The Land of Enchantment

From Big Bend we headed towards El Paso to do some shopping before making our way to the Lincoln National forest in New Mexico. In need of a shoe replacement I looked up outdoor stores and there was an REI in the area. While on our way I double checked and learned this was a realty company, not an outdoor recreation outfitter, darn. We tried a Gander mountain but they had no minimal or zero drop shoes. Next door was one of the most dangerous grocery stores we've been to. It was called Sprouts market and they had every new age crunchy food our little hippy hearts could desire. $150 later we walked out with our goodies. We then tried a running store and found the exact trail runners I wanted, happy day!

First night in Cloudcroft

We drove to the Cloudcroft, NM ranger station to get maps. In this forest they have a TON of dispersed camping. The map shows numerous roads we are allowed to camp off of. It also includes the trails. Unfortunately the free map and the $10 map don't have topo. Since the only difference was the one you pay for was colored, we stuck with the free one. Also the trails on the map don't have distances, or names. Instead they have numbers like T250, and there is a separate sheet of paper with a list of the hikes by number, then name, distance and use. Also, the free map is the biggest map I have ever seen. It would be a hazard to open it all the way in the front seat of the car while driving. Anywho, all part of the fun.

We stayed in an area called the White Mountains, aptly named as when we arrived they just had an unexpected snowstorm and all was covered in white. It was a bit of a shock going from 90 degrees to 30's. While in the town of Cloudcroft we did some very necessary laundry and purchased some new socks. We then picked a road to camp off of. While driving down the dirt road covered in snow we saw a gang of Elk! It was my first time seeing them in the wild so I was pretty excited and with the backdrop of tall pines and snow, it was perfect. We found a nice campsite to call home for the evening and decided a fire was appropriate. It was amusing to watch Matthew attempt to start a fire using matches as the snow got thicker. He finally got it going with a lighter, after all our nice dry pieces of wood got damp while he went through almost an entire pack of matches. It was lovely having a fire though. We did a quick dinner and once the fire died down crawled in under our down and blankets.

The morning was so cold! I won't even go into what it was like to get up in the middle of the night to pee. We bundled up, ate breakfast with cold fingers and headed out. We were told by a ranger to visit the Sunspot solar observatory. We didn't know it was here and were excited to check it out. Sadly, they are closing in September of this year. For $3 we walked around the museum and learned all about the sun. After that there was a short walk around the grounds to see the different observatories, there was only one open that you could go inside.

We thought we'd just hang out there until it warmed up outside then do a hike. We ended up spending about 5 hours, most of the time going through the museum, it included an hour NOVA video about the suns flares. Once we finished up there we chose a 7 mile loop hike. It was a gorgeous hike, the temperature went up to the 50's and it felt good. We found a bunch of stuff on the trail like a jaw bone, a skinning knife, ultraviolet flashlight, turkey hen caller and the ever pervasive beer bottle. Quite the treasure trove. We got done and decided to just camp at the trailhead. It was off a designated road and there was already a fire pit. This time I started the fire while he cooked dinner. We ate as the sun was going down.

coyote or bobcat jawbone?

The road to that trail was pretty long and we passed another hike on the way out. The next day we did the other hike, it was a 10 mile out and back hike. It was another gorgeous trail. The day before there was no snow on the trail so for this hike I decided to wear my new shoes. As it goes, the trail had several spots with snow and others with mucky mud, a proper breaking in hike for my shiny new shoes. They didn't get too bad actually, and with this lifestyle there's no point in holding off the inevitable. The hike was still very enjoyable.

Before and After...













This is the highest elevation I have been thus far. On that hike I think we were around 9500'. Some people get high altitude sickness and we didn't know how I'd react. At this elevation, aside from the expected slight shortness of breath, I've done well. No cerebral edema signs, woot! After the hike we needed to refill on water. We ended up back at the ranger station to see if we could fill up there but they said it was for residents only. They then directed us to a spring we could collect water from. We also asked about the water situation on the Rim trail. It's a 30 mile hike one way and we were going to backpack, then maybe hitchhike back. We learned not only is there no water on the entire trail, but hitchhiking is illegal. New plan, we are going to section hike it by doing 3 overnight out and back trips. This way we don't have to buy plastic jugs to cache along the trail, it's not like we are limited in time. It's also still cold, with unpredictable weather so being able to get a break after two days is a bonus.

