(I copy pasted this from the original post I made on Big Bend Chat so you may have to excuse some of the jargon)
My brother and I drove from Houston to Fort Stockton and spent the night on Monday (~12/30/20) with the primary goal of getting drawn for a TPWD standby mule deer hunt at one of the local WMAs on Tuesday morning. Plan B was to backpack in Big Bend, but it was kind of an after thought. We threw all our hunting and backpacking gear in the truck and headed out. We did not get drawn for the hunt, so we made our way to Big Bend and got to the entrance around noon. There was a line of about 50 cars waiting to pay at Persimmon Gap. It took us about 45 minutes to get in. I knew the park was busy during winter break, but I was not expecting that! I started to get a little worried about what options we might have available as far as campsites go.
We met with the ranger outside of Panther Junction to obtain our backcountry permit. It was news to me that 1/2 of all sites are reservable online now, so that put as at a disadvantage to start with. The whiteboard that listed all of the available campsites had a 0 jotted down for improved campgrounds, chisos backcountry sites, and ALL car camping sites. Unbelievable! I think it said 3 sites were available for backpacking the Chisos the next night and about 10 for the car camping sites. My brother suggested that he wanted to attempt the OML. At first I thought, "No way is that going to be available! The park is completely full!', but after asking the ranger about zone camping we were able to get a permit that had us starting at the Dodson/ Juniper Canyon junction camping on the Dodson the first night, camping on Blue Creek the 2nd night and LMW1 for the 3rd night. We cached water at Homer Wilson and took my 2WD truck up past Twisted Shoe to start our adventure.
Day 1
We did not get started hiking until 3:50 pm on the first day. We lost the trail within 10 minutes of starting our adventure, but after looking at the map we were able to get back on track fairly quickly. We made it about 4 miles before camping .7 miles east of the Elephant Tusk trail. My brother found a nice campsite north of the trail where we spent the night. There was not a cloud in the sky and the full moon lit up the desert like I had never seen before. I woke up in the middle of the night and I swear that I was able to see the landscape in color!
Day 2
We made our way down the Dodson enjoying the sunshine before the bad weather hit. We knew that a winter storm was supposed to start rolling in around 3-5 pm. We had prepared somewhat, but I was anticipating a couple of inches of snow an not the 12"+ we ended up getting. We picked up our water cache at Homer Wilson and ran into a couple of other hikers that were bailing on their trip because of the weather, probably not a bad idea but my brother and I weren't ready to back down just yet. We made it 2-3 miles north of Homer Wilson before the temperature had dropped into the 30s and was drizzling rain/sleeting so we decided to make camp. We both fell asleep before we had made dinner and woke back up around 9 o' clock to a tent covered in snow. We woke back up every few hours and beat the snow off the fly from the inside to prevent the tent from caving in. We were getting a LOT more snow than we had anticipated. Were we going to be able to follow a trail in the morning? Would we be able to get my 2wd truck out of a snow covered gravel road? If we bailed out at Homer Wilson, how would we make it back up to Twisted Shoe?
Day 3
We woke up to about 5 inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing! We were able to see where the trail was fairly well so we stuck with our original plan of making it to Laguna West 1. We had to clear our own trail as we made it up the mountain. It was not too bad at first, but after we had gained 1,000 -1,500 feet in elevation the snow started to get significantly deeper. It started to get into my shoes and to melt. For the second half of the day my feet were soaked and freezing cold. Thank God for wool socks. I never thought I'd regret not bringing my snow gaiters to Big Bend!
