2006/01 Southwest USA trip (MN-TX) - Katemcy Creek |
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By now it was too late to go directly to San Antonio, so we found another campground on the way at Brady Lake. This was in a scenic spot, but it was rather a dump, and I negotiated a cheap rate for just parking and using none of their facilities. Although all the ranches were closed for mining the book said we could mine where the river crossed the roads, so we drove along the Katemcy road until it crossed a creek and started mining there. We were looking for topaz embedded in pink granite, and 
although we found plenty of pink pebbles it was hard to tell if the embedded crystals were quartz or topaz. However, it was pleasant just being outside and looking, as it was a dry 85 degrees with a cool wind. The scenery was very similar to parts of the Outback, with small scrubby oak trees over dry yellowish grass and pink and red rock. However, the animals were much different, with roadrunners, armadillos, and long-horned cattle.
While I was digging I heard footsteps and looked up to see a large bull looking over the fence at me. I don’t think
he was threatening, just interested, and he was only a short-horn, but he was an awful lot of bull and the fence wouldn’t have stopped him. After a while he started digging too, with great clouds of dust flying. Don’t know if he found any topaz. We made it back to Brady Lake at nightfall, and it was still warm but breezy. There was only one other group in the campground so we had a peaceful night on the edge of the lake.