Labor Day Weekend

    We had friends come in from what we used to call "back home" and they wanted to do some hiking and exploring in the area so we spent the weekend with them. It was dark by the time they got here and we met them in town at my daughter's house. (BTW forgot to tell you that I finally convinced my daughter and her husband to move here. I may have also forgot to mention that my other daughter had her baby so I am now a Grandma.)  Anyway, we took Nick, Stephanie and their daughter Elena out to our house away from the lights of town. Nick was hanging his head out the window looking up at the stars in amazement all the way down our dirt road. He said he had never seen so many stars before. Once we got to the house they could see the milky way as bright as could be so Stephanie tried to capture it on her camera. They were excited to be so far away from all the Austin area hustle and bustle.
    The following morning we got our packs together and headed for the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We stopped often to take pictures along the way and once we arrived it was already beginning to get hot. We decided to hike into the mountains and camp at Pine Top. I had hurt my back a week or so before so the hike was kind of hard... about 3000 foot climb over 4 miles. At one point I had to give my pack to Stephen so he could carry it. I felt bad but just couldn't do it. It took us several hours to get to the top but the view was amazing.

 

Starting our hiking adventure

Devil's Gate

A beautiful view from above!

  

    We reached Pine Top and set up camp. The sky was amazing and we could see more stars than ever. It was a very dark night with just a partial moon. We saw numerous shooting stars. It started to get cool and we all headed into our tents for the night. Temps got in the low 60s to high 50s. Elena must have been spending her first night in the wilderness because every once in a while you would hear a tiny "I'm scared." coming from her tent. I just kept assuring her that there was nothing there in the dark that wasn't there in the light. I told her to quietly count to 100 and then back to one. I tried lots of things but she was just scared. She finally fell asleep. At about 5 am I heard something outside. We had put our trash and packs up in the trees to keep animals out of them but something was in the trash. I woke Stephen up in case it was a mountain lion. We were surprised to find that it was a mule deer. Since we were up we had a granola bar and packed up so we could hike down in the cool of the day.

Mule Deer

   Our hike down allowed us to see the trails and switchbacks that had brought us to the mountain top. It would be a difficult climb back down with our packs. Luckily, we were lighter than when we first started out since we had already consumed most of the water we carried up. 

Switchbacks

 

   At one point we stopped to rest and I heard a really weird sound. First I thought it was a plane in the distance but it started to rumble and sound very strange. Then it felt like a small tremble and I heard a rumbling sound. I walked to the corner and tried to look around the corner of the trail. As a stepped around the wall I looked up and saw a herd of Auodad coming right at me.  I didn't know if I should take pictures or run. I wasn't sure if they would knock me off the mountain. I stood still and one male stopped in my path, staring me down as if he were threatening and then the others jumped from the mountain passing behind him one by one as he stood guard. As the last one passed over my path he turned and ran after them.

   As we finished our hike we saw one last deer which ran off behind some brush when I tried to capture it. The hike was tough but I made it all the way down with my pack. We headed to the visitor center so Elena could earn her Junior Rangers patch. She had completed a workbook and identified several animals. She earned her patch. After a break we headed to New Mexico to Carlsbad to go into the caverns. We decided to take the elevator down and then hike up since the wait for elevators was very long coming back up. We didn't realize that the hike up was at 90% humidity and almost 1000 feet up in 1.2 miles. It was tough and especially at the end of our mountain hike but I am stronger for the weekend I spent hiking and I never gave up!

 

 

Elena and her dad, Nick ... lol!

 

We finished the night with a viewing of the bats exiting the cave!