A Night in Gage

Sunday, January 13, 2013
Marathon, Texas, United States
I was awake early to walk up the mountain and take some pictures. The Pinnacles trail seemed right, so I followed the track up into the forest. As I climbed I looked up and spotted a new sign, above the usual Beware of Bears. It read: a Mountain Lion has been seen in the Basin -- be alert. Immediately attentive I learned that I should not go out in the early morning as this is hunting time. Since I was not a child or carrying food, I was OK on the other counts. Feeling more like a piece of meat than a photographer, I carried on up the path making lots of noise and thinking I was probably big enough to make the old lion think twice. Is a camera a weapon? These pictures would have to be good as they might be my epitaph. I did see a bunch of mule deer, including a couple of males fighting each other, which calmed me considerably. I figured they would be long gone if there were predators in the vicinity. Hey, and deer taste better than people anyway. 

After a morning hiking and taking pictures in the forest of junipero and fir that fill the basin, I got on the bike and headed out of the hills and down to the Rio Grande again for the longest scenic ride in the park . The road wanders out of the volcanic hills and ends up at the river at Castelon. Here the Mexican river-bank is a huge 1,500 ft cliff stretching East-West for 20 miles. The river cuts through the escarpment upstream at the Canyon of Santa Elena. I wish I could have spent more time there, but I cut inland along the Old Maverick dirt road short cut to the Park entrance. I wanted to see if my bike could indeed do gravel roads. I got more than I bargained for: some sand, mud and a couple of mild streams in addition to the gravel. The machine, even fully loaded, is outstanding. The driver needs to improve his off-road skills. But I did learn how to drive standing up -- and in doing so found that the bike had been carefully designed for this kind of travel, with special places for my knees to rest against the fuselage, and sharp teeth on the pegs so my feet wouldn't slip. I must say, whipping along a gravel road at 30 mph standing in the pegs was one of the highlights of the day.

The sun was low when I turned North, out of the Park and up to the small town of Marathon and the Gage hotel that Cathy and Ernie had recommended . Heed their words ! The place was lovely. Occupying most of a town block (there are three more) on Main Street, it offers an early 20th century building full of charm and dark wood, now under reconstruction, and a new one story fake adobe hut building where I was. Service was organized as in the Monterey, VA. Dinner in the hotel, but for breakfast you are out on the town, providing work and income to other local establishments. My breakfast with three members of the community was very interesting. They hate Alpine (the next town along the tracks), but are proud to be in the largest county in Texas. Everyone in town is related, and one guy just had 25 rifles stolen by Mexican bandits -- something that would never have happened 15 years ago. And I met a really good landscape photographer -- James Evans -- who sold me a book and gave me a lot to think about.
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Comments

Ellie
2013-01-15

Great post, Dada! Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself.

Harry
2013-01-15

Very nice shots.

2025-02-15

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