PICKING A PARK
As soon as I decided to go camping on my own, I asked my friend Eric for his list of favorite camping spots near Austin. Here’s Eric’s list:
- Colorado Bend State Park
- Emma Long Park (municipal)
- Canyon of the Eagles Resort
- Big Bend – do the basin for first trip (not so close to Austin)
- Lost Maples State Natural Area
- Amistad National Recreation Area
I picked Colorado Bend State Park because it looked beautiful, it was far enough away from Austin to feel like I was getting away, and I’d never been to that part of Texas before. The first thing I did was hop online and make my reservation. Here’s the how-to for that.
I reserved 3 days / 2 nights, for my first trip: out on Tuesday and back on Thursday. If you can manage it, I’d suggest car-camping at state parks on weekdays. You’ll have way more peace and quiet on the grounds, and on the trails. It was really just me and 10 RVs sprinkled around that loop. The RV campers are mostly retirees. They are for the most part friendly, and they really don’t seem to hit the trails or watering holes that hard.
GEAR
Then I started BUYING GEAR. I tried to reign it in, but I was really starting from zero, so I spent some cash. More than I wanted to, for sure. The first thing I purchased was a tent. The 3-person tent that Peter and I had was way too big for just me, and really unwieldy for me to set up on my own. After a ton of research, I landed on the REI Co-op Passage 2.
I also bought a sleep pad and an inflatable pillow. And then I bought all the little things: lantern, bungee, rope, headlamp, first-aid kit, and an extra tarp.
Then I BORROWED Eric’s cooking kit which included a custom-pantry his dad had built to fit in the back of his truck, a Coleman stove, and an amazing old boy scout cook set + a percolator. If you have a good friend that is a regular camper, I really recommend borrowing gear before you buy it. It’ll help you sort out what you need vs. what you just want. As soon as I got home from this trip, I hopped on ebay and bought a Coleman Duel Fuel, and then went to REI to get a lightweight dish/cookset/pantry kit, which I’ll talk about more in the Lost Maples post.
CAMPGROUNDS
When I got there, I checked in at the park office and paid for the site. I hadn’t figured this out yet, but when you reserve a Texas state park campsite, you don’t pick your site until you get there. So most people do a drive-thru to scout for a site before they go into the office. I just picked mine based on the park map. I did alright, but I could have done much better because if I had driven through, I would have seen which sites were occupied and who and really how close my neighbors would be. The Texas State Parks Dept. is going to change their reservation system for 2019, I think, so this info has an expiration date. In the future, you’ll have to pick your spot online – no scouting. :/
The campgrounds have two levels. There’s a set of sites that are pretty much on the river bank. You park your car, and then walk down a small hill to get to those sites. And then there’s a set that are up on that hill – that’s where I was. So I could set my chair at the edge of the hill and watch the river, or just walk down to it and put a chair there.
And the campgrounds have three big sections. I was at the middle section between the section closest to the park office the section, closest to the River Trail trailhead, where I wish I had stayed. This is also where you would park if you were going to primitive camp at the River Backpack Camping Area.
All of the toilets are compost. There’s a hose with potable water. There is no dump station – no grey/black water dumping permitted.
I bought some firewood from the park office. But it got rained on out of the gate, and then I wan’t confident I could start a fire and was too embarrassed to be seen trying and failing. I have some pride issues to work out, clearly.
And then I pitched my tent. I was so nervous to do it with people around. I know not one soul was watching, but it felt like a competency gauntlet had been thrown. To boot, it started raining in the middle of my pitch. I panicked a bit, but I got it done. I only made one silly error, which was I let the ground tarp I was using as “door mats” stick out past the fly, so water dripped from the fly onto it, making little door mat puddles. Lesson learned.
Once the tent was pitched, I ran to my car and grabbed some pasta out of the cooler and then dove into my tent to eat and wait out the storm. Eating in your tent is generally bad practice, but I wasn’t about to not have dinner. That storm lasted the entire night. I was in my tent from 6pm until 5am the next day. I weathered the storm twice to go to the bathroom, and that was it.