Chillin' on a snow day

The day we planned to work on projects and prep for backpacking we woke to snow. The weather online made no mention of this the day before when we were close to town with reception. Shrug. We stayed in bed a little longer than usual expecting the snow to stop. Around 10am it was not showing any signs of slowing. We got up, started a fire, collected wood and set up a shelter. We did a lot of keeping warm until a little after noon. The snow slowed a little and we were able to start pulling our gear together for backpacking the next day. The snow stopped and it got just warm enough for much of the snow to melt away, looking like it hadn't snowed at all.

The next two days we did an out and back hike of the southern most 10 mile section of the trail. Doing 10 miles each day. It was difficult due to the elevation and being the Rim Trail it was a lot of climbing up and down, with some rough sections of trail. The views made up for it though. We had a blast, the weather was good for hiking. The campsite we found was across the street from the end of the trail. It was at lower elevation so it was warm. We had to look around for an area that wasn't covered in cow poop. Aside from that it was great. We also found a small stream to get water. I ended up doing the hike in my heavy Asolo boots in case it snowed again.

Cool shelter we found on the trail 

 Saw my first Horny Toad!

 One of the views, pictures don't really capture the awesomeness

 

Matthew showing off his six pack

Neat alligator juniper tree whose bark looked like a python wrapped around the branch 

End of day one

We took one day off between that hike and the next section. Matthew ordered new hiking boots (he blew through his shoes too) and needed to test them out before doing a backpacking trip. We tested them by doing the Trestle trail, about an 8 mile loop that is near the town of Cloudcroft. It is a rails-to-trails hike that goes along an old railroad track. One section of Trestle was intact, with remnants of other trestles in other parts of the hike. It started as a very windy cold day, by afternoon turning into a warm gorgeous day.

Mexican canyon trestle

For those who lack common sense? Found this amusing

His new boots worked out well, so we planned to head out for the next 10 mile section of the Rim Trail. We started late, just being slow that morning. From the start of the trail we got confused where to continue. There are no blazes here like I'm used to on the east coast. We guessed a route and as we started again a dog startled me from behind. It was a happy-go-lucky white lab, followed by a smaller more tentative black lab and a gentleman on a horse. He was a rancher out looking for antlers to sell. We had a nice little chat with him and he informed us we were on the right path. After a bit we continued our hike.

 We found a lot of bones on the trail, this was the only skull

Looking at a bush, per Matthews instruction

We got to another section of the trail we were unsure about. This time again a man appeared (minus the adorable animals), he too was hiking and unsure which way to go. We continued on in different directions, tried back tracking, then going forward again and eventually found a road that took us back to the trail. All this made the hike a bit longer. With three continuous days of long hiking behind me I was pretty tired by the end of the day. Ok, I was cranky and felt over the whole hiking thing. As if he knew it was what I needed Matthew started to sing toward the end of the hike and it lifted my spirits, taking my mind off of the fatigue. The evening was a cold one but we were prepared. My feet got cold at one point but I was warm most of the time. The one issue I did have, was my right hip. It was really hurting and in the middle of the night I had to take some ibuprofen. By morning the hip was still a little sore. I took more ibuprofen before heading out, did some stretches and after about 10 min or so I was warmed up and felt good. We finished the hike within 4 hours, the day before we did it in 6 hours. We were very surprised when we got to the end and it was early afternoon.

We enjoyed the rest of the day at camp and prepared to do the last section of the trail the next day. We got out in the morning by around 9am, this was early for us. Matthew had some pain in the front of his left ankle from the new boots putting pressure there, so we took a quick detour to the post office and found his new shoes arrived. He blew through those as well recently. It worked out that he was able to hike the last section in his new shoes. These were an exact replacement so he didn't need time to break them in and being low ankle shoes they didn't press on his ankle.

