Well, here's the report of this trip -- learned a lot, have a million questions, had fun... but it was not the experience I expected. That about sums up life, doesn't it?
The park employee who registered me told me that no, there was no creek or water at the Windmill backpack area. Some people scooped water that collected at the base of the windmill and filtered or boiled it. Shade? Nope, they are doing grasslands reclamation there so there really isn't much. Mid-June, 95 degree days, no water for swimming, no shade, two miles from parking and 5-6 miles from the river or creeks? Mmm, sounds like.... HELL!
So I did a one-mile hike in to the river primitive camping area. Just getting used to the wearing a 35 lb. backpack when we get there, oh well. The nicest shadiest spot has a great view of the riverbank cliffs on the other side -- and a great view of the expensive home someone has built on it. Kind of breaks the "Oooh, I'm way out here!" feeling, you know? Found a place where the bank and trees mostly blocked the houses and staircases down the cliff to the water.
So after a day of trekking down the hot gravel road past the RVs and group campsites to get to the BEAUTIFUL hiking and swimming holes in the spicewood springs part of the park, and a couple of trips out for water from the water spigot (just seemed silly to boil scummy muddy river water when I am a mile from clean water), I was feeling like this was a lot llike car camping just really inconvenient.
So the next morning we moved to the walk-in river tent sites -- lovely, hardly anyone there, rented a kayak, and the dog and I paddled downriver to some gorgeous waterfalls a mile or two away (Kayaking with my dog was a hoot since neither of us had done it before), did nice easy s
to the swimming holes by the springs... stayed there that night in a soft grass, shady spot right on the river and had a great time. Beautiful water birds to watch, armadillos nearby... and I guess I am finally a real Texan after 23 years here, because I no longer am impressed by seeing deer. Rather, i think of them as large, pretty rats or pigeons -- nuisance animals, overrunning the area thanks to our wiping out their predators. But yeah, there were PLENTY of deer. And okay, the babies were kind of cute.
One question -- the first night, in the middle of the night I woke up to see white flashes of light that I thought were lightning. But I heard no thunder. Sat up, and said "Oh wow, that's not lightning, it's just some really intense lightning bugs!" Watched them for a bit then lay back down. But they weren't like any lightning bugs I've seen before -- they were many bright small flashes of very bright white light, nearby in the trees... not the usual greenish yellow firefly lights. And in the middle of the night? Were they fireflies, or....?
Good challenges that first day/night, too -- how to pick a campsite -- shade vs. level vs. not in a potential mud puddle if it rains; how to clean a pan when the dehydrated eggs came out SO gross even the dog won't eat them and now they are congealed on the bottom but you are limited on your water; how to package up melted oily stinky cheddar cheese that was once neat little cubes for snacking but gave up in the heat; how to tell regular anthills from fire ant hills (did okay there but it was luck since there were ants by all the campsites)...
Great trip, all in all. I do still want to really try the backpack thing but I want my destination to be somewhere I want to be. I don't mind stopping at sites to sleep along the way even if they are just places to pass the night, but I'd like to end up at a base camp that offers a pleasant environment. Either a nice view, or swimming, or wildlife or something. And I want to do it really alone -- having my dog was wonderful but she is still another being to think about; a distraction from really just being completely alone in my own skin. Not that every trip has to be a navel-gazing transformational event, but I do want to experience that, in at least semi-wilderness, really on my own.
Thanks for all the help and support here! And no matter how hard I try, I cannot think of any meaning for "anti-chikite" that could possibly make any sense here, so I guess I can't answer that one.
(P.S. Thermarest rules! Even though I didn't sleep much -- too excited, plus one very alert and excited dog in the tent makes it hard to sleep -- when I did sleep, I could even sleep on my side! On the ground -- that is pretty amazing for a bony body like me.)