TSL Texas held its second annual StrenFest on November 10th-12th at Colorado Bend State Park.
In attendance were Chris Markle (@cmarkle), Colby Jackson (@colbyjack), and myself, Brian Hart (@bhart).
The series of events were as follows:
Friday—We arrived at camp after finishing our work days and set up our tents. Chris provided a classic campout dinner of hot dogs and sausages that we cooked over an open fire. We enjoyed stimulating conversation around the campfire, interrupted only by a daring raccoon that tried to make off with our bag of Sun Chips (I chased him off and retrieved it, leaving no trace).
Saturday—We woke up after a slight drizzle the night before, and Chris set a fire. We cooked bacon, eggs, and peppers and threw together some breakfast tacos, a Texas staple.
After breakfast, we strapped our backpacks and hit the trail for a mid-morning ruck. We started along the Spicewood Springs trail, which afforded idyllic views of clear springs bubbling up out of the limestone and meandering towards the river in a series of falls and pools amid deciduous trees in entire fall colors. As we climbed out of the river valley, we hooked up with the Lemons Ridge Pass trail, and the leafy foliage gave way to cedar (Ashe Juniper) stands. Descending off the backside of the ridge, we met up with the River Trail that follows the banks of the Colorado River and took that back to our campsite. The whole loop was a little under 6 mi with ~400 ft of elevation gain and took us approximately 2.5 hours to complete.
After our ruck, we enjoyed turkey sandwiches that tasted like Michelin 5-star fare after a strenuous outing. After lunch, we rigged up some rods and, after a brief casting lesson held by @bhart, headed down to the river to try some fly fishing. Unfortunately, the water was pretty muddy due to the recent rains, and the fishery was unproductive. We did spot a rather large tailing carp, but if you’ve ever fly-fished for a carp, you know that seeing one and catching one are two different things.
For our next event, we took some time to practice our knotsmanship. We cut some pieces of rope to length and practiced whipping and fusing their ends. Once finished, we practiced our lashings on some wooden fence posts Colby brought, making a tripod out of three. We set up two tripods with a post spanning them, and it was strong enough for Colby to hang from it. There was considerable buzz amongst our campsite neighbors regarding our construction, as everyone was curious about what we would do with this contraption. It was even a point of conversation with the friendly rangers who stopped by on their evening rounds, who were impressed with our knot-tying prowess.
After finishing up the tripods, we set to making dinner. We grilled some burgers generously provided by Colby over the fire and enjoyed more manly conversation well into the night before turning in.
Sunday—We woke up, and Chris got another fire going with some of the wood he had brought. We set to make breakfast. We enjoyed pancakes (I didn’t forget the syrup this time), bacon, and blueberries.
After breakfast, we broke camp, cleaned up our area, and hit the road, homeward bound.
Overall, it was a fantastic weekend amongst men I greatly admire. It’s always a pleasure to get away from the hum-rum of daily life, let the crisp air of public lands fill your lungs, and engage in pleasant conversation with friends around glowing coals. I already look forward to our next StrenFest.
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