The last section was the easiest of the three. It didn't have nearly as much up and down, it felt mainly flat. We finished the hike in a little under 5 hours. Being at camp by 2pm we had a lot of time to burn. I was tempted to take a short break and start the trek back and camp closer to the end, Matthew vetoed the idea. Instead, we rested, which was a wise choice. After about an hour I got bored. We had limited entertainment options so we decided to try starting a fire the old fashioned way, by rubbing two sticks together aka hand drill.

After several minutes of trying to get a spark

First, Matthew went over the types of wood you want to use. Second, we started a search for wood that lasted about 5 minutes or less. Wood is in abundance in the woods, heh. He found a base board that was an old pine with no more sap in it and I found an elderberry bush with old partly rotted wood in the center. They were similar in density, so we thought it would work. I have done bow drill but not hand drill so I got to try the technique. Matthew tried to get an actual spark and came very close, with no spark. He got a lot of powder and it seemed like it was going to work, got some smoke going but that was it. In the end I started the fire the easy way, with a lighter and a nice bundle of dry pine needles (seen in right side of above photo).

Going shirtless! showing off my non-six pack (and feeling comfortable with it for the first time)

We did an early dinner, then read to each other for the rest of the evening. The weather has warmed up a lot in the past week, by this trip we were quit warm. I went so far as to not wear a shirt while hiking, I did have a sports bra on, don't get too excited. We slept well that evening and got back the next day by 2pm. We rewarded ourselves by going to Alamogordo and getting green chiles burgers for dinner, followed by way too big sundaes. We found a dispersed camping site 10 min out of Alamogordo and ended the day with this...

Again, the photo lacks the je ne sais quoi of being present.

That's all for now. Don't know if this was any shorter than the last post.. oh well. Hope you enjoyed it. 

Exploring Texas

Our plan of action from Huntsville was to head to Austin to do some rock climbing. We rock climbed at Reimers Ranch state park, a little west of Austin. It's all sport climbing, on our first day we did 5 climbs. When we were done it was mid-afternoon and we were right next to the Pederales River. We got a tip from one of the other climbers (petite girl in photo) that there is a great boulder to jump off of.

Bamf petite rock climber

We took advantage of the boulder, did a little swimming, then headed back to camp. The next day we climbed another 5 routes with a quick dip in the river. We met very cool people while climbing. Every climber we were next to was friendly, funny and chatty. It was great. We loved both days, and enjoyed very sore muscles for the next few days.

Fun jumping off boulders

The following morning we made it to San Antonio with the intent of visiting the Alamo and doing the River walk. At the Alamo we walked the grounds, read through the history of the Alamo in the barracks building, and got to chat with a reenactor outside. He had a similar flint and steel kit to the one I've been playing with. We had a nice conversation with him. He informed us that the Mission San Jose was actually better maintained than the Alamo and the good local place to eat is only a mile away.

San Jose mission, didn't get any photos of the Alamo and not many take here.

From the Alamo we did a short stroll along the river walk. It was a commercialized Venice. It was interesting to walk along, there were a bunch of restaurants, too many people and chain restaurants. We then made our way down to Mission San Jose, it was more our speed. It had more of the original buildings than the Alamo. We walked around and read the history. After that we had dinner at Taqueria Guadalajara. It was a lot of the same things you'd see and get at any mexican restaurant, except everything tasted way better.

We spent about six hours in San Antonio, then headed west to a picnic area for the night on our way to Big bend. Next day on our way to Big Bend we went through a little town called Langtry. We caught a sign for the Judge Roy Bean museum. We had no idea who that was and on a whim turned around to check it out. We learned all about Judge Roy Bean, a man who was one step down from the criminals he charged. It was awesome. In Langrty around the mid to late 1800's it was the wild west. They had no judge or law enforcement and Roy Bean was selected to be the Justice of the Peace. In his history they mention him running scams (selling watered down milk) and having fled Mexico after killing a man. His way of justice was to fine criminals, and pocket the fines. He was a rough and tumble guy, and perfect for the job. It was clear from what we read that if anyone 'nice' were in that role they wouldn't last but his style of justice worked for the area. They had the original saloon/court house where he ran his business and conducted trials, which were often held on the porch. They had no jail so he'd tie the belligerent drunks to a tree until they were sober, then fine them. He was quite the character.

