My dad and I left Austin on Thursday morning and arrived at Guadalupe Mountains National Park around 3:00 MDT. The wind was already blowing pretty strong as we set up camp. I constructed a makeshift wind break by lashing 2 lawn chairs to the picnic table and putting a tarp over them. It helped a little in diverting some of the wind but was primarily used when cooking. The wind that night gusted up over 60 mph all night long. My cheap tent (8 ft. square dome from Target) remained standing but made an awful lot of noise. Dad described it as "someone hitting the side of the tent with a canoe paddle as fast as they could". I spent most of the night waiting for the poles to snap or the seams to rip out. Got a few catnaps in but no significant sleep.
Friday morning we got up just before dawn and hit the trail for Guadalupe Peak at around 7:45. The wind was never really a problem, just a curiosity. The skies were clear and the temperature ranged from 40 to 60. We reached the summit in a little less than 4 hours. The views were tremendous. Hopefully the pictures will all come out ok. Coming back down only took about 3 hours. At around 3:00 we came across a woman backpacking solo with what looked like brand new gear. She seemed very surprised when we informed her that she was still about 3+ hours from the backcountry camp site. Sundown was a little after 6. Oh yeah, did I mention there was a cold front moving in? I'll bet she had an "interesting" night. She had neglected to sign out on the trail register but did have a backcountry camping permit.
Friday night was a repeat of the previous night only with lower temperatures and precipitation (some of the frozen variety). The tent survived again although there were several times when I thought it was a goner. The worst of the storm hit around 4:30. After the top of the tent was pushed down far enough for the wall to hit me on the head I sat up and pushed back to help take some of the stress off the poles. As it subsided I could hear my dad snoring softly. I guess that's one of the perks of getting older. The wind was really wild. It would come down the canyon into the valley in streams, which would then sweep across the floor. The fun part was when I could hear streams on each side of us begin to converge on us. Made for a fun night.
Saturday we hiked McKittrick Canyon with all of the rest of the tourists. Lots of beautiful trees changing colors. After we got back to the car we headed south for Presidio for a good night's sleep in a motel. The other hikes we would have liked to have done in GMNP were all long all-day hikes. My feet and knee were bothering me and my dad was even more tired and sore.
Sunday morning we stopped at Fort Leaton to get info on the Big Bend Ranch State Natural Area but alas, the park service dude was an idiot and had no useful information. The road into the ranch is a 38 mile "unimproved" road that "doesn't necessarily require 4WD". Me and my Honda Accord decided to pass. We continued on to Big Bend National Park with stops in Lajitas and Terlingua.
Our first activity after checking in at the ranger station was to attempt to climb Casa Grande. Unfortunately we were starting a little late as it was almost 1:00. The trail up Casa Grande is not marked and branches off the Lost Mine Peak trail. It's very easy to pick the wrong route, which is exactly what I did. We ended up climbing a steep gully with lots of loose rocks. I managed to coach my dad up it but there were several times when I stopped and tried to figure out how I was going to explain to Mom how I got Dad killed. At that point, however, it was still safer to continue climbing up rather than to climb back down. We managed to make it up without any falls but that still left us a long way from the actual base of Casa Grande, not to mention the summit. We were finally able to find the "real" trail at that point but started to run out of time and had to head back down. Dad fell 3 or 4 times after slipping on loose rocks and ended up with some nice bruises and scrapes as well as a rip in his pants leg. I later converted his pants into shorts for use at the hot springs.
After we got back to the car we headed down into the basin and selected a camp site for the night. We then hiked down the Window trail to catch the sunset. I sprinted up the Oak Springs cutoff trail and got up on the rim about 2 minutes before the sun set. Not any clouds to speak of so the sunset faded pretty quickly. On the way back down we saw a kid by himself who looked to be about 12 heading down towards the Window. We both wondered if his parents knew where he was. Unfortunately we were too far away to ask him any details. The rangers said there had been some recent bear sightings along that particular stretch of the trail. We made it back to camp just in time to hit the lodge dining room before it closed for supper. We watched the 7th game of the World Series on the TV in the lodge. They let us and 3 others hang around after closing until the game ended. By the time we got back to camp and got situated for the night it was midnight. The temp got down in the 20s but at least there was no wind.
Our last full day in the park we made another attempt at Casa Grande. This time we started out on the right trail. It took about 2 hours to climb it with no major problems. The climbing was not exactly easy and required lots of scrambling, including a stretch of talus slope. I had no problems with it but my dad was a little out of practice. He had climbed Casa Grande 42 years (and 40+ pounds) ago when he was on a geology field trip in college. That attempt ended when he and his friend had to run down a talus slope in a lightning storm just after they reached the summit. The weather for us was much nicer although a little overcast. We spent over an hour on the 3 peaks taking pictures and looking for the peak register box. We never did find it. That evening I asked one of the rangers where it was and she said it was under a Juniper bush by the cliff overlooking the basin, as opposed to being near the actual peak. Oh well. Maybe next time.
That evening we moved camp to the Rio Grande Village campground and paid a visit to the hot springs. An excellent way to relax and recuperate from our hiking and climbing exploits. On the way out on Tuesday we drove up to Fort Stockton and had some excellent Mexican food at Sara's Cafe. We made it back to Austin about dinner time and I headed back to Houston the next morning.
All in all it was a great trip. My dad did pretty well considering the condition of his knees, his bad toe, and general physical condition, although he'll probably be sore for a week. I don't have any residual soreness other than my toes but am still somewhat sleep-deprived. I will definitely consider shelling out some bucks for a more wind-worthy tent and a better sleeping bag before I try another trip like this.
And of course, the stock market waited to "correct" until I was cut off from news sources, but that's another story...
More pictures may be viewed here.