We were excited to stop near the top of the climb for lunch, but after about 20 minutes of sitting around we had lost a lot of body heat and were starting to become miserable. It was still snowing, windy, and near freezing. We started hiking again after lunch and quickly warmed up. We made it to the top of the climb and were excited to find a trail that had already been trodden. We met our 3rd hiking party of the trip near the outhouse at the junction with the Colima Trail. The poor kid was wearing blue jeans, but seemed to be doing well and in good spirits. We wished him well and made our way up the trail to LW1 where the snow became very deep. I would guess that it was between 15-18 inches deep and we postholed our way up to camp. Only 2 out of the half dozen or so campsites we passed had any tracks in them. Kinda sucked that we had to go miles out of our way to LW1 because the other campsites were "booked". We put our tent down on top of the snow and tried to get some rest
Video of my brother reacting to the fresh snowfall:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ns4U38jNUkzy2Per5
Day 4
My brother and I were both using Kelty Cosmic 20 degree down bags with an additional 55 degree summer bag used as a liner. I wore synthetic leggings and jogging pants to bed as my bottom layers and a synthetic base layer, fleece, and synthetic Columbia puff jacket as my top layers. My upper body stayed pretty warm, but my lower body was freezing. My brother stayed pretty warm throughout the night. I had slept on a thin closed cell Z pad while my brother slept on a 2-3 inch thick inflatable pad. When we put the tent away we saw a complete layer of snow under where my brother had slept and a complete layer of dirt under where I had slept! I wish we had taken a picture. That is why my brother slept warm and I did not!
I do not know how cold it was but I would guess high 10's or low 20's. When I woke up my boots which had been soaked with snow melt the night before were frozen solid! I had to warm up the knots in the laces with my breath to be able to untie them. Nothing like putting your foot in a frozen solid shoe to start the morning. We took our sweet time this morning and made hot coffee along with some hot Mountain House breakfast scramble (our favorite). We cooked in the vestibule of the tent which seemed pretty safe.
We made it up the Colima which had only been walked on by a handful of mule deer and no one else since the snow fall. Snow got even deeper as we approached the JC1 campsite. Luckily a group of hikers had previously hiked up Juniper Canyon and left us some footprints to step into instead having to blaze our own path. The view of the snow covered Sierra del Carmens and Nugent mountain were spectacular. The hike down took a lot longer than expected, but we finally were able to make it to the truck just before sunset.
I was originally a little disappointing to not be selected for the mule deer hunt, but I think the snowfall made the trip to Big Bend a once in a lifetime experience that I couldn't be happier to share with my brother. I'll never take having warm and dry feet for granted again.
( Good God that was a lot of edits)
My brother and I drove from Houston to Fort Stockton and spent the night on Monday (~12/30/20) with the primary goal of getting drawn for a TPWD standby mule deer hunt at one of the local WMAs on Tuesday morning. Plan B was to backpack in Big Bend, but it was kind of an after thought. We threw all our hunting and backpacking gear in the truck and headed out. We did not get drawn for the hunt, so we made our way to Big Bend and got to the entrance around noon. There was a line of about 50 cars waiting to pay at Persimmon Gap. It took us about 45 minutes to get in. I knew the park was busy during winter break, but I was not expecting that! I started to get a little worried about what options we might have available as far as campsites go.
We met with the ranger outside of Panther Junction to obtain our backcountry permit. It was news to me that 1/2 of all sites are reservable online now, so that put as at a disadvantage to start with. The whiteboard that listed all of the available campsites had a 0 jotted down for improved campgrounds, chisos backcountry sites, and ALL car camping sites. Unbelievable! I think it said 3 sites were available for backpacking the Chisos the next night and about 10 for the car camping sites. My brother suggested that he wanted to attempt the OML. At first I thought, "No way is that going to be available! The park is completely full!', but after asking the ranger about zone camping we were able to get a permit that had us starting at the Dodson/ Juniper Canyon junction camping on the Dodson the first night, camping on Blue Creek the 2nd night and LMW1 for the 3rd night. We cached water at Homer Wilson and took my 2WD truck up past Twisted Shoe to start our adventure.
Day 1
We did not get started hiking until 3:50 pm on the first day. We lost the trail within 10 minutes of starting our adventure, but after looking at the map we were able to get back on track fairly quickly. We made it about 4 miles before camping .7 miles east of the Elephant Tusk trail. My brother found a nice campsite north of the trail where we spent the night. There was not a cloud in the sky and the full moon lit up the desert like I had never seen before. I woke up in the middle of the night and I swear that I was able to see the landscape in color!