The original saloon/court house 

Inside

We made it to Big Bend and got our back country permit. Here they have designated back country primitive sites and you have to book where you are staying. We made a plan to stay a few nights in each corner of the park. The drive to our first campsite was treacherous. It was along a 'not maintained' road that required having a 4x4 lifted vehicle. We had no trouble, just a few 'oh sh*t' moments. We are saddened there is no photo proof. There was one good spot when I had to get out of the car to spot him because part of the road had washed out and if he crossed it wrong, I'd be standing there watching him roll down the hill. Oh well, we made it safely to Elephant Tusk campsite, in the middle of nowhere.

at the campsite

In the morning we packed up and headed on a hike that was right next to the campsite. It is uncharacteristically hot for this time of year. I'm talking 90-100's. So we went out and hiked only until noon then turned around. We wanted to be done by the time the high heat hit. It is also quite dry. I've never been this dry. It's good in some ways, like my wet clothes dry really fast, but my nasal cavities are also dried out. Anyway, we only had one night at that spot.

Jack rabbit!

 Hiking Elephant tusk trail

Purple tinged prickly pear in bloom

We spent the next two nights by the Rio Grande. After being dry and hot I dreamed this site would be nicer than it was. We were near the river but had to do a little hike through thick brush to get to it and it was not very deep in that section. Still, we had a great view. We did another hike, followed by siesta. Oh yea, we have spent almost every afternoon under shade eating salsa and chips. Our food intake has been oatmeal in the morning, snacking while hiking, salsa and chips in the afternoon and veggies at dinner. I only want to eat fruit and veggies. The heat really diminishes your appetite for food and increases it for fluids and electrolytes.

Sunset in camp

On our way to the next campsite we stopped by the Mariscol Mine to explore. It is a Cinnabar aka Quicksilver aka mercury mine that closed in 1943.

 My new ride

Mariscol Mines

We also stopped at the Hot Spring. I know, it seems counter intuitive with the heat here, but it felt great. Especially to jump in the river intermittently to cool off. We did a quick hike there to get really miserably hot before jumping in. We then spent about an hour in the water. After being hot, dry and moderately dehydrated for several days it was magical to be surrounded by moisture. It doesn't help that I've also been reading a book about a dystopian future where water is scarce and the main character is constantly thinking about water. I could relate.

 View from pre-hot springs hike

In the hot spring

The next day, we hiked some more. This was the first time we actually did the whole trail before turning around. It's was the ore terminal trail, following the remains of an ore terminal. We felt good on the hike, our bodies starting to adjust to the heat. We rewarded ourselves with ice cream from the shop on the way back to camp. Then, siesta.

Our last day at that campsite we spent in Mexico! There is a port of entry in the park that allows you to enter Boquillas Del Carmen. I asked the cashier when we were getting ice cream about it and he said, "It's small, primitive, very Mexican and a lot of fun". We weren't sure if we'd go but that sealed the deal. We had the option to take a boat for five bucks or wade in the water to cross in to Mexico. Since we are cheap or as the nice border patrol gentleman said,"Adventure seekers", we waded through the knee deep Rio Grande.

Margaritas en Mexico!

Once in Mexico you can choose to walk, ride a truck, horse or donkey for the 3/4 of a mile to the town. Again, we walked. We went through the Mexican immigration office, a one man show in a trailer. From there we walked the town, then out of town to a sign for the next town. We walked back, wandered the rest of the town, then stopped for lunch. We had margarita's and tamales that were fabulous. The people were all wonderfully friendly. Everyone is selling trinkets, none we were particularly interested in. Except for these awesome cast iron plates you could use to cook tortillas over the fire. Those were very tempting but we don't need them, so we passed them up for now. Almost everyone spoke English, I was a little disappointed as I had been practicing my spanish in my head the night before and was looking forward to using what little I know. It was a very small town so we only spent about 3 hours there, but we were glad we went. It made us contemplate the possibilities of traveling in the truck through Central America and into South America.

