Texas Mountains!

Olga and I ventured out to West Texas this past week and what a week it was! We made it to the top of Guadalupe Peak at 8,749 ft and the highest point in Texas. Then, we ran down the 3,000+ of vertical back to the car. It was a few days later that would get me very excited, since I knew we would be going up into the backcountry and I was 99.9% certain there would be lots of snow. Especially, since the day before I decided to turn around in the middle of the road on the way to Dog Canyon due to the snowy roads.



Once we were up in the high country forest, Olga kept joking that we were definitely not in Texas, but in New Mexico. Haha! Welcome to Texas! We had a great day, although it was slow going at times, due to the snow-covered trails hiding all the rocks and roots. We even had to help out several wayward backpackers hiking on the wrong trail. We ended up giving them a liter of our water since we didn't drink nearly enough and had about an hour of downhill left to the car.


After finishing up our day in the Guadalupe Mountains, we immediately began driving around 4pm towards our next adventure. I wanted to check out the Davis Mountains on our way to Big Bend and I was completely caught by surprise by what I saw. I kept shaking my head during the drive and telling myself, "this can't be Texas!". But, it was and it was impossible to get the smile off my face, except when the narrow winding road had some icy patches on it. And, the one time when we almost ko'd a HUGE deer with a enormous rack on its head. I had to stand on the brakes to keep from hitting him. That added a big boost of adrenaline to the remainder of our drive to the mountain town of Alpine. Olga even sweet talked a local Texas state trooper on Christmas eve night trying to find out if there were any hotels in the area. I felt like we were Mary and Joseph, sans the baby Jesus, of course, looking for an inn on a star-strewn Winter night.



The next day, we, eventually, made it to Big Bend National Park. Initially, we were not impressed. It looked like a Mad Max Thunderdome wasteland. Sure, we could see mountains everywhere, but they were in the desert with no indication of vegetation above waist high. But, thankfully, we were very wrong and pulled into the Chisos Basis with mountains towering all around us and trees to boot! We asked the rangers to point us in the direction of the most difficult and highest trail and off we went to the top of Emory Peak. Little did we know the final steps to the top involved Class V climbing. It was absolutely beautiful and we have to plan another trip just to run and explore the vast trail network.



All in all, an awesome week! And, now it's time to focus on the next big goal--Massanutten.