This story is about how Law Enforcement helped us one night.
My son and I were out at the Pecos River and had launched a 12 foot john boat with a 10 horse power motor. We had envisioned going up the river about 1/2 mile north of the high bridge and spotlight the sides of the canyon. Great idea. We had taken with us fishing gear in case the snaking was no good we figured we might catch a fish. The night was perfect, I had two spotlights hooked up to two batteries. We were going along great and had seen a few herps but no alterna. About 11:00 pm a doozzie of a storm came blowing in from the west. The winds were coming from the south right up the canyon at about 30 - 50 miles per hour. I told the boy to pack it up, we had to get the hell out of there. We were headed into the wind with the little 10 hp engine grunting its way about 1/2mph. We were making headway and I was facing into the wind. It started raining buckets. The boat was filling up with water but we were still moving. All the sudden the engine throttle maxed out. I had hit some river cane and caused the prop shear pin to break. We instantly had no power and the boat turned sidways with the wind blowing and waves 18 inches tall pounding the side of the boat. I told my son "we are screwed" and we both grabbed a paddle and headed for the east shore. Figured out later that was the wrong shore. It was a straight up and down cliff. The other shore had a ledge bank we could have gotten out of the water on. At any rate we finally made it to the cliff and into a little cove. The boat was pushed right up to the side of the cliff and the waves continued to pound us as well as torrential rains. A few minutes the boat ended up sinking with us in it and holding onto a small ledge. We saw it tip sidways and dump all the stuff out of the boat. I did not want to lose the boat so we hung onto it while in the water. Believe it or not it was better in the water because it was warmer that the rain and wind. After about 30 minutes the rain and wind stopped. We were about 1/2 mile north of the bridge. While it was raining I had a waterproff 6 volt flashlight that I flashed at cars as I saw them going over the bridge. Just as the rain stopped so did a car on the bridge. They had seen us and flashed a light back at us. At that time we busied ourself righting the boat and emptying the water out of it. I then made several dives in water that was probably 6 - 8 feet deep and retrieved much of the contents of the boat. You would not believe how hare it is to pull a large marine battery up from the bottom and put it into a floating boat. I did it with both batteries. The losses included one of my favorite snake sticks, a paddle and a fishing rod. When we were ready, I started paddling (with 1 paddle) toward the bridge. About a 1/4 of the way I heard a outboard engine. A few minutes later I saw a light coming from the bridge. Turned out the vehicle that had stopped was a Border Patrol agent. He notified the park ranger who brought the boat and they came out and towed us in. The ranger asked us what happened and the story was "we were fishing and got caught in the storm". I did not have any herp collecting stuff left so there was not much he could say. So we vigorously thanked them and loaded up the boat.
It took 2 days to get the boat ready because I was bound and determined to succeed. We got back out on the water and after a couple of hours found a alterna climbing several yards up on a cut. We managed to use an extension pole and caught it. Proud of our accomplishment we headed back. At the dock there was the same Park Ranger and the Comstock Game Warden. They asked us if we were herping. Well, had to say yes. Had to show them the alterna. Long and short of it, the Game Warden wrote me a ticket for collecting in the National Recreational Area and I was notified to appear before the Federal Magistrate in Del Rio. Again to make a short story out of it, the judge let me off and told me not to be back in his court again. I said thanks.
So, all in all it all turned out ok. Even with the stuff that went on the second night out there, it turned out well. I still am very thankfull that Law Enforcement is working the area and I am especially thankful for the ones that came out on the water at 3:00 in the morning to drag us in. I consider that a job well done on their parts.
We all know some of them can be a little rude or obnoxious but it still pays us to be as understanding as we can that they have a job to do and it certianly does not hurt for us to be a courteous as we can to them and maybe even thank them for what they do when they deserve it.
By the way, I have not been back on the river since, nor have I been in that courtroom either.
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