Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 09:49:53 -0500 From: "Joe Prusaitis" <[email protected]> Subject: Bandera weekend Bandera, Well, we went, we did, and it kicked our butts. Joyce and I had Grenn Hamilton, Mike Riggs, David Berdis, and Linda Hurd join us. And then again, at 5 til 5am, a group of 4 adventure racers arrived from Austin to join the party. The place I planned to start had to be moved as a family was staying in the ranch house near where I wanted to start. It was misting but warm as we took off in the dark. We hiked the 2 miles up the road from our new start spot to our planned start and began our first long 14 mile section to where we left our main station (food/water/etc) Took us approx 3.5 hours to do this 14 miles. By far the most difficult part of the route. Grenn bid us good-bye as he was not feeling well. And the Adventure group fell behind from the git go as they were carrying full packs and had their own pace and plans to get them tuned for a 10 day event they're doing out of Telluride un July. So, we were already down to five. The next section was 10 miles long back to this same spot and although not flat or easy, still not as difficult or as long as the first section. We made better time here, stopping at Mike's truck for sandwiches and water. The last 7 mile section began real easy and then got much more technical. Some of the trails had been modified to choices of 'easy' or 'difficult' and we chose the 'difficult' route each time, but it was not on the map and confusing. We got off track once and had to backtrack a couple hundred yards. Mike fell hard once and cut his knee and then twisted his ankle real bad. He tried to struggle along but it was obvious he was done. We crossed over trail#1 which is a wide superhighway that cuts through the many rugged single tracks and Mike took it on back in, while we took the high road back to his truck. We finished the first 31 mile loop in exactly 8 hours. Linda had only planned on one loop so she was exiting as well. Now there were three of us. Berdis, Joyce, and I. Refueled, and camelbacks refilled to the brim, we started the 2nd loop lead section that was 14 miles. All morning long, it was overcast, with some mist, and a little warm, but very nice. Made for an excellent journey. But it was after noon now and the sun was burning through what was left of the clouds. And there is very little shade and no water on the course, so we tried to make good time, but instead got slower and slower. We did get to see what we could not see this morning in the dark, including some of the climbs we did in our ignorance and mist early this morning. It was much more difficult this time. We made it around to a spot that was not far where our cars where when Dave ran out of water. He took the short route back, while Joyce and I kept on. We toured Ice Cream Hill and dropped down and followed #1 to a park road when we ran out of water. But there was some water that Linda had cached here under a bush yesterday, so we should be ok. But, the water was gone when we arrived and we were dry. We asked the ranger who had a home right here if we could have some of his water, but all he had was a single water bottle, which he let us have. So, we limped back in the last 2.5 miles sucking on the last water bottle. We arrived ok, but overheated, and dehydrated. We sat and drank for 20 minutes and still felt dry. After a lot of thought, we hung it up. 44 miles in 12.5 hours was gonna have to do. We were whipped. We both talked about going back out for the remainder, but decided it would not be beneficial at this point. No need to prove we could, when we knew we could. We decided instead to hose down and get some dinner in Bandera with Berdis. we did come back out after dinner and camp again that night and witnessed a big ol thundering storm. The next morning, I had planned on checking a few other sections of trail, but 60% of all trails were closed due the storm and downed trees. We went into Bandera instead for breakfast and sightseeing. thats it! /joe |
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