Howdy from West Texas! Of all the possibilities that were mentioned to us as Budd’s next assignment, the last thing we expected was to find ourselves in Texas. But here we are, at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, one hundred and ten miles or so east of El Paso, and about 60 miles south of Carlsbad, NM. And, barring permanent employment becoming available, here is where we expect to stay until at least mid-December. At this point it’s too far in the future to speculate what happens after that, but the prospects are good for continued temporary employment with the Park Service.
During our second sojourn at Canyon de Chelly, I rediscovered hiking. I don’t recall loving hiking for its own sake when I was a kid, but I do recall scrambling all over the cliffs comprising the eastern boundary of Moab, UT where I grew up. I was twelve years old the summer we moved there, soon to be 13. We lived in a duplex owned and also occupied by my uncle and aunt, and my brother, sister and I were delighted to find our family more than doubled by our cousins. Weekends and almost any summer day found us trekking up the trail and over the lip of the first bench of the cliffside, across a sandy and rocky more-or-less level area, up and over the second bench and then far across the sand to what was then known as Lion’s Back, a ‘slickrock’ fin that was part of a complex of them. From there, depending on my climbing companions, we often climbed up that and felt we were at the top of the world. I guess I did love hiking, I just didn’t think of it in those terms then.
When I hiked and climbed down and then back up Bare Trail in Canyon de Chelly, another 'slickrock' venture, it woke up that old feeling of accomplishment, enjoyable effort, and slight danger. I think it must be a minor version of what daredevil adrenaline junkies feel. Whatever the case, I couldn’t wait to do another fairly challenging hike. When I learned we were coming here, of course I researched it on the internet, and learned there are 80 miles of ‘maintained’ trails. Having hiked the first one of any consequence yesterday, I’m wondering what they mean by ‘maintained’, but I’m getting ahead of myself. First the trip here…
We packed up at Canyon de Chelly last Saturday and drove to Albuquerque. I wanted to get my hair cut—Budd wanted to get to the casino. We both wanted something to eat, so he won. After eating at one of the restaurants in the casino, we sat in the lounge for a while as Budd remembered that he couldn’t get a drink at the tables in the Sandia casino—it’s Indian-owned. After ascertaining that Utah was going to win their game (Utes—college football) and Boise State was blowing away whoever they were playing, I decided to go ahead and find a table. Blackjack was calling me! Budd joined me after a while and we played here and there, sometimes at the same table, sometimes not, for about three hours. At the end of that time after tipping the dealers, the girl who brought water and the cashier, I was up $3. Just about right to tip the shuttle driver and go home with exactly the amount I sat down with. I call that a good day at the tables! Budd’s luck didn’t hold that well, but that’s another story! Just kidding, he didn’t lose more than it would have cost us to go to a movie. For an evening’s entertainment, we did pretty well.
The next day he wanted to veg out, so I took the opportunity to get my hair cut, then went and rewarded myself with a manicure and pedicure. Rewarded for what, you ask? Why, thank you for asking! I was celebrating more than 15 pounds of weight loss—25% of my total weight loss goal. I’m ahead of schedule, so I’m feeling quite pleased with myself. As of today, I’ve lost 10% of my starting body weight. According to the articles I read, I’ve lowered my risk of diabetes, heart disease and a lot of other unpleasant stuff by about 50%.
Which brings us to Monday. We were having a rather leisurely morning, preparing to get back on the road, when Budd discovered that instead of the four hours of driving we thought we had ahead of us, it was closer to six. We also thought we’d be losing an hour with a time zone change, which turned out not to be the case, but it jump-started us to get out of there in a hurry! We didn’t want to be locked out of our new digs by getting to the park after-hours, and we knew we’d have to stop in either El Paso or Carlsbad, depending on our route, for groceries. There isn’t a town anywhere near here, so no grocery store, no restaurant. Mapquest claimed it was faster to go through Carlsbad even though we wouldn’t be on an interstate highway, so we set out. Fortunately, the highway is divided most of the way, so Budd’s objections were unfounded.
We are traveling with a bare minimum of possessions in a Buick sedan with a large Sears car-top carrier, stuffed to the gills. Unfortunately, our car was not designed for a car-top carrier, so what Budd rigged to hold it up there creates tremendous road noise. At one point it sounded like someone was crouched on top of the car beating a tattoo on the roof with drum sticks. We lost a little time in Roswell trying to find a solution for that. All I can say about Roswell is that it is the stinkiest place I’ve been since Draper, UT lost it’s dairy farm on the main drag. Whew! Nasty.
