Meandering the Mae Simmons Park Trail and More

It's been about three weeks since we were out hiking, and we've had a few days to recover from our very active crewing at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - so we decided to look for a little more extensive outdoor activity here in the Lubbock area.  The 5 mile long Mae Simmons Park Trail interested us because it offers the opportunity to hike along the shore of Canyon Lake, a manmade lake formed by the damming of the north fork of the Brazos River in Yellow House Canyon.

The lake is pretty - perhaps 1.5 miles long, with docks and shoreline for fishing.  Here is a view of the lake as we started the trail.

The trail covers open hillside on the east side of the lake.  Much of the terrain is hilly, and we suspect that much of it had been a formal or informal landfill before it was dedicated to recreation and wildlife habitat.  Here is a typical view from the trail:

The northern end of the trail passes through Prairie Dog Town.  We realized this when we started hearing those characteristic alarm "eeps" from the local denizens.  There were thousands of burrows, and in every case, as we approached, an appointed sentry would give up his cry, barking at us until we got too close, then dive into his burrow, to be succeeded by another sentry along our path.  Here's a photo of our favorite prairie dog friend, Cynomus, who let us get very close before diving into his rocky hole:

Yellow House Canyon, which was flooded by Canyon Lake, was the site of a battle between a force of Comanches and Apaches against a group of American bison hunters that occurred on March 18, 1877.  The murder of Marshall Sewell, a well-liked buffalo hunter, started the conflict between 300 Comanche, Apaches, and possibly Mescalero from Oklahoma, and 47 white buffalo hunters.  The murder of Sewell was the result of Indian resentment against overhunting of buffalo in the area by white hunters.  The conflict ended with a ten hour fight, which would be the last fight between Indians and the White Man on the High Plains of Texas.

The area looked peaceful enough today as we hiked.  There were even shaded groves of trees for us to rest in during our hike:

It is fall, which we imagine is one of two beautiful times of year in West Texas.  We some pretty wildflowers --

-- and some wild squash, which we imagine the prairie dogs love to feast on:

David even explored some prickly pear cactus that popped up every once in a while along the trail:

Signs about the trail warn of rattlesnakes, but we didn't spot any during our hike.  We did see some outcroppings of intriguing soft limestone rock, which made us wonder if this weren't the geologic remains of part of the great inland sea that covered this area a millenia ago:

Even though the temperatures weren't high, and there was a cooling wind, every shady stop was welcome:

We finished our hike with a late lunch, and then returned to our campground to do some chores, have dinner, and get ready for the event of our evening:  a face-off between the local Coronado High School Mustangs football team and their cross-town competitors, the Monterey Plainsmen!

We could have waited until tomorrow and tried to get tickets to the Homecoming Game for local Texas Tech, but that is a BIG DEAL locally; the tickets would be expensive (if even available) and the seating would be crowded and uncomfortable, and we decided it would be better to be out doing something else while the whole city of Lubbock, Texas watches the Texas Tech game.

The high school game was rock 'em sock 'em, with all the hoopla you would expect from a Texas high school sports event.  It seemed the whole school turned out to support each team.  The football squads were HUGE - between 60 and 70 varsity players on each team.  And, of course, the City of Lubbock built a huge stadium where all four high school teams play - with games on Thursday and Friday nights:

Because a Texas Tech player is a Heisman Trophy candidate this year, the Heisman Trophy is in town for tomorrow's college game - and it dropped by the high school game to give everyone a chance to have their photo taken with it.  During the first quarter, David hopped over to get his photo.

Kathy held onto our seats.  Originally, we sat right on the 50-yard line in the lower tier, but we quickly realized that this was where all the high school students sit; the parents sat in the next section over.  So, to keep from having to stand the whole game - and to hear ourselves talk, we moved over with the other old fogeys.  There was still hoopla to spare!