HALFWAY BENCH

3/21/18

The Old Fishing Hole

Adventure Location: Del Rio, Texas
Adventure Date: March, 2018
Click the picture to enlarge it

Today was another busy day. First it was laundry time. That takes about 2 1/2 hours start to finish. So the mid morning was off to a good start. 

Then we hit Walmart for some food resupply. That worked out well. Next was an hour or more of deciding what our next move would be. Since the weather is still a bit cool in NM the decision was to stay here until Sunday at least.

We had been 15 days since the last dump station visit so that was incorporated into changing campsites this afternoon. Yep the tanks were Real full. It seemed like it took 20 minutes for each tank to dump. Then we had to move over to the fresh water and fill that empty 40 gallon tank.

Next it was back to the new campsite and set up for the next few days. The OFM is needing to pace his OLD FAT BODY better. There is so much for him to do he is wearing himself out physically and not resting enough. We have been here nearly a month and he has not stopped long enough to even make a rough sketch of some of the great scenery.

Speaking of great scenery, we visited an old fishing hole the other day. It is somewhat rugged hiking to fish it but the OFM wanted to see what he could do with it in his current condition. Amazingly well turned out to be the answer. We did not cover near the territory that we did the last time we were there a couple of years ago. But with careful adaptations he was able to do quite a bit of rock scrambling as you will see.

Sierra got parked in the “parking lot” (bare desert area near the walkway) and the OFM even took a fishing rod down with him. Here is the walkway going down to the lake area. There used to be a floating pier here but the lake fluctuations seem to have caused the removal of it. So now the fisherfolks get to scramble the banks and short cliffs to fish.



The path we took on this day was to the right when the concrete pathway quit.  We have overlaid a thin green line on the general path of the adventure. Be assured that all the loose rock will keep your attention riveted to the path and not the scenery while you are moving along.



This particular small canyon is still with about 20-30 feet of water in it. The path is just a route someone picked out amongst the loose rocks sometime in the past. It is not a developed trail or pathway. You are on your own in this area.

This next picture is at the approximate mid part of the limited portion of the path the OFM took. 



Some where in the photo is the rock that the OFM two years ago took a two step run and jumped onto to continue on the trail (while he had a fishing rod and tackle box in his hands). 

On this day the OFM without anything in his hands backed up to the rock. Put his hands on it and pushed up while using his feet to help get his fat butt onto the rock. Then he rolled on his fat belly and scooted onto the rock far enough to roll back over and get back up. Yep age and decreptednes is requiring adaptations in hiking. Again the green line is the approximate path taken.

We got on around to the end of the small canyon where the footing gets really tricky and the OFM wisely decided to turn back. Here is a bit of an enlargement of the turn back point.

The return followed the same basic path. The rock, mentioned before, from above was an easy slide down on the return trip. The fishing rod had been left at the end of the walk from the parking lot. It was waiting politely for our return or the coroner to come get us. 

Here is a picture from near the bottom of the walkway. The top edge of Sierra is barely visible. It is not a long hike back up the walkway but it is very steep. If it was any steeper it would need ladder rungs.



All in all we drank a liter of water in this little hour long adventure. It certainly was a great effort at trying to have tooooo much fun.



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