The grey light of dawn cast no shadow upon the grey gray sand surrounding our beach camp on Padre Island.
The grey light was welcome. With the dawn came the sight of my 4Runned remaining mired in the loose sand right where I had driven her. Through the wind and rain of the night, my concern was that the storm tide would rise high onto the beach and sweep her out into the Gulf of Mexico. Not a serious concern, but that shadowed scenario did darken my thoughts as I lay awake in the storm with a leaking tent as the drips through the defective rainfly pushed me to find a higher, drier corner.
It was grey and damp. It would soon be a grey December. It was only grey and damp; it was not raining, it was not windy and it was looking like the dawn of a better day. As planned, it was our day to get off Padre Island and head to higher ground; Enchanted Rock State Park out of Fredericksburg.
A three hour drive would put us in the vicinity of Dave and Teri, residents of Fredericksburg and welcoming friends whom we infrequently get a chance to see. Dave was a great housemate of mine during Grad School days in the early 1980's in Austin. Most everything I know and enjoy in Texas, I learned and experienced from Dave.
We had a dewy tent, full of sand (it can't be helped) which I rolled and packed along with our cooler, folding chairs, camp gear and a large canvas ground cloth, finely coated in veneer of Padre's souvenir sand. All was soon packed in the back of my 2-Wheel Drive 4Runner. Fellow beach-dweller Luke came by with his rig and gave me a helpful tug with his tow strap and in an instant we were firmly footed on hardpacked sand. We were on our way off the island.
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| The Fox Burrow Airbnb; Isolated Country Cabin. Ideal. |
Our reserved Airbnb, The Fox Burrow, is less than 10 minutes west of Fredericksburg. Our hostess had a heater going in the bathroom when we arrive, great for warming our tootsies after a night in a wet tent. The Fox Burrow was quite charming and ideal for our purposes. A nice, large bed off of a seating area. The shower was spacious and had plenty of hot water. We freshened up, washing the majority of the sand out of our hair and off our skin and enjoying the joys that only come from a hot shower after days of camping in the rain and wind.
As I planned this multifaceted trip, I realized that I was most looking forward to meeting up with Dave and Teri. It was an easy jaunt from the Fox Burrow into the beautiful downtown Fredericksburg. We had arranged to meet Dave and Teri for a German meal in a town that caters to its German heritage.
Clean and refreshed, I drove away from our Airbnb cottage, realizing that I had only one headlight. Once we parked at the Auslander Restaurant, I popped the hood to see if I could coax the bulb to light up again. I had a suspicion that it was a loose connections since the filament was not burned through. As I was working under the hood with a flashlight, a car pulled in next to me, "Do you need some help?"
'HEY! Is that you Suneson. Man!" I briefly explained the situation and some comment was made about my long, whitre, wild whiskers that had altered my appearance much since the 1980's.
Teri called out, "I like it." Dave chooses well, Teri is a fine example.
Enough of that headlight - let's go eat some schnitzel, German potatoes and sauerkraut. A bottle of Gewurztraminer was thrown in for added fun.
Sue and I did most of the talking; catching up, answering questions and filling in our lives over the last eight years. It was good times all over again. it was so good we decided we should do it again soon - how about tomorrow?
Dave is a retired elementary teacher and works at the Fredericksburg Visitor's Hospitality Center (the perfect job for him). He advised us that we need reservations to get into 'The Rock'; more formally known as Enchanted Rock Texas State Natural Area. Befroe we left home, I punched in my credit card and vehicle information to claim a 10:30 AM reservation on Monday morning. Good advice from Dave. The rangers checked license plate and verified our ID before we we allowed into the popular place. Once inside, we encountered few people on a crisp and baeutiful day for hiking and climbing The Rock.
Enchanted Rock is a Precambrian igneous emplacement of the Llano Uplift that is over a billion years old. The granite is pink (from potasium in the feldspar; you have to know these things if you're a geologist you know) and has been used to build the pink granite capitol builing in Austin.
We didn't move fast as we were drawn to the interesting variety of weathered rock shapes and a chance to look upclose at the mineralogy (this is all very exciting for two geologists).
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| We just can not hike past this wonderful rock without climbing it - so cool! |
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| A fitting throne for a old geologist |
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| An interesting window and stalk ganitic formation |
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| Split Decision |
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| Mark takes a rest in the window |
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| Sue documents mineralogy |
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| A secret cave crevas |
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| Mark muscles his way into daylight |
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| Loop Trail Beauty |
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| Moss Lake on the backside of Enchanted Rock |
We cut off the Loop Trail half way around and made our way through Echo Canyon, a roughed, boulder-strewn passage before scrambling up the side of The Rock to the summit.
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| This is the famous "Falling Rock" an old-timer on the Echo Canyon Cutoff |
Climbing through Echo Canyon's crease 
Sue mounts the flanks of Enchanted Rock - 400 feet to the top 
The view from on top 
Sue and her cactus summit 
Vernal pool atop Enchanted Rock 
Vernal pool drains 400' of the dome 
Sue checks the attitude of an aplite dike on Enchanted Rock 
Mark splittinghis brtiches over an exfoliated slab 
Big block of pink granite once rumbled down the slope 
One last stop to examine the crystaline structure of the igneous implacement 
A hole at the bottom of The Rock.
We descend off Enchanted Rock after a perfect day for hiking. Dave sends us a text: Meet us at Last Draw wine bar for a bottle at 4 PM!
We agree. We clamber off the Rock, change our clothes at the Fox Burrow and head back to town to pick up where we left off last night with Dave and Teri.
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