Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge

The past two days I have gone out to the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. I went out to do some hiking. Pictures added June 19, 2009.

The NWR is located northwest of Austin near the town of Lago Vista. The refuge has two trails that are open to the public, on in the Warbler Vista area and the other on the Doeskin Ranch. I hiked the Doeskin Ranch on Wednesday and the Warbler Vista on Thursday.

The Doeskin Ranch is on RM 1174. I approached from the north which gives a really neat perspective. The roads wind through the Texas hill country and then all of a sudden you turn and gaze into the Canyonlands with its much steeper and taller hills.


The sign on the highway directs you to the Doeskin Ranch. When you pull in the gate, take a left into the parking lot. From there, follow the asphalt path to the bulletin boards and trail heads. There are about 5 miles of trails available. My route is described below.

Map of trails at Doeskin Ranch

I set out on the Rimrock trail, following the southern branch. The trail follows the Doeskin Branch for a short while before climbing to the rim rock. The elevation gain is a little over 200'. The trail tops out at the top of the ridge and intersects the Shin Oak Trail. Follow the Shin Oak trail to the right and continue until you intersect the Indiangrass trail. This trail drops off this ridge and climbs back up another creek. One thing of interst I noted was a firering I came across. It was along the creek and the trail climbs back up the ridge. The ring was build of rocks, full of ash, had some trash scattered about, and an orange pool raft. The trash was metal and plastic, so it was hard to age. The ranch has been property of the government since 1992, I believe, and this was certainly not a 17 year old firering. The Indiangrass trail rejoins the Shinoak trail onto of the ridge. After exploring the top of the ridge, I backtracked the Shinoak trail back to the Rimrock trail. I continued down the northern route, which follows a drainage off the ridge back to Doeskin Branch.


Upon returning to the trailhead, I followed the Prairie and Ponds trial. It is a short trail that crosses a grassy pasture and glances by a tank. The tank was built by early settlers and usually contains water. I spotted a few turtles in it. The trail is also paved from the trailhead to the tank and has a few pull offs that overlook the Doeskin Branch.


I then finished my tour with the Creek Trail. It is an interpretive trail with a brochure available at the trailhead to guide you. Be sure to begin the trail at the trailhead and not where it ends at Doeskin Branch. The trail talks about the ecology of the area and some of the history. One of the interesting stops involves a cactus growing in a tree. We had this happen on our deer lease near Conception, but that was because we chunked the cactus into the trees when clearing brush. I always found it odd when the cactus would still be alive a couple of years later.


The wildflowers were gorgious throughout the area. It was worth a trip just to see them. The area is predominantly cleared of trees, giving rise to the wildflowers. The birds were plentiful, particularly vultures riding the updrafts on the rimrock. The information at the trailhead stated that hawks pass through the area in the fall, riding the thermals. Monarches also pass through on their annual migration.



The next day I went to the Warbler Vista public use area.

Map of the Warbler Vista public use area.

The Warbler Vista area is just west of Lago Vista on RM1431. You will see a brown sign indicating the road to the "National Wildlife Refuge." Take a right onto the road and follow it to the first parking lot. This is the trailhead.

I made sort of a double headed lollipop loop out of the trails. The only reason for the second loop was to have hiked all the trails in the area. I set out on the Cactus Rock trail. It follows the rimrock of ridge and is appropriatly named as the area has an abundance of cactus. Opposite to the Doeskin Ranch, this trail remains in a mix of cedars and oaks, with very little open areas. The Cactus Rock trail meets up with the Vista Knoll trail. Besure to take the Vista Knoll Trail as the Cactus Rock trail turns and ends at the road. The Vista Knoll trail immediatly intersects the Ridgeline Trail. I would encourage you to follow the Vista Knoll trail first as it is a short 1.2 mile lollipop loop. The trail provides some decent vistas of the area, looking back to Lake Travis.

After returning to the junction of the Vista Knoll trail and the ridgeline trail. Follow the Ridgeline trail to the Sunset Deck. This deck has a few benchs which make for a great napsite. The deck overlooks a drainage that flows to the lake and faces west. I didn't get to watch the sunset as it was cloudy, but there is a parking lot next to the deck, so one could drive to the deck just for sunset. It is a place Max Stalling sings about in Skyview Cabaret.



After my nap, I followed the road back to where the Cactus Rock trail ended. I backtracked the trail back to the trail head.

If you are in Austin, I encourage you to visit this new refuge. If limited on time, visit the Doeskin Ranch. It is a prettier site between the two.

Can we set ourselves up for blessings?

This morning as I was flipping through the radio, I listened briefly to a message about how by living a Godly life, we set ourselves up to receive God's blessing. He equated it to putting ourselves under the funnel of God's blessing. I have heard similar statements in some churches as well, that by living a Godly life, we set ourselves in a position where we can't help but be blessed by God.

Is this a biblical position? Is there evidence that this is true? Thinking about the scriptures, a few things come to mind.

First, Job. Job was a pretty Godly man. If you do not know the story of Job, God and Satan are visiting and God tells Satan how good Job is. Satan tells God that it is just because he is blessed by God. So God challenges Satan to cause Job to curse God by removing his blessings by taking away his possessions.

