- NARRATOR: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.

Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - This spring break I decided to try something a little bit new and go on a backpacking trip.

We'll see how it goes.

- Getting up in the morning and you have a purpose for the day.

And at the end of the day, you feel like you've made the world a little bit of a better place.

- They're mostly up in here.

There're just clouds of them.

There're just clouds of them.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks & Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

- My name is Emily Lozano and I'm 20 years old, and I've always loved the outdoors.

Ever since I was young, my family would take me to different Texas State Parks.

We'd tent camp and we'd get all we need out of the car.

So this spring break, I decided to try something a little bit new and go on a backpacking trip.

I'm going to do the Lone Star Hiking Trail.

It's extremely long, some 90-something miles.

We'll see how it goes.

I parked my car at the beginning of the trail and ended up needing a ride to the end of it so that I could hike the trail in reverse.

John was my ride.

- JOHN COLLINS: Good to meet you.

You ready to get your pack in the car?

- EMILY: Yeah, let's do it.

- JOHN: Let's do it.

- EMILY: And John is a real backpacker.

He's done the AT multiple times.

We hit it off instantly.

Because it's been raining so much, we skip Winter's Bayou and start at Tarkington.

- There's three things to remember when you're doing your long trail here.

First thing is physical.

You can do it.

[upbeat music] The next part, you have to feed yourself so watch your food supplies, your logistics.

[upbeat music] And finally, every morning you're gonna have to get up and get on the trail.

You gotta keep doing it day in and day out, okay?

- EMILY: He's so sweet.

Not what I expected at all.

He gives me certain tips about backpacking.

- Emily, as you see, this is the blazes for the Lone Star Trail.

That tells you to the go left as you should go rather than right down that other road.

It definitely will keep you from getting lost.

- It's pointing you in the right direction.

- JOHN: Correct.

- Alright.

- Let's move on.

- EMILY: His stories are fantastic.

- JOHN: First A.T. trip.

1995.

I'm a neophyte backpacker.

Didn't know anything.

- EMILY: He really, really cared.

He really wanted to make sure I would be okay as soon as he left.

- JOHN: Good morning, sir.

- ALAN: Hey, good morning!

How are you doing?

- EMILY: Next is Alan.

Alan is super sweet.

I don't know where I'm going.

- You don't know where you're going?

Oh no!

We're going to get lost!

- EMILY: And he was so pleasant, and he talked about the organization.

- The Lone Star Trail is 98.6 miles long and then we have about another 35 miles of other loops.

- And it's all done by volunteers?

- All done by volunteers.

We have several nonprofit organizations, the principle one being the Lone Star Hiking Trail Club.

- So what is your part in that?

- I help coordinate trail stewards, and trail stewards might involve adopting a mile or two miles of the hiking trail to help maintain it.

Oh look, here's a beaver dam right here!

- EMILY: That's a beaver dam?

- ALAN: That's a beaver dam, right here.

I don't think they would like me knocking on their doors too much.

- EMILY: So why do you do it?

- Unless volunteers maintain the trails, trails get closed.

[dry leaves crunching] [ambience, bird chirping] - EMILY: We get to our campsite and he heads out and he goes home.

I'm tired and I definitely feel it.

Cilantro, lime, and black beans.

Up next is the Magnolia Section, which has the massive obstacle of crossing the San Jacinto River.

Thankfully, I don't have to do it alone.

Hi, I'm Emily.

- I'm Dave.

- EMILY: Dave looks like a ranger straight from Jurassic Park.

I've never crossed a river.

I'm so anxious.

- Okay, Emily, so there's an option for you here.

That's a way to get across without getting wet, as long as you don't fall.

- I don't want to cross a tree that's slippery with a pack.

- Alright.

- EMILY: Let's wade.

- DAVE: Let's go wade.

- Wow!

That is freezing!

- DAVE: Okay, now come upstream, come this way.

- That is so cold!

This way?

- That's your target, head for that branch.

- EMILY: How deep is this?

Ah!

- DAVE: The deepest part is right in front of that other stick.

That was the hard part.

- EMILY: I make it across safely.

I am so grateful that Dave was there.

Ah, it's working!

I don't think I could have done it by myself.

Honestly, it was so much more fun having him there.

- DAVE: I'm glad I'm not carrying your pack today.

Yeah, there's quite a bit more sag with your pack on there.

Look!

[laughs] - EMILY: Dave is nice enough to give me a lift to the next trailhead, which saves me a whole lot of walking and I could not be happier.

And Dave brings me next to the Big Woods Section.

Thanks for leaving me water, and the tangerines, and bringing us across the river.

- EMILY: Then he heads off.

- DAVE: Bye.

[quiet ambiance] - I've begun to notice a blister and I'm praying that it doesn't get worse.

[quiet ambiance] [soft acoustic music] ♪ ♪ On top of being alone, the day seems to stretch a little bit longer.

I have so much time alone with my thoughts.

Every mile feels a little bit longer.

I enjoy being by myself and I enjoyed the second to kind of daydream a little bit.

But I almost got a little bit lonely.

