Thursday, April 2, 2009

Day 27 Vanderpool


Well, for any of you who are wondering, the hill country of Texas is beautiful. We were on country roads all day with minimal traffic and lots of.....you guessed it.....hills. There was still chip seal pavement, but some of our group has decided that we can grade it...A is quite smooth....F is...not....most of our day was on A or B...with a few short distances on the F....

That said, we had some big hills we climbed.....about a mile or so with a 6-10% grade. As is usually the case with hills, when you get to the top you have great views of the surrounding countryside...The vegetation has changed so drastically and there are deciduous trees, that are that wonderful bright green of new leaves and the evergreens, that are a dark green, that is the perfect backdrop for the spring green.

Vanderpool, is a very small town, and there are plenty of ranches en route. We saw our first dead armadillo....it had been dead a while...an area with a lot of dead deer (road kill), some road kill turkey vultures...oh dear...I am just giving you all the dead stuff....let's see...cattle with their calves, sheep with their lambs, horses with their foals....it is spring after all.

We saw an unusual sign for hog traps....and one of the women mentioned this where she had stopped for a snack in Leakey....and a fella' said that he and his brother had trapped 150-200 wild pigs last year. They are a problem for the cattle ranchers and will attach cattle...one of the women, who is from Hawaii said they needed to get some luau's going:) apparently the trapped animals are used as dog feed....

Well, enough about the human interest for the area. We got to our cabins in Vanderpool....a small campsite with seven or eight cabins. These were very nice and a different setting from a hotel, was relaxing and fun. Dinner was inside at the house on site, and was pot roast...got me to wondering if Peter had made a pot roast...I had shown him before I left....I will have to ask.

Mileage: around 39 green and lovely miles.

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