Day 6 – Tuesday – Davis Mountains / Big Bend National Park Tour.

After studying the map and pondering that closed road the night before, I made the decision to capture as much of my original plan as possible even if this meant visiting both ends of the closed road and clocking up some serious mileage. I calculated that if I didn’t hang about I could probably get back here before sundown. Wrong! I was up with the lark and on the bike by 6.30 and, after saying farewell to my companions of the previous night who were already on the move next door, set off. It was rather cold and crisp but in a nice and fresh way. I made it down to Presidio, back up to Marfa and over to Alpine in time for and early brunch at Alexander’s Grill and Cantina, some 180 miles.
Approaching Marfa for the second time I was ambushed by the state troopers for speeding but was let off when she found out I was a tourist.
Brunch was a home style burger affair and quite good, the restaurant was full by the time I left with most of the clientele being bookish types from Sul Ross University which is located in Alpine.




118 from Alpine to Study Butte on the Eastern edge of Big Bend National Park was delightful and scenic, the sun was out and it was very warm. The other end of the road closure was past Terlingua but I only went as far as there. Terlingua is an old mining town and, I read someplace, home of an annual Chili festival or ‘Cook Off’ as the Americans say. I also read someplace that out there in the desert are buried many of the JFK conspirators. It was well over 90f when I was there and seemed a desolate sort of place and too close to the Mexican border and all its violence and drug trafficking for comfortable living I felt.

Big Bend National Park is a fine place. Essentially desert and a great deal of its boundary encompasses the border with Mexico. People and Drug smuggling is rife in the park with over 500 miles of ‘Unofficial’ tracks used by the smugglers and border patrolmen are armed to the teeth here. I read that several officers had simply disappeared in the park during the previous 2 years. I saw none of it but just looking around could believe it, fortunately I was out of the park before nightfall. I rode from one end to the other and from top to bottom, it is a very impressive place and your $11 dollars get you unlimited access to the park for a week. Good value I thought.

I saw the first of many deer on the road just before sundown, a whole group of them stood in the road by a bridge. I endured 3 separate incidents of deer running directly across my path on my way back to Fort Davis but anticipating this I rode very cautiously. I arrived back at Indian Lodge in the pitch black just over 12 hours after I left with 11 hours in the saddle and 556 miles on the clock. What a day, an epic biking day and immensely satisfying. Dinner was frugal as the restaurant was closed by the time I got back, just a bag of nachos and a pot of spicy bean dip washed down with a lot of Tequila watching the TV sat in bed, but I was happy.