Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire On the road again.

Happy dogs always make for a good photo....



2:30 in the afternoon leaving Fredericksburg, 41 indicated miles to Mason, about 30 to my intended next stop for the night on the Lano. Mostly climbing the first ten miles, but nothing my gears couldn't handled, fine smooth pavement, wide shoulder, tailwind, all good.

Three hours and thirty miles to the Llano. On a bicycle trip ya go from weary to feeling good and back again in a heartbeat. Seen this a few miles from the Llano, an old Aeromotor in operation next to a solar panel, interesting juxtaposition of technology, I wonder what them fictional Rangers McCall and McCrae woulda thought.....



Thirty miles in three hours, hills not withstanding, still feeling strong when I rolled up on the Llano....



Not wanting to start a debate, but I've been in a bunch of states, Texas can go full-on retard when it comes to public access and so it was here. I was looking down at a navigable waterway, I could camp on that river, just had no way of getting down to it, even for a price, it was all fenced off.

So now I was in a bind.

Nine miles to Mason but the 'net indicated no camping there and only one pricey hotel on the square. All I needed was a small patch of ground for the night, in bicycle parlance terms this is called "wild camping". Unlike many, I won't cross a property line to do it. I just needed a 3'x6' patch of public right of way for the night. Lots of places ya can do that without worry but..... did I mention this is Texas?

What decided me was I had less than a quart of water left, typically when you quit after a long day on these things to drink like a gallon over a couple of hours. Nothing for it but to cross my fingers and head to Mason, and water, and then maybe pay out the wazoo for a pricey hotel that I had no use for other than maybe wifi and a shower. Suddenly I was weary and discouraged again.

Get to the grocery store in Mason and... Holy Kshizzle! the friendly young lady on the cash register tells me cheap camping is available at the fairgrounds just around the corner. I grab a gallon of that all-important water and on impulse a half-gallon of buttermilk. I chug down the buttermilk outside the store (this is the "bottomless pit effect", common when bike touring), refill my four 24oz water bottles and head out.

Get to the campground, way-cool elderly retired Arizona State Cop is the campground host, White Mountain area. Campsites with electricity and hot showers just $10 a night. I'm pretty sure if I make it to Heaven, camping there is just $10 a night with power and hot showers

Day 2: 68 miles, 118 total.

Money spent: $4 root beer at Luckenbach, $12 Wataburger, $9 for peaches, $4 groceries, $10 campsite= ~$40. $80 total