Game warden field notes

The following items are compiled from recent Texas Parks and Wildlife law enforcement reports.

The Other Side of Nowhere

A Big Bend Ranch State Park Police Officer and a Presidio County game warden were patrolling River Road at night through Big Bend Ranch State Park when the officers noticed a car parked in the Closed Canyon Trail parking lot after the park closed. In the car, they saw a park pass for that day, a car rental agreement, a jug of water and snacks, but the driver was nowhere to be found. The Closed Canyon Trail is short and stops at the Rio Grande after several steep pour offs. The last pour off is about 60-feet tall. The officers hiked the trail in the dark and far as they could safely go and called out for anyone still down there with no luck. The next morning, another park police officer was informed about a possible lost hiker. He checked the parking lot and saw that the car was still parked there undisturbed. The three officers headed back to the Closed Canyon Trail that afternoon with rappelling equipment to search farther down the trail. When they reached the first of the three steep pour offs, the officer called out for the hiker who excitedly responded for help. The park police officer was able to rappel down to the hiker who had descended all the pour offs and was at the riverbank. When they reached him, the hiker was dehydrated, exhausted and had injured his ankle. The hiker told the officers that he had gone down the trail alone in the afternoon, fell into a deep-water hole and was unable to climb out. Panicked, he decided to continue down the trail thinking it would lead him back to the parking lot. Temperatures that day were around 106 degrees and he drank river water to try to keep hydrated. He hiked along the riverbank but was unable to navigate the steep canyon walls of Colorado Canyon. The officers requested a helicopter to help extract the hiker, but due to bad weather it wasn’t available until the next morning. So, with the help of an additional game warden, two state park rangers, a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a Presidio County Sherriff’s Deputy, the team of officers were able to assist the hiker to climb back over the pour offs and navigate the rest of the trail back to his car. Presidio and Terlingua Emergency Medical Services arrived and gave the hiker medical care and he was then taken to the local hospital for further treatment.

Unsynchronized Swimmers

A Stephens County game warden received a 911 call from local dispatch involving four people who were stranded in the middle of the Hubbard Creek Reservoir and their boat had washed ashore. The caller was in the boat but was unable to get it started to reach the stranded swimmers. The caller had never been on the lake before and did not know where she was to give directions to the warden. One of the occupants had gotten into the water while the boat was floating in the middle of the lake to swim without a life jacket and the boat floated too far away for her to reach. Then, her husband, unable to crank the boat, jumped in the water and swam to her with a small ring buoy. The boat continued to float further away when another occupant on board saw the couple struggling in the water and swam out to them to assist with no lifejacket. By the time he reached them, the boat had tripled in distance from the original swimmer. A fourth occupant from the boat decided to swim out to the three simmers trying to stay afloat with life jackets for them, however, the boat was now about 350 yards away and he was unable to reach them. When the warden arrived, he was able to get the location of the boat and swimmers thanks to landmarks on the lake. The boat was located aground near an island and the three stranded swimmers were about 450 yards away. The swimmers were exhausted and panicked, but all accounted for. Once they were on the boat, they found the fourth swimmer who had multiple lifejackets attached to him but had exhausted himself trying to get to his friends. Everyone in the water was worn out and frightened, but safe and refused medical attention. Once they were accounted for, the warden helped them get their boat back to where they had launched.

Lost and Found

A recent game warden academy graduate was enjoying a weekend of camping and fishing at Fayette Lake before reporting to his first duty station later this month in Starr County. One Sunday morning, the new game warden came across a small aluminum boat that was abandoned at the dam. He called local dispatch and gave them the boat registration numbers, then towed it back to the Oak Thicket boat ramp and secured it.