The following day we drove to a new campsite near Chisos Basin. This is the main attraction in Big Bend. On our way we stopped at dugout wells (a small oasis in the desert that used to be a small town), the fossil bone exhibit (who doesn't like dinosaurs? they have found a lot of fossils here), then stopped in the main visitor center to read about the plants and animals in the area, then we did a 5 mile hike along the lost mine trail, both wearing our huaraches.

The gators used to be pretty big

I forgot to mention I busted through another pair of shoes. I've been alternating between wearing my heavy, clunky feeling Asolo boots and huaraches. I only wear the huaraches for short hikes.

nice shredded hole in my shoe, we walk too much

The hike was fun, windy with spectacular views.. well every hike here has had spectacular views. The next day the weather cooled to a high of only 65, it felt so cold after acclimating to 90s. We hiked to Emory Peak that morning, with the intent of doing a 9 mile hike. We felt so good we extended our hike to include what we were going to do the next day for a total of a 14.5 mile hike. This included doing the South Rim trail which is said to have the greatest view of Texas. I don't know if it's true but the view was the best I've seen here.

 Matthew on top of Emory peak

South rim, a bit windy

Our last day in the area we did another 5 mile hike along the Window trail. Again the weather was gorgeous. It was nice to not have to retreat to shelter by midday, although we did anyway. We were a little sore and tired from the previous days exertions. Still, overall I felt way better than I have in the past after such a long hike.

'window' at the end of the Window Trail

Leaving for our last campsite we took a scenic drive that had a lot of exhibits, overlooks and short trails. We stopped for everything. It was an exhausting 'rest' day. I thought we'd drive and do little stops but we did several trails. We estimated by the end of the day we walked 10.5 miles. It was a great day. We saw many beautiful views, two abandoned ranches, the remnants of a town and learned a lot. Top two favorites of the day were the Burro Mesa Pouroff and Santa Elena Canyon Trail. To get to the Burro Messa Pouroff we hiked the upper and lower part to see it from the top and bottom. The Santa Elena Canyon was a short trail with the payoff of silent awe and the feeling of being a minute impression on the earth, it was impressive and beautiful.

Last part of the upper burro mesa

 It was hard to get a good shot of the view from the top

Burro mesa from the bottom 

Santa Elena Canyon

Ok, this was a LOT at once. I feel like there is so much more to say about our experiences but this is long enough. I'll try to update more frequently or do shorter versions from now on.

Last days in the bayou, on to the Lonestar state

The day after Mardi Gras:
The following day we had reservations for our first experience on an airboat! We went for an hour ride on a beautiful swamp with gators, ibis, turtle, nutria, great egret, bald cypress and plenty of spanish moss. Our airboat captain, Jeremy, had a lovely southern accent and gave clear interesting information about the swamp we explored. I did not want off of that boat. We learned that it was a great time of year to be out in search of gators, they are all bathing in the sun to warm up this time of year. From there we went a bit farther to New Orleans to explore for a little while. We did the obligatory walk around the french quarter, bourbon street, jackson square and st. louis cathedral. We enjoyed it more than Matthew thought we would. It's a beautiful place. We rested at an outdoor restaurant, sipped on ice cream daiquiris and listened to jazz by 5 old southern gentlemen. Our dinner plans didn't pan out as the place we were going was closed. We found a different local favorite that was booming. We gorged on fried catfish, fried soft shell crab, shrimp fried rice and a pitiful salad.

 Sun bathing gator

 Bald Cypress

 "Big Al"

Jackson Square with St. Louis Cathedral in the distance, only shot I took in New Orleans

The next morning we ventured to Avery island, the birthplace of Tabasco sauce. We started by walking Jungle gardens, an oasis cultivated by one of the early owners of the Tabasco company. We saw more gators bathing in the sun, man-made lagoons, a big Buddha statue in a shrine built to honor it, with the surrounding lagoon, and garden to match it's mystic and Asian origins. It housed one of the most diverse collection of bamboo, bird city - the home of many egrets, and camellia plants with flowers ranging in shades of red to white. We then toured the Tabasco factory. It was amusing mostly, we saw how Tabasco is made, read about the history of the owners and how Tabasco came to being. They gave us a few samples and threw in two bottles of spicy pickled okra.. we guessed this gift was due to low sales but it is delicious!