I am getting a little lonely.

♪ ♪ Walking down the road is miserable.

I don't like the road because it is gravelly, and it's hot, and there's no shade and I just wanted to take a break.

[soft acoustic music] There wasn't even a good spot to break.

And it's straight and it makes it feel like it's forever.

[soft acoustic music] So I just kept walking.

Off to my right, I see a sign, and it's clearly marked.

And as soon as I hit the shade, I plop down on a log and gobble up a granola bar, and it's fantastic.

Just past the trailhead is this primitive campsite.

My blister is massive.

Honestly, I want to cry a little bit.

I'm not feeling like I'm ready to do the over-half of the trail that's still left to go.

In the mailbox is this log of all of the people who have been here before me and all of their encouraging words.

It made me feel like a part of it.

And it gave me the strength to keep going.

[soft acoustic music] Day five.

This is the last day before Huntsville State Park.

My legs hurt.

My thighs are burning.

My feet hurt.

I run into Candace who gives me a lift to the next trail section.

- CANDACE: I started going out on the public hikes, and I just kept coming back.

- EMILY: Candace explains a lot of the methods and a lot of the procedures that they go through when volunteering on the trail.

- It's not created by a machine, and a user-created trail is one of the hardest trails to maintain.

But not many people live out here and can actually work on the trails.

It's just been turned over to volunteers.

- EMILY: What she loves is the chance to give back.

Candace is most definitely a trail angel.

She absolutely saved me.

[soft acoustic music] My feet look terrible.

They don't look as bad as they feel but they almost look as bad as they feel.

And I'm just so ready to see my family.

And I don't want to have to hike all of that in the morning.

It's midday, still a whole lot of sun left.

Oh goodness.

If I hike more today, it'll be less tomorrow.

Let's do that.

[zip] [click] I crank out another section of trail, find a nice patch of trees... set up my hammock, and pass out.

Day six.

It's already good day and it hasn't even started.

I see a tiny little Honda Civic.

I know that car.

It has my dad and my sister and my little baby brother.

They drove all this way to spend the day with me.

We go to Huntsville State Park.

And they have showers at Huntsville State Park!

And my sister brought fruit salad.

And I'm not hiking.

And it's so great!

Amanda's coming with me on the next three days, and I'm so excited.

Okay, so what'd you bring?

- Okay, I have a jacket.

- That's good, you can keep that.

- Socks.

- Ooh, nice socks.

- Pants.

- Okay, that's good.

- Then I have this.

- That's the same sleeping bag I have!

- Really?

Okay, then I have a lot of snacks, which I don't think I need this much.

- No, I ate through a whole bag of snacks.

We build a campfire and I get to catch up with her.

And I'm so happy that I get to share this with her.

[birds chirping] Next morning.

I'm excited.

And Amanda's excited, and that just makes me more excited.

[soft upbeat music] I feel light.

It feels like day one all over again.

[soft upbeat music] I'm not doing it alone anymore.

And this is someone at my experience level, and someone my age who gets it.

[soft upbeat music] - AMANDA: We're going to the big hot pole.

- EMILY: Actually, I want you in front of me so that if you slip... - AMANDA: It's not slippery.

- EMILY: Oh, it's not slippery.

I was expecting it to be worse.

The fact that Amanda was so chipper and so cheerful, it helped me get over the fact that my foot hurt.

It helped me get over the fact that my muscles were sore and that my back hurt.

Amanda being so positive just made it so easy for me to say, "Okay, let's do it.

One more day."

- Hakuna - Matata - Hakuna - Matata - Did we do it Amanda?

Did we do it?

- I dunno.

- EMILY: As the day is closing, Amanda's ready to be done.

I'm ready to be done.

And then we come up on Stubblefield.

And it's such a relief.

I don't have to admit to my sister that I don't know what I'm doing.

Even though I'm pretty sure she knows that I don't know what I'm doing.

And that's okay.

[soft acoustic music] It feels like the end is near.

Like, you can taste it, like, you're so close.

[soft acoustic music] It's super eerie almost, with this fog hanging.

[upbeat acoustic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And this is one of our longest days.

We did so many miles.

I was struggling with the nine-mile days and the 13-mile days, and then we did 15.

[upbeat acoustic music] ♪ ♪ Amanda did so good!

I have no idea how it happened.

[upbeat acoustic music] - I really like this and I like backpacking.

I probably wouldn't be doing half as much if I wasn't here with you.

- Without you, I was doing half the mileage we did.

- I don't know how you did it because I'm super-duper tired right now.

- That's just wanting it.

You just did 15 miles in one day!

Fifteen miles!

So you got it, boo.

This is it.

This is the end.

I'm so sad because it's ending, but more than anything I'm excited!

Every step and you're closer.

Walk faster!

Walk faster!

Walk faster!

- AMANDA: Ah, okay.

- EMILY: Every trail marker feels like a victory in itself.

Aww, Amanda we have one mile left.

That's my car.

I know that license plate number.

I know the dirt on that tire.

I know that dent!

I did that dent!

- AMANDA: Aww, I'm coming for it.