Job loses everything. His family is killed, his animals are stolen or slaughtered, he loses everything. In response, Job says "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." Since Job still had not cursed God, Satan wants to increase the attacks and directly attack Job. God allows it and Job is covered with painful sores. His wife tells him to curse God, but he responds, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"

Now some friends of Job come to visit. They do something I think it really neat. They see Job in mourning, sitting in ashes. So they sit with him, saying nothing for seven days. They just mourn with him. They then begin a conversation that lasts for most of the book of Job. His friends are trying to find out why Job is being punished and are certain that it is because he has sinned. When questioned, he couldn't even think of a sin he had committed to cause God's blessing to leave him! Wow! If something bad happened to me and someone said, "it is probably because you sinned," I could easily think of a few dozens things I had done just that day that would pry warrant it!

In Job 40, God speaks to Job saying 6 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: 7 "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 8 "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? 9 Do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like his? 10 Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty. 11 Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at every proud man and bring him low, 12 look at every proud man and humble him, crush the wicked where they stand. 13 Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave. 14 Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

I would venture to say that by believing we can cause God to bless us, that we on the verge of controlling God's justice and saving ourselves with our own right hand.

God continues through Chapter 40 and all of 41 questioning Job by citing nature and how God controls nature and challenges Job (and indeed us) to be able to control nature. Job responds in Chapter 42 with 1 Then Job replied to the Lord: 2 "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. 3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.' 5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

Job recognizes the power of God and his own humanity and though he hasn't sinned, humbles himself before God.

Now Chapter 42 ends with Job being blessed by God, even more than he was before the ordeal began. But the take-away message of the book is not that by being loyal to God we will be blessed. But indeed almost the opposite, that God is God, we are not, and God can do as He wills. He does not answer to us and is over us. The Godly life is not some magical method to receiving riches and fame and glory.

Job's friends take the position that God rewards goodness and punishes wickedness. We see in Job that this is not true.

In Matthew 5, Jesus reminds us of this when He says "[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Jesus tells us this to encourage us to love not only our friends, but also our enemies. Jesus shows us that God does this. Indeed are we not reminded by Paul in Romans 5:8 of this when he writes, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Talk about being blessed when I am not setting myself up for blessing!

Christ tells us what should happen to us if we choose to follow Him. He tells us that the world will hate and despise us because of His name. He tells us to take up our cross daily and follow him. Now we know what happened to Christ when he took up his cross, he was hung on it. He is telling us in a similar form that we are to be willing to give up everything we have for his sake. As it is written in Luke 9:23-24, "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."

I think we can be blessed by living a Godly life, but not in the way most believe blessings to be. Most tend to believe blessings to be materialistic. We are certainly not promised this by Jesus. Instead, we are blessed by God by growing closer to Him in this life and infinitely blessed by our life beyond this life. Indeed are not our blessings named by Jesus in the beatitudes? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

We are called to be holy as God is holy, but not so that we are blessed. To desire to set ourselves up to be blessed by God removes our focus from where it should be. John tells us in 1 John 4:19, "We love because God first loved us."

If you desire to live a life to receive earthly blessings, you can. Jesus acknowledges this with the pharisees who did things to be seen by others and says "they have received their reward in full." But to those who seek to live for God and not for blessings, he says "great is their reward in heaven."

Can you set yourself up for blessing? We can certainly do certain things to cause "good" things to happen, but God can take away. A better life is to set yourself up to live for God. Great is the reward in heaven.

Give It All Away

Gerry Spehar wrote a song called Georgetown. The second verse of the song is

Now I heard there's a man aways up the road
He knows just how to sing and play the guitar.
Sittin’ on the edge of fame and fortune,
Could have made himself a very big star.
Ridding 'round cities in a big Cadillac
Showing all the ladies a smile.
But he took all the money and he gave it right back
Kept his happy heart awhile.

Andrew Thompson wrote a column encouraging us to do a similar thing with our belongs. His column is found in the UM Reporter.

The column talks about how the current economic downturn has gotten the attention of Americans and should remind Christians of the words of Christ. The words as recorded in Matthew 6:19, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal."

Thompson encourages us to deny ourselves and instead to pick up our cross and follow Christ. To do this, we must practice the old disciplines of scripture reading and prayer, and live a life that loves our neighbor. By given up our materialistic desires and carrying our cross daily, we will grow closer to Christ as we continue in sanctification.

Why is it that we must wait until an economic crisis to examine the materialistic lives we live? Christ doesn't tell us to only follow him when times are tough or to live the "good life." He came so that we may live life and live it abundantly, all the time. We live this life by following him. We are reminded of how futile it is to try to live our "good life" when economic downturns come and take away what we work so hard for. But when we live an abundant life in Christ, economic downturns only help to make our life better as be become more dependent on Christ.

Give it all away, follow Christ, live life abundantly.

Turn the Page

Over the past year, I have been turning the page. The last page I was on was about me being a school teacher, a high school science. The book was a Choose Your Own Adventure book. The bottom of the page said "To become Department Chair, turn to page 242. To quit teaching and join the Navy, turn to page 304." In an unusual choice, I turned to page 304. The page has finally been turned. I am now an officer in the United States Navy.