After a round of holiday parties you might be tempted to spend New Year’s Day lolling around on the couch pretending to read between naps. We wanted to try something new this year, so we made reservations to hike in Lost Maples, a state of Texas natural area near Vanderpool, Texas, about 90 minutes from home for us.
Following a leisurely breakfast and coffee at home we arrived at Lost Maples around 11:00. It was a sunny, cool day and there was still a bit of mist in the air under the trees.
When you prepare to go on a hike it is advantageous to consider the weather and the hiking conditions. Here, the Sabinal River flows onto the trail and you can experience walking on wet limestones with crystal clear water trickling around them. My gear includes hiking sticks to keep me steady walking in water, on rolling stones, and uphill. My hiking shoes are the same shoes I wear at home when out working on the land. It’s a good idea to dress in layers, in this case, wearing two sweaters one over the other. My pants are loose fitting and have multiple pockets with flaps – a good place to keep your phone when not taking photos. We have a lightweight daypack where we keep some home-made trail mix and metal water containers.
After stumbling over roots and loose rocks a few times it seemed best to stop hiking to look and listen closely. Sometimes when we stopped, others on the trail stopped with us.
How fitting to stand with strangers and marvel at the sound of water trickling on stones.
On this particular day we spotted a large flat boulder under a tree where we could sit and take a short break for some water and a handful of trail mix.
Hiking in the clear dry air and sun, it wasn’t long before we began to feel an incredible sense of peace. We started noticing things like this rock split in half by the root of an ash juniper or cedar tree as they are called here. The root found a fissure in the rock and over time split the rock, then trailing down one side and curling to the front as if to hold the pieces in place.
The roots of these trees have surrounded smaller rocks and seem to be holding the stones in place. Perhaps the sun warmed stones protect the tree roots.
These blue gray boulders speckled with black are the same as the ones we have forming ledges and resting in the native grasses at the far end of our land. Here they have rolled from the hills and into the field of native grass and sotol. A Texas Hill Country sort of Stonehenge.
This large fallen tree fascinated me. Trees here in the Texas Hill Country are often stunted due to the rocky limestone and frequent drought. They are survivors. On our land we have a tree growing from the dead stump of its predecessor. This tree may have been here for some time as it has been worn smooth. Let’s look closer…
A few large roots remain at one end.
A couple of feet beyond is this open orifice, possibly a place where a large branch separated from the trunk. The ridges and lines make a beautiful pattern inside the trunk.
This depression looks almost like an eye peering out from beneath a bushy brow.
The texture of the tree trunk in the sunlight is breathtaking.
Notice the ovoid protrusion and the light wavy lines along the trunk.
Not all is quiet on the trail today. There are cries of “Boys, slow down and wait for your sister!” “Mommmmmm, Hurry UP!” “Where can we go fishing?” and to one of the dogs on the trail “Stay to the right, boy, to the right. Good boy!”
Several times we move a bit off the trail to let others pass so we can pretend to be alone in the wilderness…so we can hear the wind in the branches above…so we don’t have to hurry.
During one of these stops we notice the patterns in the bare branches above.
When we get hungry, our picnic lunch is not too far away, just past the clear water underneath these behemoth boulders.
We brought our journals and after the picnic took time to record our thoughts on this, the first day of a new year.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust
Discover more from from deep in the heart
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One Response
What a beautiful experience that you portrayed with vivid descriptions that made me feel as if I were there…without the foot pain, although I have better hiking shoes now!