I figured that one day I would get a chance to tackle Guadalupe Peak.  My company has a plant just south of El Paso, Texas.  El Paso is only about 2 hours away from the highpoint of Texas.  During a business trip to the plant, I just happened to get some available time.  So, I made plans to take off, and hit Guadalupe.  I was planning for 2 hours drive each way, and a max of 3 hours on the  mountain.  I was kind of on a limited timeline, so I'd need to be pretty close to this timing.  I was only slightly worried that the National Park's websight recommended allowing 6-8 hours for the roundtrip hike up Guadalupe.  8.5 miles round trip and 3000 feet of elevation gain and loss.  I could do that in 3 hours, surely.

I made the drive from El Paso, in just under 2 hours.  I hit the visitor's center, grabbed a map, and quickly made it to the trailhead parking lot.  I hit the trail running, but I was quickly reminded that I'm from Ohio, and I'm not a mountain goat.  Ultimately, I ended up walking the uphills, and running the flats and downhills.  I could feel the lactic building up in my thighs when I tried to run the uphills, and it burned.

The trail up Guadalupe was nice.  It was easy to follow.  It was mostly dirt and rocks, not too hard on the ankles.  Every once in a while - on the descent - I found my ankles wobbling, but that was more due to my own lack of attention than the difficulty of the trail.  The trail heads up switchbacks from the trailhead.  Eventually it crests the first ridge, and crosses to the other side.  From the ridge, you can see the false summit where the campground is located.  As I crossed over the top of the ridge, I started to get a little bit chilly.  That was my motivation to keep the legs moving.  Soon after that - about 40 minutes into the hike - I passed another pair of hikers going down.  Just as a sanity check, I asked them if they'd come from the peak, and how long ago.  They said yeah, and that they had left the summit about an hour ago.  They told me to estimate about an hour 10 minutes for the ascent to the summit.  I thanked them and continued back into a run.  My target now was an hour, or just longer.

I reached the camp area at around an hour from the trailhead.  Soon after that I crossed over a bridge with some pretty nice exposure.  I should mention at this point that there is no really dangerous exposure on this hike.  But, there are certainly some points on the trail where you wouldn't want to trip on your shoe laces.  I continued past the bridge, and towards the summit.  I didn't know how close I was when I got a glimpse of the steel pyramid on the summit.  I was a lot closer than I thought.  I ultimately made the summit in about 1 hour 20 minutes from the trailhead.  To my own surprise that was only 40 minutes after meeting the other hikers.

I spent about 10 minutes on top, then started my descent.  In the back of my mind, I was thinking 2 hours roundtrip.  If I were to achieve this, I would need to be hauling butt on the way down.  I was able to run pretty well, but several mild stumbles brough me back to a more reasonable pace.  When it was all said and done, I made it back down to the trailhead in about 50 minutes.  My total round trip - including summit time - was around 2 hours 15 minutes.  I was happy to beat my 3 hour target.  I jumped in the car, and headed back to El Paso.