Wild Texas Forums: Parks, Travel & Recreation - View Single Post

HillHopper · 02-11-2008, 02:22 PM

Just got back from GSP. The weather was perfect for hiking but due being up in the hills, I was getting dis-oriented as to how much daylight was left. We hiked most the outskirts of the park. Trails got confusing trying to figure out which trail is mapped and which is really a trail. I followed what I thought to be a trail all the way until I hit a barbed wire fence. Sarted getting worried about not making it off the hilltops. i will not dare let my girlfriend navigate with the map ever again. I didn't want to alarm my girlfriend that we were lost so I kept all my survival thinking to myself. I was about to started settling down in one spot for at least an hour to determine which way the sun was moving to get a better east/west direction but that would surely burn up daylight. Actually, we were pretty far, and could not even see the park. Spent around 5.5 hours walking including after we were lost. We finally spotted "Old Baldy" and figured out sense of direction. We got off the hills at around 5:30-6pm. I was glad because our cell ###### had no reception and no one knew where we were.
After all the excitement for the day, we settled in for the night with beer, remy martin, sausages, grill boneless chicken, thin sliced ribs and potato salad. Star-gazing was fun. It was around high 40's but felt more like 50's night temp.
The following morning was packing up and heading back up to the top of Old Baldy since we were unsuccessful the first day. The view from atop of old baldy was gorgeous!
After we got down, we relaxed for an hour before we decided to do our scenic drive. From Garner, we went north on RR1120 to Leaky, Tx until we hit 337 and headed east. All I can say is WOW! The scenery and sharp curves were outstanding. I don't recommend speeding but I could not help myself and had my my squelling through the turns. I spent years racing for a living and this had me excited. From 337 we continued to 187 towards Vanderpool to get gas since there are no other gas stations around (not even in the small towns). From there we doubled back and headed east again to Bandera.

The only bummer was that we had to stop for a road block in the middle of no where as we were going over a hill. We saw Lifeflight helicopter taking someone away that crashed on their motorcycle. I hope they lived. We wited nearly 45 minutes before traffic flowed again. Other than that, it was great and we'll do it again.

My next destination will be the Guadelupe Mountains.

02-11-2008, 02:22 PM	#2
HillHopper Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 4	Re: Garner Just got back from GSP. The weather was perfect for hiking but due being up in the hills, I was getting dis-oriented as to how much daylight was left. We hiked most the outskirts of the park. Trails got confusing trying to figure out which trail is mapped and which is really a trail. I followed what I thought to be a trail all the way until I hit a barbed wire fence. Sarted getting worried about not making it off the hilltops. i will not dare let my girlfriend navigate with the map ever again. I didn't want to alarm my girlfriend that we were lost so I kept all my survival thinking to myself. I was about to started settling down in one spot for at least an hour to determine which way the sun was moving to get a better east/west direction but that would surely burn up daylight. Actually, we were pretty far, and could not even see the park. Spent around 5.5 hours walking including after we were lost. We finally spotted "Old Baldy" and figured out sense of direction. We got off the hills at around 5:30-6pm. I was glad because our cell ###### had no reception and no one knew where we were. After all the excitement for the day, we settled in for the night with beer, remy martin, sausages, grill boneless chicken, thin sliced ribs and potato salad. Star-gazing was fun. It was around high 40's but felt more like 50's night temp. The following morning was packing up and heading back up to the top of Old Baldy since we were unsuccessful the first day. The view from atop of old baldy was gorgeous! After we got down, we relaxed for an hour before we decided to do our scenic drive. From Garner, we went north on RR1120 to Leaky, Tx until we hit 337 and headed east. All I can say is WOW! The scenery and sharp curves were outstanding. I don't recommend speeding but I could not help myself and had my my squelling through the turns. I spent years racing for a living and this had me excited. From 337 we continued to 187 towards Vanderpool to get gas since there are no other gas stations around (not even in the small towns). From there we doubled back and headed east again to Bandera. The only bummer was that we had to stop for a road block in the middle of no where as we were going over a hill. We saw Lifeflight helicopter taking someone away that crashed on their motorcycle. I hope they lived. We wited nearly 45 minutes before traffic flowed again. Other than that, it was great and we'll do it again. My next destination will be the Guadelupe Mountains.