This past Friday, I attended TrUE’s weekend service break to Caprock Canyon State Park. We started bright and early from Lubbock and reached Turkey, Texas around 9am. The drive was short, but it seemed more shorter as we, all the volunteers, kept ourselves busy in a fun conversation throughout the whole time. It was quite surprising how fast we got acquainted to each other, given the fact that we just met once in the RSB Training a week before the trip.
As we reached the site, we walked into the visitor center, the rangers welcomed us and they were really delighted by our presence. We got to know how the trails in the park have been affected by graffiti done by many visitors over the years. So, removing graffiti from the trails was the main issue that we were focusing on in this service break! Le’Ann, one of the park rangers gave us a tour of the trailway which used to be part of the rail spur, and drove us through the Clarity Tunnel which is the home to the Mexican free-tailed bats. As we crossed the tunnel, we made our first stop as we came across a large portion of the trail scribbled with graffiti. Couldn’t agree more that graffiti breeds graffiti! So we got on our gloves and started to hammer, chisel and scrape off the entombed strokes of graffiti in every way possible.
By noon, we were really amazed by our own work and only the before and after pictures of the trail could show the difference. Afterwards we got back to the visitor center and ate our sack lunch. Later that afternoon, we toured around and took some beautiful pictures of the canyon. We stayed at a community service center during the trip, so after we were done for the day we went there. For dinner, our chef Sarah (who is also a participant in this RSB) made some delicious stuffed bell peppers for all of us. We were all very tired after a long day so made our bed and slept around 9 o’clock, which is super early for me.
Next morning, we packed our sandwich bags and headed to the Caprock Canyon State Park again. We were waiting eagerly to know which part of the park we would be working that day. So that day’s graffiti removal service was near the Fern Cave-site 18 of the park. So we got into two ATVs one following the other. It was the most exciting experience for me in the entire trip. The journey was a real roller coaster ride throughout the rocky trails. We stopped a couple of times to collect the plastic waste from the trail. And finally as we reach the site full of graffiti we are again busy getting some before pictures of the trail so that we can compare with it ‘if‘ we can successfully clear off the marks. There is always a ‘if’. The second day was not so bad as the rocks were damp and easy to scrape off. So, everything is positive till the second day. We were successful in the service! So then we started to hike to the fern cave. It was getting hotter and hotter and reached almost 106F as we make it to the peak of the Fern Cave. The view was panoramic! I didn’t expect so much green to be up there!
Later that evening we got back and had some reflections about our trip so far. And then we went for dinner at Hotel Turkey. It was a relaxing atmosphere and even better food. We spent some time listening to music and counting stars from the hotel’s patio as the Hotel Turkey poster reads, ‘’You might give some serious thought to thanking your Lucky Stars, you’re in Turkey Texas.’’The next morning we had a free day and we hiked to the Eagle Point. The weather was better than the previous days so we take some time looking around the trail full of gypsum.
Overall, going on the trip was such an amazing experience. I got to help improve a state park and worked with an amazing bunch of people! I would definitely go back again if given the opportunity.
