This was kind of a spur of the moment trip. Texas Hunting Forum member Mulie_Mike knew I was needing a cape to have an Aoudad remount done. He had one that was not being mounted, caped it, packed it out, and froze it for me. Arrangements were made for me to meet with one of his guides in Lajitas this week. So to make a road trip out of it, I loaded up Blaze, survival gear, and left a few days early for a fandango in Big Bend country.

I stayed at Black Gap WMA and camped right on the river at one of the fish camps.
Blaze being bored while I set up camp.

I had not been to the Big Bend since I was a kid. My Dad and I had driven the jeep trails, hiked some, and did a Canoe trip on the Rio Grande before. Not having been there since I was young, I spent a lot more time just exploring rather than hunting.

The scenery was spectacular. What a beautiful place to hunt. I did a lot of driving around on the area's roads. Though I did see quail from the road a couple times on the first day, I did not hunt them yet. They were skittish and would fly at sight of the truck. Of the few from a half dozen hunters or hunter groups still on the area Sunday afternoon, reports ranged from no birds to one large group of hunters well outfitted with several dogs and specialized vehicles having taken quite a few collectively.

A popular way to hunt there seems to be to drive the roads, look for birds, and try to bust the covies. I imagine most hunt this way. Being the last week of season and having been hunted hard. Birds were flushing or running at the sound or sight of a vehicle I found.

I prefer to hunt with the dog anyway. So I concentrated on water. Here is one of the "Guzzlers" for collecting rain water.

Birds were also using this windmill, but it was impossible to get close enough to those late season birds to flush on that thick flat ground They would run like chickens through the brush.

Blaze cooling off.

Everything sticks, pokes, scratches, or bites here.

Some places the cholla cactus was thick. I think I heard someone call this type S.O.B. Cactus once. It attracts to man and beast like
a magnet and stays with you.

Ouch!

Exploring an old adobe ranch house.

And an old Car. Can you identify the make and model for me???
The little mountain in the background is across the river in Mexico.

For the fun of it. I picked a mountain to climb.

Looking down on that sandbar, there are some little dots.

Zoomed in, they are Javelinas.

I also took a hike following the river as best I could between the difficult terrain and bamboo.

Blaze pointing something. Probably a Javelina as they were around.

Things you see while hunting. We ran up on this one eyed feral Steer. It bowed up to Blaze like it was going to chase her, so we backed off and moved on.

Evidence of hunters before us.

Back at camp.

This was the river at camp. It was cold at night and hot during the day, so this was a nice place to cool off in the afternoon. My first night it sounded like horses crossing the river at 3:00 am and Blaze freaked out a few minutes later. I never did figure out what all the noise was. I slept with my pistol the next two nights and kept my tent open so Blaze could play watchdog. She launched on camp intruders "animals" about 5 times the second night. I got used to it and never woke up from any of it the third night.

Blaze patiently waiting on pancakes and bacon breakfast.

The afternoons were in the high 80s to low 90s every day. It was too hot for man or dog to hunt that kind of country. So I found other things to do.

Nap in the shade of the bamboo while fishing. And there are all the catfish a man could want to catch. I got to where I just did not bait my hook for fear of having to wake up to take a fish off.

Another day I climbed to a rock shelter for a long afternoon nap in the cool shade. Blaze enjoyed it and stood guard over me.

Continued next page.