An Important Spot

Adventure Location:  Del Rio, Texas
Adventure Date:04-02-2020
Click the pic to enlarge it.


Now we are ready to finish the trail and hear a story. Along the trail is this sign explaining  all the seashells we see all over the place.

Not too far on down the trail the OFM spotted a couple of baby claret cups making their way into the world. They are cute little things aren’t they.

Another prolific plant in this area is the lechuguilla.  Of course it has sharp points on its leaves to make you want to wear long pants instead of shorts. They are a pretty plant at times  and other times they are roundly cussed.

Here is a picture to make sure everyone knows what to stay away from when walking around an area.

And now we reach the far end of the loop and a special spot in the OFM’s life.  This is a trail down the cliff to the better fishing area available to shore bound anglers. For years the OFM grabbed his water bottle, fishing gear and literally scampered down this trail to the water and caught large mouth bass in decent quantity. That the trail was basically loose slippery stones and way to vertical  for running around on had no bearing in the OFM’s activity.  Then a few years ago when grandson Gavin was born, a minor slip and fall convinced him that he needed to be more careful so he could have good times with Gavin for a long time. So the OFM slowed down and got more careful.

Then two years ago the OFM started down from this spot and was being very careful, but he still slipped a few times before he got to the ledge at the mid point. When he reached that ledge after way too many slips he stopped to rest and consider. That had been way too many close calls.

The OFM made a choice that day that he would rather be alive to play grandpa than catch fish at this spot.  He rested and started up the trail (cliff) and immediately lost his balance again and fell hard. When he made it back to the spot where he was to take this photo and looked back, he KNEW that he had traversed his last exciting cliff walk. And he was only 70 years old then.

Since then several things like bike riding and kayaking have been stopped just because he likes living a LOT. Maybe it is a lucky person who realizes their limitations and chooses to live within them and live longer and better.  None of the OFM Teams members wants to give up trying to have tooooo much fun just because of hardheadedness.