 Jungle gardens

Great Egret sanctuary

Type 2 Fun experience:
While at the laundromat in Alexandria Louisiana Matthew got suckered into giving a guy a ride. Breuster was a 50 year old who spent 19 years in prison and needed a ride just a few miles away. It was a longer ride than expected, and on the way, whilst distracting us with conversation he informed us he needed to make more than one stop. He also implied he wanted to ride with us to Texas. We told him only one stop but when we got there no one was at the house to let him in, so we drove him one more place which happened to be on our way back anyway. He was an interesting character, he made a mix of positive and primarily negative comments. He kept trying to give us things, talked about different 'hustles' to get quick money, claimed to read people well.. and we were happy to say farewell. He turned out to be mostly harmless but did rub us the wrong way.

After Mardi Gras and exploring the pungent streets of New Orleans we ended out time in Louisiana with a backpacking trip. It was along the Wild Azalea trail in the Kistachie National Forest. We were taking it easy, so we didn't plan to do the entire trail. It is a point to point trail so we did an out and back trip. We only wanted to do three days, which meant on the second day we turned around halfway through the day. Silly, I know. The weather forecast said it would be raining every day, thunderstorms. On the first day we had a light rain with only a short burst of heavy rainfall for about 2 minutes. The trail went through multiple changes between the bayou/swamp areas and higher ground which had pine trees, dogwood trees and had recently been burned. There were many beautiful spots, I'm sorry I didn't take more photos. Some of the coolest ones were in the rain anyhow. By the time we stopped to camp in the mid afternoon it stopped raining or was only a light drizzle. Our campsite was along a creek, called Loving Creek. It was right next to the trail but it looked like a used site and we didn't see anyone the whole time we were there.

The second morning we had no rain, in fact it didn't rain much that day, only small amounts of drizzle. I didn't even wear my rain coat. We came across on upside down car in this section. It was very unexpected and neat. I wondered how long it had been sitting there. We also happened to find a geocache stored in it!

The last day started off dry, most of the hike was dry with short drizzles, until the last 2-3 miles. The downpour finally came, with lightening and thunder. By this time knowing I was going back to the car I didn't even care about getting soaked. I didn't bother with a raincoat. I needed a shower anyway.

By the time we made it to the car the rain stopped, which was very convenient. We weren't sure how we were going to make the transition of being soaked, to dry clothing and getting in the car. It was all good fun. It felt good to get soaked, and it felt great to be dry again. Once we were unpacked and settled in the car it was lunch time. Our usual post backpacking reward of splitting a pie of pizza enticed us to drive out to the city. We got an extra large pizza to share, and I had no problem eating my half. I didn't even feel full afterward, we also didn't need dinner that night.

The next day graced us with sun, blue skies and heat. We laid out all the damp and drenched things to dry. Once everything was dried, by about midday and after a short run, we packed up our things and continued west.

Now we are in Texas. We spent the first few days at the Davy Crockett National Forest. We spent a down day at camp, and went to the Caddo Mounds Historic Site which is only 10 minutes away. I started a fire for the first time using flint, steel and charcloth. I got a fire starter kit from Judy and Eric Brewer for Christmas. It took me a while to start playing with it, first I had to learn to get a spark with the flint and steel, then how to hold the charcloth in place to catch the spark, THEN move it to tinder that I collected, place it in the center and blow continuously until it catches. It worked, I got really excited and have started 5 fires this way now.

 First first started with flint, steel and charcloth!

We did a 10 mile hike the next day along the 4C hiking trail. We were planning on a backpacking trip but too many things went wrong for that ie controlled burns, unknown fees, starting too late. Instead we left Davy Crockett and are now sitting in a Starbucks in Huntsville as we plan our next move. 

 Camp Creek, along the 4C trail

One of three water moccasins we encountered, sorry it's not a great photo, wasn't getting too close