Back on the road with a whistling noise instead of snare drums, we drove on. And on. And ON! We finally reached Carlsbad at a little before 4 p.m. At this point we called the park and were given the superintendent’s number to call when we got here. So we hurried through Walmart, throwing into the grocery cart what we would need for the next 5 days until we could get back. I arrived with tilapia and tortillas for fish tacos, but no cabbage; bread for toast, but no butter. I had meat for spaghetti, goulash, and vegetable beef stew, but only one can of tomatoes, which I used in a chicken dish. Today is Thursday and I have no idea what I’m going to cook for dinner for the next two nights.
We arrived at the park housing area and turned in circles until we could find a stable cell signal to call the superintendent, who came right over and let us in. Here we got our first pleasant surprise. Though it’s only a one-bedroom apartment and both computers have to grace the living room, it’s quite roomy, clean, and the floor is carpeted! Palatial compared to the Canyon de Chelly house—and there’s a dishwasher! Unfortunately, the DSL had not been installed, despite my ordering it earlier, and in fact we are still waiting for it. Fortunately, the park provides wifi at the visitor center, and I’ve been allowed to use a carrel in the employee library with the laptop. Although it isn’t as convenient as having internet at the house, at least I’m not completely incommunicado. I get three bars on the cell signal about a quarter of a mile from the house, too.
Yesterday morning, finally settled in and with the business aspects of the move handled (call and complain to the phone company about having to wait for DSL, call DirecTV to tell them we’ve moved again so they can send us the local channels, unpack, re-arrange kitchen to suit myself), I FINALLY got on a trail for a nice hike. It was reportedly a 2.2 mile loop, so I told both the interps at the VC and Budd (who happened to pass through the VC as I was leaving) that I should be able to cover that in an hour and to come looking for me if it was more than two. I didn’t really count on taking as long to look around and take pictures as I did! The trail I took is well-defined, but at times is no more than about 10 inches wide, passing through dense underbrush or grasses in spots. I was told to watch for rattlesnakes (note to self: must get hiking boots!) and be on the lookout for mountain lions. Between those admonitions and the chance for thunderstorms, I decided to heed the advice of hikers in rougher, more isolated terrain: tell someone where you’re going and when you expect to be back--and I’m glad I did. But next time I’ll build in some rest time, look around time, and photo time!
I’ll share a few pictures when I can, however I have no way to get them from the camera to the laptop, so it will have to wait until the DSL is installed and I can use the desktop. I'll provide a narrative of the hike then, too.
By the time I was back at the trailhead, I had been gone 2 hours and 10 minutes. I figured I’d better go check in at the VC in case Budd asked if I had gotten back, but then I needed to get some lunch and charge my phone, which discharges the battery rapidly while searching for signal. I assumed he had been to the house for lunch and was back at work before I was due in. However, he was late, and believing I had started earlier than I had, he got worried that I wasn’t there. So he and the employee he’s replacing went to the trailhead, where I had been just a few minutes before, to look for the car. Not finding it, they went to the VC, but they took a service road, while I was parked in the visitor parking lot. We must have missed each other by seconds! Fortunately, the interp that I had checked in with was able to tell him I was safe, so all was well. Later we again met by accident when I went back to the library to finish my internet tasks. What a circus!
The forecast for yesterday was for 40% chance of thunderstorms, growing to 60% by evening. I got sprinkled by a few raindrops on the hike, but the real fireworks didn’t start until about 8:30. It was so spectacular that Budd and I sat in the car for almost an hour to watch and try to take pictures. Our camera isn’t really up to the task, but we did get one or two good ones.
Today dawned sunny with a few leftover clouds. After getting to the VC to post this, I’m going to find out if the trails will be too muddy and maybe do another hike today. We’re told that any day now strong winds will make it too unpleasant to hike until next summer, so I want to make use of all the good days I can. I’m quite disappointed by that news, as the temperatures look like it would have been pleasant to hike right up through mid-December. But it is what it is, so we’ll do as many miles of those trails as we can, and save the rest for another time. Look for shorter posts more often for a while as I plan to narrate and illustrate the hikes as I do them.
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