My daughter, Erin, and I have camped before. She first “car camped” with her mother, me and her two brothers as a youngster on expeditions to Lost Maples and Enchanted Rock. Her first backpacking trip (1997; she was nine) was to the Hill Country State Natural Area with me and her brothers, sans Mom.
This post details a trip to the same spot, a sweet sixteen years later. This time, rather than enjoying the company of her brothers, we enjoyed the company of her dog of ten years, Jazmine.
Erin has always loved the outdoors and has always had a heart for adventure. A “study abroad” program that took her to England for a semester of college was filled with travel, adventuring with friends, mountain-climbing in Wales, and, so she tells me, a bit of study here and there.
Her first post-graduation job of nearly two years had her serving a family with four extreme preemies from birth through several near death valleys, to stability, to thriving. Again, high adventure.
Erin’s heart for people and for God has been a consistent encouragement and thrill to me, most especially in recent years, as the churches she has attended have given her wonderful community and been places of grace and fire.
Well, this Erin has this dog, Jazmine, a small-ish black whatchamacallit. Jazmine looks like a miniature Doberman pinscher (but she probably isn’t). And Erin has always thought it would be a GREAT idea to take Jazmine on a backpacking trip.
Some time ago, she bought a doggie backpack for that purpose and had been hiking the wilds near her home of Bryan, Texas in anticipation of THE TRIP.
Erin and I had been talking about THE TRIP for some months and had actually almost settled on a date in early October. That trip didn’t happen (overcome by events) and the post-Thanksgiving weekend time frame was soon set in stone as the “go to” getaway time.
Our plan was to head out to Lost Maples (a reliable site for great hiking that she and I have enjoyed in the past, backpacking there together a couple of years ago) for a night or two of fun in the woods. That proved not to be possible, though, as the Park Ranger told me the week prior to Thanksgiving that all the camping sites - including primitive backcountry sites - were reserved for the time frame we would be there.
So, we shifted fire and decided to go to the old stand-by, Hill Country State Natural Area, site of Erin’s first-ever backpacking excursion, for Jazmine’s first-ever backpacking excursion.
After gorging ourselves on a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday, we loaded up my Ranger on Friday morning for the hour long trip through Bandera to the park.
Once there, we checked in, paid the ranger, and drove to the trailhead. We would soon prove that familiarity need not breed contempt AND that epic adventure can be found in state parks if the expedition leader is willing to make map-reading errors that make Columbus’ “route to India” (aka America) look brilliant.
The day started off chilly, but was delightful for hiking. Jazmine was loaded down with her own food and blanket, our tent, our food and my portable Jacuzzi. Just kidding, of course. But she did carry more weight relative to body weight than either of her traveling companions and did great.
We were hiking toward the Hermit’s Shack, a campsite near the westerly edge of the park. Hiking to the Hermit’s Shack takes you through some of the prettier spots in the Hill Country, and it was a great hike. We stopped along the way for a lunch of Pringles, chocolate (always a staple in my camping diet), and nuts and started hiking again.
All went well until we intersected Trail #1. We weren’t supposed to hit Trail #1!
Erin’s intrepid guide had taken a wrong turn waaaay back there and took us to the wrong camping area, known as Wilderness. Without getting too mopey, we decided that the best thing to do would be to bushwhack our way from the Wilderness area to Trail #4, which would then take us to the Hermit’s Shack.
Like all shortcuts, the idea was outstanding in the abstract, difficult to accomplish in the concrete.
This particular shortcut required that we go straight up a mountainside, off-trail (elevation gain uncertain; two to three hundred feet?) through heavy underbrush. The footing was horrible, even for those in the expedition with four feet!
The climb took us around forty five minutes. Route picking was fun. Less fun was grabbing for handholds and finding agarita, cactus, and pyracantha. Jazmine performed heroically. At one spot, she launched herself up toward a rock shelf about five times before she finally made it up to the next level. Needless to say, Erin also did great. It was never clear whether she was muttering under her breath about her guide, but when we got to the top, among her first words were, “That was fun!”
Well, back on the trail we walked easily for another couple of hours to the Hermit’s shack where we found a campsite all to ourselves. It was a calm and serene, beautiful setting.
We set up the tent, gathered firewood (Note: Hill Country SNA is perhaps the only state park in Texas where fires are permitted in the backcountry - in fire rings only. Sadly, due to the drought of recent years, fires have not been allowed. Due to recent rains, though, the Ranger had told us that we could have a fire. And a delightful fire it was, too…), and prepared to fix dinner.
We had one of my favorite backpacking meals: mashed potatoes with summer sausage. According to Erin (who is exceptionally easy to please), it was quite delicious. Jazmine enjoyed her own gourmet meal of dog food + treat + one of Erin’s slices of summer sausage and seemed quite content.
It was now 5pm. Hmmm...
We both wondered how we were going to stay awake until a decent hour, since the sun would go down at 6 and neither one of us wanted to hit the sack at 6:30! Not to worry. We had the fire to keep us occupied, apple crisp dessert to enjoy, hot chocolate to savor. Most important, we had time to catch up with each other.
This, you should know, was what I had been sneakily waiting for, planning for, and hoping for. Time to do nothing but sit around a campfire and talk with my daughter. Sure, I like to hike and camp. But when I go backpacking, the dream is always to make or maintain or deepen personal connection with my camping buddies.
Well, on this trip, it was “mission accomplished.”
Erin and I talked about all sorts of stuff - mostly heart to heart stuff, God-stuff, life-stuff. She was her usual Barnabas-like encourager. We prayed together easily, at the drop of a hat, just as we have done whenever we have had the chance to talk in recent years.
Before we knew it, I looked at my watch and it was after 9pm. We were both pretty tired and decided that it would be best for her and Jazmine to get situated first, which they did. After reading for a while (camping doesn’t mean that you can’t bring your Kindle and headlamp), I turned in at about 9:45 and didn’t even wake up my camping companions.
I was up early (5:30), as usual. Sadly, my arising early also woke Jazmine, so sleeping in wasn’t an option for Erin, either. She and her dog appeared at 6:30. After re-starting the fire, we had another wonderful meal of dehydrated eggs on tortillas, pan-fried leftover summer sausage, and coffee. Jazmine was satisfied with her gourmet dog food, and, I believe, another slice of Erin’s sausage, and our leftover eggs.
By this time, the trip was mostly over. Yesterday had been a great day of hiking and climbing and eating and talking. Now it was time to hike out. We broke camp and took our time with the three mile hike back to the car. The hike out wasn’t epic in the least, but the talking was, again, rich.
As we got into the truck, I, who am not particularly adept at multi-tasking, had several thoughts swirling around in my mind. One, man my knees hurt. Two, wow, what a great trip. You really can have an epic adventure in a state park! Three, I’ve got one amazing daughter - God-loving, fun-loving, intelligent and articulate, sensitive and beautiful. Four, thank You, Lord, for allowing me the privilege of staying connected with her as I’ve watched her become the woman she is today.
And away we drove, another roaringly successful trip to the great outdoors.
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