beams in architecture. Ironically, when I first saw these stalks, we were driving up to the Chisos Basin. I remarked how they looked like Apache lances on the horizon!
Nevertheless, we reached our take out at La Linda a little early and as we were unpacking our gear, this sun-baked, bearded guy drove up to talk to Scott. From twenty feet away, I heard this guy ask Scott, Is that a kukri hes got? I thought to myself, who the he!! out here knows what a kukri is and where has this guy been to know about kuks? Turns out Fred was 1st Div. USMC retired and had done his share of traveling. Talk about isolated ..Fred hadnt been to town in seven months!! But the view he had from his trailer on the ridgeline was incredible. We learned more from Fred within twelve hours time than we had learned in four days ..Plus he had the only cold beer and coffee for seventy miles. Fred gave us some genuine Texas hospitality and I left him with my new Coleman lantern he had taken a liking to, a few extra mantels and some bottles of propane. It was a good trade but it goes without saying I kept my GR
Cave Shelter & silt terrace Cave Shelter & Cane Our source of water & protection Sotol Stalk Fred showing his opinion on the matter
On day two of the river trip we observed a large rock shelter located off a silt terrace, which was completely covered by cane, mesquite and cat claw. The cane ranged in diameter from ¾-1 ¼ in diameter and towered 12-15. The mesquite was rather thin in diameter but tough. The younger cat claw branches tended to be almost vine like. Scott initially was quite reserved when I showed him the GR. No excitement or curiosity just thats a pretty big knife and lets just keep our distance attitude. He preferred the 18 machete.
I allowed him to take the lead in clearing our path from lands end inwards. We progressed only 3-4 feet when Scott stated that the machete wasnt working at all on the mesquite and only a little on the cane. Out came the GR, which sliced very quickly through the cane and young mesquite. The cat claw was little more flexible and took the weight and the strike of the GR only to rebound back. In fact, if you moved too slowly the cat claw would come back and get you in revenge!! Targeting the cat claw where the branch connected to the stalk was the easiest way to dispatch the nasty foliage, however, surrounding branches sometimes made those strikes even more difficult.
It became rather apparent that to exhaust an hour of brush clearing to reach a site was neither cost effective nor wise considering our limited water resources so we opted to modify our sites to those with limited dense cane. A second cave shelter presented itself with limited cane but the first problem was exiting the canoe onto the terrace. Water level was quite low and we may have been three feet below land. Though I wouldnt normally use a knife to dig with, the Ganga Ram villager acted like a perfect e-tool. Several footholds were made into the side of the embankment for us to exit the canoe up to the terrace.
Upon exiting the river below Cow Canyon we came into another area of vast flat open grazing land, for lack of a better word. It was here that we ran into three adult mustangs and two folds just outside our campsite. Before night fell, I gathered as much dead wood as possible on our little stretch of silt. Some were extremely straight, 4-5 in length and approx. 1.5-1.75 in diameter. Oddly they had been cut at one end and somehow ended up here. The wood was hard, small rings but not overly dense. With just a couple quick strikes, we had firewood for the fire pan. We later realized these were the flowering stalks of the Sotol plant, which rises 5-7 above the plant. They were used as walking sticks and as filler between structural beams in architecture. Ironically, when I first saw these stalks, we were driving up to the Chisos Basin. I remarked how they looked like Apache lances on the horizon!
Nevertheless, we reached our take out at La Linda a little early and as we were unpacking our gear, this sun-baked, bearded guy drove up to talk to Scott. From twenty feet away, I heard this guy ask Scott, Is that a kukri hes got? I thought to myself, who the he!! out here knows what a kukri is and where has this guy been to know about kuks? Turns out Fred was 1st Div. USMC retired and had done his share of traveling. Talk about isolated ..Fred hadnt been to town in seven months!! But the view he had from his trailer on the ridgeline was incredible. We learned more from Fred within twelve hours time than we had learned in four days ..Plus he had the only cold beer and coffee for seventy miles. Fred gave us some genuine Texas hospitality and I left him with my new Coleman lantern he had taken a liking to, a few extra mantels and some bottles of propane. It was a good trade but it goes without saying I kept my GR
Cave Shelter & silt terrace Cave Shelter & Cane Our source of water & protection Sotol Stalk Fred showing his opinion on the matter
