Back in 1985  BTW (before the web) with no website (we came “online” in 1986) we were promoting a lot with press releases and phone calls to newspapers and publications–We never imagined what was about to happen late that fall.

We mailed out press releases “River Company to do Halley’s Comet trips” in Big Bend National Park…

The first thing I heard was from a guy in our office that was answering phones and booking our first six people for our Halley’s Comet Adventure–he said hey Mark, I just booked us 6 people on one of our Halley’s Comet trips–then the phone rang again and we were interrupted by another phone call wanting reservations–then honestly another phone call–that day in December we didn’t have time to talk in the office- all 3 phone lines were constantly ringing–all from two press releases that had caught the eye of two publications, Texas Highways and the Dallas Times Herald–More articles followed and pretty soon our original trips were sold out and we were scampering to coordinate more trips.

Planning these trips we looked to the Houston Astronomical Society for volunteers to come on the trips and be our “Telescope Specialist”  providing their telescopes and expertise  as well as our telescopes so that our guests would learn about the night sky and more importantly Halley’s Comet.

Our trips were coordinated as 3 day events with either a 2 day river trip or a combo trip of rafting one day and hiking or horseback riding on the second day of activities, then a 3rd night of camping at a base camp and then heading home afterwards.

We all hoped throughout March, April and the first 2 weeks of May that the weather would cooperate and provide us with clear skies for viewing. The night sky in Big Bend is just break-neck incredible–if you have never seen it (especially without a moon) you will have a problem looking back down at the ground–so many stars–and so little time–I get so entranced, that honestly I sometimes “forget to breath”–honestly–

SO–here we are, I am managing the 2 day river trip–My other partner is running the “Combo”–we arrived  the first night and our advance team had set up our basecamp, tents, kitchen, and our Astronomer from the Houston Astronomical Society  had our telescopes set up. Our group of 24 guests were eager to head to bed so after a brief stop at the telescopes, most turned in–Sunrise over the Chisos mountains and the smell of bacon and eggs woke up our crowd–as we were inflating the rafts, and packing gear our guests our consuming coffee and hot chocolate like it’s going out of style. After breakfast, we headed down to the river to pack our guests gear, and do a safety talk–we’ll raft about 10 miles today and camp out just above Santa Elena Canyon where we have a great open sky to view not only the comet, but the incredible Milky Way. Rafting the first day is all ways a lot of fun–our guests are excited, our guides are doing an incredible job with everything they need to keep up with, including our schedule,  lunch, hikes and getting to camp on time–fortunately, water levels were great and we met our first days schedule of lunch and to our campsite on the river. After supper and dusk turned into dark, our Astronomer was geared up and ready to go–guests  were so excited to view not only the comet with the naked eye, but everything else in the night sky that was possibly visible. I think the Astronomer finally made it to bed about 2am–I hit the sack probably around 2:30–but I found myself waking up about every hour, and before opening my eyes, I smiled, then opening my eyes I would see Halley’s Comet just glaring right at me. Those trips were somehow still after 25 years unforgettable. We still see guests at shows or on some of our other trips that make mention of those Halley’s Comet trips as something they too, will never forget. And that’s our hope–that every adventure we take, our guests remember them vividly in their minds for years to come.

Hopefully we’ll see you on the river sometime soon.

Mark Evans

Besides our new website, we're investigating new offerings for our multi-day trips.  If you have an idea to add to our music, family, stargazing or gourmet trips, let us know.  Adventures in the wilderness should always facilitate the realization of your dreams.  And if you can dream it, our expert guides can probably make it happen.

Our New Year Adventure with Butch Hancock and Steve Fromholtz provided an unforgettable experience for the lucky group that listened to two Texas legends crooning around a campfire after days rafting through Santa Elena Canyon wonder.  It started off with an adventure for Greg and the Far Flung Staff, as we responded to a midnight distress signal the night before the trip departed.  Here's the story, written by Peter Nevland...

...The smell of antifreeze perfumed the inside of my white, Honda Prelude. Outside the car, everything was dark, and nothing made a sound.

"The radiator's probably busted," Matt said. "That's what happened to my truck."

"Geez, what else can go wrong?" I thought. I wasn't angry or worried, but we had already blown a tire, driven a couple hours on a spare, found out that someone else occupied the room we thought we would have and been turned away by every booked-up hotel in the area.

"You know they soak meat in antifreeze whenever they're trying to capture mountain lions," Matt offered.

I turned the hazard lights back on. If a mountain lion did smell us, I'd rather see it and at least let it know that it couldn't sneak up on us. Even if no mountain lion was around it still wasn't smart for us to stay there all night. We needed help on the side of the road in the middle of the desert.

"I'm going to call and wake up Greg again," I said, and dialed his number.

The trip had started so well. It was actually something like a paid vacation I was taking as part of my job consulting businesses as a Wizard of Ads partner. Greg and Valynda Hennington, the owners of Far Flung Outdoor Center, in Terlingua, TX, are full-time clients of mine, and I had to experience one of their river tours to fully understand their business and how to promote them. It's a hard knock life, I know. Plus, they were gracious enough to offer an extra spot, free of charge, for a friend of mine to come along. I couldn't think of anyone better than my friend Matt. Now he was experiencing one of the crazy things that seem to routinely jump into my life.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Greg, It's Peter. I'm sorry to wake you again, but we couldn't find a hotel room, and my car just broke down in between La Jitas and Terlingua. Can you help us out?"

"You're kidding."

"Nope, it's that bad."

"Allright, stay put. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Greg arrived really quickly, loaded all the stuff we remembered not to forget into his truck and drove us back to Terlingua. He found an empty RV trailer for us to sleep in, which, although without heating in the freezing desert night, was still better than sleeping outside on the ground.

Matt and I stood outside for a bit, laughing about all the stuff that had happened to us... I had tried to tell a hotel owner that my pregnant wife needed a stable or something to stay in, but he only told me that Christmas was over. We had tried to sneak into the back room of an outdoor amphitheatre at the LaJitas resort only to find it locked.

When we finally did go to sleep, even that was an adventure with me, half-asleep, making weird Javelina (a kind of wild pig) noises that scared Matt while I stood outside the RV to pee. Morning came in a few hours, and we pulled our bodies out of the trailer to go meet the rest of the group that would be sharing our river trip with us. As we drove out to the drop-off point, we passed my non-functioning car with the mechanics trying to figure out how to get it back to the shop.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip smoothly floated us through one of the most spectacular places in the world, as you can see in the pictures. Far Flung's river guides took care of camp, prepared our bacon wrapped beef tenderloin and other gourmet food to perfection, and kept everybody safe and happy like a well-oiled machine. They even told stories, did tricks with fire and asked me to perform a few of my pieces as part of the festivities. It was truly an honor to get to know Butch Hancock and Steve Fromholtz, two Texas music legends, and have Butch get excited about my performance. If you ever want to take one of the best trips of your life in one of the last frontiers left in America, look up Far Flung Outdoor Center...

Usually we tell people that we'll take care of everything they need once they arrive at our office.  Some people need just a little extra help.  Hope you make it soon to enjoy an escape from civilization in Big Bend.