The Journey Continues

Where in the world is Dave now? And what are the plans?

car camping in the desert at Big Bend

I'm in western Texas, on a hiking road trip!  As for plans... well... I cant even tell you what I am up to today yet.  At 7:30 am we were strapping on our boots getting ready for a hike in the Guadalupe mountains (on the horizontal boarder between Texas and New Mexico) and a ranger comes to tell us that there is a forest fire 11 miles away and the wind is blowing hard in our direction.  Trails are closed for now and so I am writing this.  You can thank the fire, cause otherwise I certainly would have better things to be doing than sit in my car and write.

Anywho, after spending a full 6 weeks, visiting family and friends in Somers, Ithaca, Florida, Philly, Baltimore, Virginia, and Raleigh, Nico and I have finally hit the road again.  The plan is to take it one week at a time and get to Big Bend National Park in Texas first.  We couchsurfed with three wonderful hosts in Asheville, Little Rock, and Austin, before finally getting to Big Bend. 

With 80mph speed limits and 95 degree desert weather, this sure feels like another country.  Our first night camping there was also quite different from what I am used to.  Other than the howling of coyotes early in the night, it was absolutely silent.  No wind, no cars, no airplaines, no bugs, no crickets... nothing except the ringing in my ears which it turns out is quite loud when every other noise is gone.

The Rio Grande, Mexico on the left, Texas on the right.

We spent the first 2 days there exploring some random parts of the park, going on little hikes here and there.  Then we did an overnighter in the Chisos mountains.  Most of our pack weight for this was water, since there is none here.  Over 3 gallons combined between the two of us for just a single overnight.  This was a really sweet hike though, cause in these mountains you are about a mile higher than the rest of the surrounding desert.  Beautiful views up there.  And we got one of the best campsites that I have ever stayed in.  It was a great place to spend my birthday.  We had our own personal viewpoint of the whole basin below where we relaxed for the afternoon and watched the sun set.  The following morning (actually on my birthday) we hiked up Mt. Emory, the highest mountain around – almost 8000 feet.

Hanging out at the South Rim

On top of Emory Peak for my birthday hike

The next day we drove up here to the Guadalupe mountains national park.  Yesterday we planned on doing a hike here, but with wind gusts of up to 60mph, we decided on a day trip to Carlsbad Caverns nearby in New Mexico instead.  This cave system is stunning.  First of all I am used to going into some caves in PA where you get all muddy and squeeze through little cracks with very few decorations.  These caverns are quite the opposite.  Giant rooms – the big one having an area the size of 14 football fields – and tons of stalagmites (rising from the floor) and stalactites (from the ceiling) and other cool stuff like that.  There were also paved paths, special lighting, and  rangers walking around, which kinda takes the sense of adventure out of it, but at least makes it way more accessible to everyone and way easier to get around.

After getting a good nights sleep in the matrix at a rest area (and surprisingly finding another girl doing exactly the same thing as us, sleeping out of her car) we were all set for a hike back here in the Guadalupe mountains.  I really hope that they can get this fire under control, so then I can go do something outside.

Sunset from our awesome campsite right before my birthday

We don't have too much of a plan moving forward, and it usually changes by the day, so I'm not even going to attempt to write it down here.  And like always, I've got a whole bunch of sweet pictures posted at my picasa site – picasaweb.google.com/dave.dayan