Day 2
We made our way down the Dodson enjoying the sunshine before the bad weather hit. We knew that a winter storm was supposed to start rolling in around 3-5 pm. We had prepared somewhat, but I was anticipating a couple of inches of snow an not the 12"+ we ended up getting. We picked up our water cache at Homer Wilson and ran into a couple of other hikers that were bailing on their trip because of the weather, probably not a bad idea but my brother and I weren't ready to back down just yet. We made it 2-3 miles north of Homer Wilson before the temperature had dropped into the 30s and was drizzling rain/sleeting so we decided to make camp. We both fell asleep before we had made dinner and woke back up around 9 o' clock to a tent covered in snow. We woke back up every few hours and beat the snow off the fly from the inside to prevent the tent from caving in. We were getting a LOT more snow than we had anticipated. Were we going to be able to follow a trail in the morning? Would we be able to get my 2wd truck out of a snow covered gravel road? If we bailed out at Homer Wilson, how would we make it back up to Twisted Shoe?
Day 3
We woke up to about 5 inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing! We were able to see where the trail was fairly well so we stuck with our original plan of making it to Laguna West 1. We had to clear our own trail as we made it up the mountain. It was not too bad at first, but after we had gained 1,000 -1,500 feet in elevation the snow started to get significantly deeper. It started to get into my shoes and to melt. For the second half of the day my feet were soaked and freezing cold. Thank God for wool socks. I never thought I'd regret not bringing my snow gaiters to Big Bend!
We were excited to stop near the top of the climb for lunch, but after about 20 minutes of sitting around we had lost a lot of body heat and were starting to become miserable. It was still snowing, windy, and near freezing. We started hiking again after lunch and quickly warmed up. We made it to the top of the climb and were excited to find a trail that had already been trodden. We met our 3rd hiking party of the trip near the outhouse at the junction with the Colima Trail. The poor kid was wearing blue jeans, but seemed to be doing well and in good spirits. We wished him well and made our way up the trail to LW1 where the snow became very deep. I would guess that it was between 15-18 inches deep and we postholed our way up to camp. Only 2 out of the half dozen or so campsites we passed had any tracks in them. Kinda sucked that we had to go miles out of our way to LW1 because the other campsites were "booked". We put our tent down on top of the snow and tried to get some rest
Video of my brother reacting to the fresh snowfall:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ns4U38jNUkzy2Per5
Day 4
My brother and I were both using Kelty Cosmic 20 degree down bags with an additional 55 degree summer bag used as a liner. I wore synthetic leggings and jogging pants to bed as my bottom layers and a synthetic base layer, fleece, and synthetic Columbia puff jacket as my top layers. My upper body stayed pretty warm, but my lower body was freezing. My brother stayed pretty warm throughout the night. I had slept on a thin closed cell Z pad while my brother slept on a 2-3 inch thick inflatable pad. When we put the tent away we saw a complete layer of snow under where my brother had slept and a complete layer of dirt under where I had slept! I wish we had taken a picture. That is why my brother slept warm and I did not!
I do not know how cold it was but I would guess high 10's or low 20's. When I woke up my boots which had been soaked with snow melt the night before were frozen solid! I had to warm up the knots in the laces with my breath to be able to untie them. Nothing like putting your foot in a frozen solid shoe to start the morning. We took our sweet time this morning and made hot coffee along with some hot Mountain House breakfast scramble (our favorite). We cooked in the vestibule of the tent which seemed pretty safe.
We made it up the Colima which had only been walked on by a handful of mule deer and no one else since the snow fall. Snow got even deeper as we approached the JC1 campsite. Luckily a group of hikers had previously hiked up Juniper Canyon and left us some footprints to step into instead having to blaze our own path. The view of the snow covered Sierra del Carmens and Nugent mountain were spectacular. The hike down took a lot longer than expected, but we finally were able to make it to the truck just before sunset.
I was originally a little disappointing to not be selected for the mule deer hunt, but I think the snowfall made the trip to Big Bend a once in a lifetime experience that I couldn't be happier to share with my brother. I'll never take having warm and dry feet for granted again.
( Good God that was a lot of edits)