WAS I SCARED?
That’s the question I’ve been asked the very most. Being a woman alone (essentially anywhere) at a campground, alone in my tent, alone on a trail.
I was way way way more scared of the raging thunderstorm than I was anything else. I squealed – kind of with delight/excitement, but also with fear – at every lightening crack and thunder roll.
But, I was not scared camping alone.
I was alert, though. As soon as the weather allowed, I did a walk around the campgrounds – I put eyes on every person there and noted “friendlies” – people I might approach for help if I needed it. I figured out where all the bathrooms were and where the payphone was (there was no cell service). And then I felt solid.
Also, I think some other woman on her blog or video said something that stuck – the odds of someone looking to do people harm going all the way out to a state park to do that harm… are pretty slim.
HIKING
The next day was beautiful, so I HIKED. I had bought an REI Flash daypack – and I have meh feelings about it. It’s super light, but the water pockets on the side are too shallow and bottles fall out when you bend over. That seems pretty basic… but I’m gonna use it until it dies.
There’s about 11 miles of trail out there, but I was so focused on camping, I hadn’t thought about hiking. When I was wandering around I saw the River Trail trailhead and decided to hike that to Gorman Falls. It was 4.5 miles out, so it was a 9 mile day. That was my first-ever real day hike. Alone. The trail was a sloggy mess from the storm all night, so much of it was picking my way around huge puddles while also trying to stay “on trail.” A couple of young guys chased me down about 1/5 of the way in. They had seen me trying to find a walking stick and found one for me and ran to catch me to give it to me. They also offered to walk with me if I was nervous to walk alone. Honestly, I was kind of overcome with how sweet they were. They were my first two people to encounter on this solo-adventure and they went above and beyond. It almost dragged me out of my introversion… but not quite. I thanked them and hiked on alone deciding that all outdoorsy people were friendly and thinking I should try to be more friendly… argh.
I noticed, along the way, a marker for a primitive campsite, so I followed that trail. I had never seen one and was curious what it would look like. This got me pretty far off the Gorman Falls trail and (I have no sense of direction) I ended up having to bushwack my way back to the trail, which I found again mostly by accident. The primitive sites are along the river and are decent. But the further along you go, your view becomes people’s houses all along the shore across the way. Not amazing. 🙁
After a while you pass bat caves, and then a recreation center. I got lost again because I didn’t realize the trail crossed a creek bed – I followed the creek bed for a while, then doubled back, sat down and ate an apple and lucked out that some people passed me so I could follow them.
Gorman Falls is not ugly. The weird little climb to get to it was kind of a thing. I consider myself sporty and with good balance and decent strength and I struggled a bit – it’s just really awkward. This shot is from the ridge on the side of the falls. Then you walk down to a platform with benches. The falls aren’t accessible because dumbasses climb on them and destroy them… so it’s a bit like going to see a caged waterfall at the zoo.
The hike back to the campgrounds was pretty sad-making and not beautiful really at all, as I remember it. I took no pictures. It was just humid and wet and long and boring.
FOOD
I got back to my site around 4pm. I had been a little worried about my stuff still being there when I returned (I put the valuable stuff in my car), but it was untouched. I cooked the world’s tastiest Beyond Meat hamburger, chips and an apple right away.
I brought too much food, it turns out. One of the things you learn about camping and hiking is that you pack your fears. Apparently one of my fears is not having enough to eat… That weekend I brought pre-made pasta salad, some buffalo tofu and kale salad from Wheatsville, oatmeal and pancakes for breakfasts, and plenty of coffee and tea.
SITTING IN A CHAIR
After dinner I set up that camp chair and stared at the river and worked one of my Linda Barry books – I had hoped it could be a bit of an art retreat – and it really was. It’s a perfect time/place to settle in and do some writing and drawing. I was in heaven.When I wasn’t hiking, cooking, or wandering, I was sitting in that (borrowed) chair. I excel at stillness. I love solitude. This is the lifestyle for me.