[Philmont]: Beyond Philmont part 2 of 3

Carlsbad Caverns and its 58 degree temperature to cool down before heading back home.

For good measure, wed also include a visit to Caverns of Sonora to enjoy some of the magnificent beauty of a live Well, we made plans to hike the mountains and then include a visit to cave.

Plans were made and remade and equipment gathered.

The jig was up, time to hit the road.

First we drove to Sonora and visited that cave and its beautiful speleotherms on the way to our deer lease in Ozona. In Ozona wed spend a few days doing some maintenance work while acclimating to the hot, dry air. Just for the record, while we were there it varied from 48 to 106 degrees. Thats Texas in the summertime.

Then we drove to Guadalupe park. The night before we left, a cold front moved through Texas. Quite a treat in the summer and this one actually had some cold air in it. The drive to the park was through a fine, misty, cold rain that one more associates with northern New Mexico mountains than the Texas desert. It was pleasant.

When we arrived at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park visitor center, we were met with heavy cloud cover that obscured the mountains. I had hiked above clouds before, but this time it was different. One of the thrills of reaching summits is the view. This was not going to give a good view.

Our plan had been to hike for four days in the Guadalupes then visit Carlsbad for a cool down day on the way home.

A quick check of the weather forecast with the help of the park staff and a few radio calls to rangers in the backcountry to the north and northeast indicated that the weather would break in the next day or so. We quickly reassessed our plans and modified them to take advantage of the opportunities at hand.

We decided to visit Carlsbad Caverns while the clouds socked in the mountains and then do day hikes into the canyons of the Guadalupes and try for the peak on the first day the clouds broke.

After a nice visit into Americas largest cave and an interesting evening watching the bat flight, we returned to Guadalupe Mountains. Still socked in but clearing, we visited Williams Ranch on the west side of the park. It is accessible via a 4WD road following the old Butterfield Stage road. A short rock hopping (if you can call four foot boulders rocks) foray into Bone Canyon produced out first rattlesnake, a two foot specimen of the Rock Rattler variety. Allison finding it coiled and rattling only two foot from her shoulder on a ledge was a little unnerved, but she handled it well. Got some good pictures of it too.

In the afternoon, the weather finished clearing and we made plans to hike to the top of Guadalupe Peak the next morning.

The top is only 8,751 feet in altitude, but you start from a trailhead at 5,822 feet. Thats a climb of some 2,929 feet. The trail to the top is 4.5 miles long so that makes the trail to the top a 12.33% grade. That aint chicken feed Pholks! For a not so tall mountain, its a lot more climbing than most mountains in New Mexico and Colorado.

In July 2002 at Philmont we tried out a new piece of gear called the Camelback Unbottle, a 100 oz (3 liter) water on demand hydration system and fell inn love with it. Ive written about it previously and wont be redundant here, but Ill just say that on serious hiks, I dont think Ill ever fall back to canteens and water bottles again.

For this hike we selected a 70 oz Camelback hydration daypack for each of us. Allison got the Day Stor specially designed for women and I choose the Cloud Walker. We augmented the capacity with some conventional containers and poured them into the bladders as needed.

When we equipped each with a proper Philmont style trail lunch and a couple of extra energy bars for the inevitable unscheduled delay that happensto all hikers, proper cameras, map, compass, small survival and first aid supplies, flashlight, GPS, cell phone and associated batteries and most importantly a total of one gallon of water as is needed in the desert, my pack weighed in on the trailhead scale at 18 pounds. Allison kept hers to 16.

Before anyone shakes their head in dismay as to an overweight pack, it wasnt at all. Well fitted it was very comfortable and carried the load well.

To be continued in part 3

                
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Received on Fri Aug 12 14:43:22 2005