Breathing Bench UPDATE

Adventure Location: Black Brush Boat Ramp, Lake Amistad, Del Rio, Texas
Adventure Date: 3-24-2020
Click the pic to enlarge it.
UPDATE : 

Amistad National Recreation Area Closure

In accordance with the President’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America and recent Val Verde County ordinance regarding COVID-19, the entire park will be closed as 3/24/2020 until midnight, Apr. 3, 2020. We do apologize for this inconvenience. The OFM man awakened not in great shape this morning so he took it easy for a while. It was nice weather outside with 71F and no drizzle. After a good while on the computer he decided he needed to do some walking. Careful thought and he decided that Black Brush Rec Area would be a good place since the boat ramp is closed due to low water.

Sierra did a great job of getting us there safely and parked at the premium spot in the crowded parking lot.

The lot will hold about a hundred trucks with boat trailer and we were the only folks there the whole time.

We got out of Sierra and the OFM prepared for the slow walk. Walking staff, water, Grock, camera, OFM.  Ok we are ready to go (we thought). As we neared the first gate, the OFM noticed his shoes were not tied. So he went to the gate to have something to put his feet up on. As he was tieing his shoes he noticed a small about 1 and 1/2 inch high cactus. In fact there were three of them. This one had a bloom in progress and was really cute.

After the shoes were tied we checked for the OFM’s brain to be turned on. It was so we headed over to a picnic table that looked interesting.  It was interesting since it had a view down the arroyo on the left side of the ridge looking down to the fishing pier. 

Yep nearly empty. The lake is about 39 feet low. We headed on around the loop until we got to the picnic table we used to park at a lot. From that spot we took a trail down to the water and fished along the bank.  It was a 1/4 mile to the water back then. The trail was a mess of brush and loose rocks to trip you. Hear is Grock taking a look at the trail.

He studied it carefully and finally said “No thanks. I don’t think either one of us should be on that so called trail.”  The OFM agreed. And we went on to more adventure.

We went back past Sierra to the closed boat ramp to look around. The OFM decided to go down the ramp. He checked with Grock and asked if he wanted to roll down the ramp. Grock took one short look and said “No thank you, I will just continue riding in your shirt pocket.”

We got to the bottom of the ramp and the OFM took this picture from the bottom of the ramp looking out the arroyo into the main part of this section of the lake.

And this next picture is looking from the bottom of the ramp up to where the ramp starts to slope less steeply which is at the 1/2 way point.

What the OFM learned today is that the elevation change going down is only about 50 feet from the top of the ramp.  Going back up it is exactly 139 feet 3 inches and the OFM legs could feel every sixteenth of an inch of it.

However when he got to the top of the ramp and the breathing bench where most folks stop after the walk back up to breath for a while, he realized it had already been a great day of trying to have tooooo much fun.