Monday, January 31, our first morning at Choke Canyon, dawned clear and relatively warm, but we noticed that the forecast was worsening, so we made sure to get out for a bike ride while we could. Still a little tired from our ride on Saturday, we spent an hour exploring around the campground and surrounding area on road bikes, looking for the wifi signal rumored to exist, but not finding much hope there. Mike DID find some basketball courts with a bin of basketballs though! We spotted some deer but no sign of any more javalinas, and for better or worse, none of the alligators mentioned in frequent ominous warning signs! We did some organizing in the afternoon and were even able to get in some time on the zero-gravity lounge chairs!
Tuesday, February 1 the weather was still good and the forecast still worsening. We got ourselves out for a ‘real’ ride for a couple hours. About a quarter of the out-and-back ride was on a busier highway, about half on a quiet and relatively smooth back road which cut along the edge of ‘our’ lake (called Yarbrough Lake on the map, and the remainder on some really small, beat-up side roads that got us off the busy highway on our way back. Except for the green and swampy growth near the water (where we crossed the Frio River as it flowed into the lake) the terrain was miles and miles of rolling brown landscape. But it was sunny, warm and not overly windy! And on our return we were rewarded with warm showers.
Wednesday we got up and got going a bit early, driving out to the local town of Three Rivers and beyond while it was still pretty cold. We were in search of a propane fill (we carry 2 20lb tanks, the size that go on a barbeque – but we burn through them a lot faster! About one every 10 days in this chillier weather…) and a grocery store for some staples. Most everyone we talked to was full of anticipation (dread?) about the coming ‘cold snap’. In the afternoon, we got out our mountain bikes to try the park trails. We covered pretty much all the trails, Mike got in some hoops, and we watched the skies grow more threatening. We could feel the temperature dropping so we were happy enough to snuggle inside for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Crockpot chili helped to warm the trailer AND our bellies!
Thursday was cold and rainy from start to finish. It was a good day for reading, blogging and phone visits! In the afternoon, we forced ourselves to get out for a bit of running (Janine) and walking (Mike) around the campground. We couldn’t help but notice how all the other campers were also hunkering down for the duration. Brrr! More chili! That night, the water in our hose (and the hookup) froze, but with the furnace, the mattress heaters and our portable electric heater, we managed to stay warm enough! It was forecast to be about 28 degrees overnight, so we had disconnected all hoses etc, turned on the water tank heaters, and we got up and ran the taps once or twice in the night to make sure we didn’t freeze a pipe.
We got an early night and planned to drive up to San Antonio (about an hour drive) to explore a bit.
Friday morning we got going as early as we could, under cold, grey skies. As we drove north toward San Antonio, the sun began to peek out a bit, but the wind was still icy so we made good use of down jackets, hats and gloves! Our first stop was a big RV lot, where we got to see a couple brands/models similar to what we were thinking we wanted.
Then we headed in to downtown San Antonio, where we were met with a lot of road construction. We managed to find parking near The Alamo, and looked around there for an hour or two. In addition to the surviving buildings, there are some good displays that tell the story, from when the mission was first built in the 1700s to ‘Remember the Alamo’ to the present day.
Then we headed to the famous RiverWalk which was surprisingly full of tourists in spite of the temperatures in the 40s! It was a good opportunity to stretch our legs, though the outdoor restaurants and bars seemed a little less than totally inviting!
From there we headed, still on foot, across town to the historic Market Square, apparently the go-to place for tourist shopping. More or less an upscale flea market, the colors of serapes, banners, rugs and cowboy hats were matched by the smells of pastries and lunch from the food-stands.
We headed back to the Riverwalk on foot and were pretty exhausted by the time we got back. We rewarded ourselves with a visit to Whataburger , a chain we had been seeing with surprising frequency. We were hoping would compete with In and Out Burgers but turned out to be more like Texas’ answer to McDonalds. Anyway, it was warm, we got to sit down, and the food was good enough! Check that off our list!
We finished off our ‘tour’ with a few minutes driving around the Historical District which was just full of gorgeous old homes, then headed happily toward OUR little home-on-wheels. We made a stop to a HEB Market (did we mention how great this grocery chain is? There are 350 of them in Texas and northern Mexico. We Love the HEB!) on our drive back to Choke Canyon and the campground, as we didn’t find everything we needed at the tiny local grocery store in Three Rivers. Then back to camp, where we found a bit of sun had edged in as well! A FULL day!
Saturday, February 5 we woke again to 28 degree temperatures, wind and SUN. While waiting for it to warm up a bit, Janine did a Zoom yoga class while Mike read and napped. Janine found some Texas gravel events scheduled for February and March, and spent some time working our itinerary to be able to do some of them. That was a great motivator and around 1pm we braved the chilly wind (about 45 degrees!) and went out for another mountain bike ride with new inspiration. We rode all the trails (like 6 miles) in one direction, and then turned around and did them in the other direction. Then quick showers before it cooled off too much and dinner and a movie!
Sunday, February 6 was another ‘move’ day. We had been lucky to score 4 days at the really popular Lost Maples State Natural Area (also run by the Texas Parks Dept) in the Texas Hill Country, and we were eager to see some more varied terrain. It was so cold, though, that we weren’t overly motivated to get going quickly. Janine did a yoga class, and having learned from a park ranger that while camping in a TX State Park, he could fish without a license, Mike set to digging out his fishing gear that had been packed away in the trailer for a couple years as yet unused. After that we packed up and as the day warmed, we shoved off at about 12:30.
We weren’t in a huge hurry to get to Lost Maples because it looked to be colder than Choke Canyon, so when we stopped at a gas station that happened to have a CAT scale, we pulled up our handy CAT Scale phone app and did a ‘weigh in’. The complexities of weight ‘payload’ and towing limits are significant, but in short, you have 1) the total weight your truck can carry (shown divided per axle) and 2) the weight your truck can tow/pull. Then you have 3) the weight that you can put into your trailer. Both for safety and for the sake of your truck’s engine, you really don’t want to be ‘over’ on any of them. We hadn’t done a weigh-in since we drove the trailer back to Chico in June of 2021, so we were pretty curious. It turned out that the rear axle of the truck was over a bit, but everything else was under. So we planned for a little bit of load-shifting!
The terrain changed, slowly at first, from brown plains to small rollers with oaks to big hills covered in green. Janine at least was really happy with the new scenery! We arrived at Lost Maples around 4pm and it was, of course, cold! Sunny, but there was a solid dusting of snow in any shady areas. Lost Maples, located pretty far off the beaten track, is most popular in the fall months with the change of foliage, but beautiful anytime with an extensive variety of hiking trails (no biking) of various degrees of difficulty.
We got set up pretty quickly and then headed out for the shortest of the many hikes at Lost Maples (since it was way too cold for a bike ride!). The 2.5 mile walk and hike up the beautiful, crystal-clear Sabinal River was just what we needed, and the trailer was warm and cozy when we returned. We still needed to detach and drain our hoses in anticipation of a freezing night, but the weather was due to warm up and we were excited to explore in this great natural setting! That’ll be in our next post, coming SOON!