We made it!

- EMILY: We made it!

I need to take this off right now.

And then Amanda and I go to a real restaurant, and I order real food.

No mushy bag food!

- What was your favorite part?

- My favorite part was probably Huntsville State Park.

Just taking the day off and relaxing.

It helped me enjoy the trail even more afterwards.

- And your worst part.

- My worst part was my pinky toe growing a toe!

- And what was the hardest thing of it?

- The hardest thing was probably just getting up and starting.

- What made you keep going?

- We were in the middle of the woods.

There wasn't an option!

I did it!

I finished it!

And my blister healed and my toe is fine.

I feel so accomplished.

I feel so blessed that these volunteers are out there, because without them this trail would be closed.

It was such a great spring break, and great in ways I wouldn't have expected it to be.

I'm so glad I went.

[instrumental music] - My name is Sue Wagley and Jay and I own this amazing ranch, The Wagley Ranch.

Jay and I moved down to Texas in 1989 to stay for one year and we fell in love with the ranch and we stayed.

- JAY: Right there.

- SUE: He's right here!

This is him.

- SUE: We have the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, which is the cutest little bird ever to live and that is just the highlight of our year, is waiting for them to come through.

Oh my God, he's so beautiful.

- JAY: And we probably have 15 to 20 pairs.

It's considered critical habitat, Obviously it's an endangered species, but it's the most northern sighting of the Golden-Cheeked Warbler in the state of Texas, which also makes it the most northern sighting of the bird in the world.

- JESSE: It's really cool.

It's a claim to fame that no other ranch has.

Fun thing about working with the Wagleys is, Jay, his focus is on the wildlife end of things.

And so we increased a lot of forbes, great for pollinators, bees and butterflies are gonna benefit from that, as well as the turkey and deer and quail.

Sue looks at it and says, "Are these forbes okay for my cows?

When do we get good grass?"

And so balancing that wildlife and that grazing, is always a fun challenge.

Both will benefit, bees and butterflies in the short term and as I explained to Sue when we were out there, the cows will benefit next year.

The native grass restoration has been profound.

They're picking those species that they wanna be here and they're just pretty, they resemble what this prairie should be.

[crackling fire] We were here along myself and maybe three other Parks and Wildlife employees were here to help the Wagleys and they were carrying drip torches and we worked hand in hand to get it done.

- SUE: So ideally, every five years, every pasture would get burned.

Then you're burning the cedar and the small brush things, so that you don't have to come back mechanically and remove things.

[upbeat music] - JAY: My great-grandfather came by covered wagon, to Mineral Wells, and he started the Wagley Mineral Baths.

He was an original investor in the Baker Hotel.

- The Baker, I mean, that is such a part of our family history.

Jay's dad grew up in the roaring 20s, going to the Baker all the time.

He said there were fountains on the roof with swans and they had black tie events up there.

And people came for months at a time to be cured by the water.

So now, it's so exciting that a group of investors in Mineral Wells are making this happen along with Jay.

You're scooting them along, right Scoot?

So we decided to start a herd in 2008.

We kind of started with a motley group of cows and now we've developed into a commercial Black Angus herd.

And they're beautiful, I'm kind of biased.

- I've worked with a lot of young ladies, that can do anything men can do horseback or on a ranch.

Well Sue's really good at everything I'm not good at.

If I have some questions about the numbers, well she has the answers.

- SUE: You know, our children, Philip and Eliza, they love the ranch, they love the cattle.

And I think they will continue what we do.

And all of our big workdays are family events.

- JAY: Everybody gets involved.

Phillip ropes and flanks.

Eliza and Sue vaccinate and I vaccinate.

- SUE: And it's over fast.

It's, you know, 15 seconds of a bad time and then they're back with their moms.

- Jay and Sue are absolutely in it for the right reasons.

They're passionate about wildlife, they're passionate about the ranch.

They're passionate about passing it on, to future generations.

- We're so blessed to have a ranch where Jay's and my value system is just part of our lives And it's about getting up in the morning and you have a purpose for the day, you have a plan, you work together, it's teamwork.

You might have a disagreement, but you work through it and at the end of the day, you feel like you've made the world a little bit of a better place because you're good stewards of the land and the wildlife and the cattle and it's just a real blessing that we have this as a family.

- MAN: They're mostly up in here.

There're just clouds of them.

[shutter clicks] [laughing] There're just clouds of them!

[inspirational music] - This is my business and where I live in South Travis County.

We've never seen this before, half a dozen at a time maybe.

Now, I don't know, there're hundreds, thousands?

They look like leaves, brown leaves, so you don't really even notice the numbers of them.

[inspirational music] It's one of their stopover points, on the way to Mexico.

It's a monarch motel.

- These same monarchs right here today that we're seeing, those that survive through the winter will come back through Texas next March and April.

In the spring these will get as far north as Kansas, so a distance of some 3,000 miles.

Phenomenal.

- PAT: It's a pretty amazing site.

Just lucky that it's 10 feet from my house.

- MIKE: Really, really magical.

Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] - NARRATOR: This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.