March 18-20
2 nights camping, Carlsbad caverns, Guadalupe peak, on to Kerrville
By Chris Ransdell
There were lots of first world problems at the hotel last night (Tuesday). The hot tub wasn't hot (or clean), the wireless internet was very poor at all hours and the shower diverter thing didn't work. On top of that it was almost as expensive as Gilroy CA (Bay Area). I complained vocally and the manager wiped my bill clean for the stay which is obviously appreciated. I woke up very early (5:30) thinking I was done sleeping and tried to work but after a frustrating hour (see bad Internet above), gave up and we headed out, both of us a little tired and crabby. The drive to Carlsbad was fast and dull (fine with me).
I was under the impression that Cavern tours were guided and thus might sell out on spring break. Luckily, there is a very smartly placed national park service information building in the town of Carlsbad which has information on both Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains national parks. In just a few minutes we had information on hiking options in Guadalupe and a complete run-down of the tour options and hours at Carlsbad. Most visitors to the caverns do a self-guided tour. Since it was early (getting up early and losing an hour in time zone change) we decided to get on with it and go to the Caverns after having a basic lunch at Wendy's.
There didn't seem to be any real traffic on the way to the park but as usual, once at the park people seemed to pop out of the woodwork and there was a hefty line to get tickets for the tours, even the self-guided one which we did. Having an annual national park pass meant there was no charge for the tour tickets and there were no other admission or parking charges (same for Zion). We opted to go into the natural cave entrance which involves walking down numerous paved switchbacks into the mouth and seemingly forever down into the cave itself. We were in a fairly small group (people are bunched into little groups at the entry point for the cave where each group is given a brief orientation before being set off down the trail) but some people were slower than others and Brian and I cut through the amphitheater and passed people when they paused for the first .25 mile and soon we were more or less on our own for the rest of the tour. It was a nice illusion of not having a lot of people around but in truth there were a few hundred people in the cavern the whole time. I wasn't expecting it to be so huge and sprawling and it is well setup for the high volume of people that traipse through each day. Even more amazing, there wasn't anybody who stood out as being loud or rude on the whole trip. That's about all I can hope for from a busy national park.
After the caverns we farted around in Carlsbad trying to find a good outdoor store to buy a folding chair but ended up at Walmart. The campground (Brantley Lake state park) is only 20 minutes from town and has great LTE coverage (how do I know that???). Setting up camp was easy after picking out a good tent site (other than the one we had been given on the Internet). Dinner was basic, leftover spaghetti sauce with pasta shells and some simple sauteed Zucchini. When we were passing through TX I got some beer and unlike NM it's normal beer not 3.2% beer so that's completing my evening as I write this. More to follow after the first nights camping at this campground and hopefully a successful Guadalupe hike tomorrow.
Thursday started with us having gotten a decent (not great) nights sleep. We haven't really had a fantastic nights sleep camping since we started the trip. I say it's something about the new gear, Brian says its because I am 40 minus 1 years old. Still, it was enough sleep and we woke up at dark o'clock which was a good fit for driving over an hour to Guadalupe Mountains and then hiking 8.4 miles, 3000 feet vertical in the TX sun. It was a brutal trail, up and up and up, stairs, rocks, slopes, all manner of uphill conveyance. I set out from the get go to be very plodding and deliberate on the way up and I stuck to it. At one point, when we could see that the thing we'd been climbing for so long was not even the thing the summit was on and some cold fog was blowing in, I came close to saying I was as close as I needed to get. Brian really wanted to finish it though and I slowed down even more but kept going one foot in front of the other and we both made it eventually. The fog cleared up and it was mostly good conditions and the whisper of rain from this morning meant it wasn't dusty which was a treat for the desert. The trail is quite popular though there are only so many people willing to drive to such a far flung location and hoof it for 8 miles. The information we had said to allow 6-8 hours and between being deliberately plodding and feeling very abused by the time we got to the top, we assumed we had in fact been walking at least 6 hours but when we got back to the car finally it was less than 5 hours. From this we (re)learned that hike time estimates can be very conservative and that we are awesome. We are now relaxing back at the campground with birds cooing around us and temps wonderfully mild in the low 70's with a sometimes brisk breeze.
Friday was to be our last night camping at Brantley Lake. Between the shelters around the picnic tables, the quiet setting and the campsite location close to the bathroom, it wasn't an unpleasant space to spend time. Still, Thursday night the wind picked up and there was a lot of lightning on the other side of the lake. The forecast for Friday night was wet and worse so, having done the two major attractions in the area, we decided to break camp Friday morning. Surprisingly, even with our late decision (after showering) we were out of there at 10:30. I called the Kerrville Best Western (repeat visitor, wonderful people) and made sure there was room at the Inn for a 3rd night. The drive was boring but the 200 miles of uninterrupted 80 MPH on I-10 with very light traffic was appreciated. It was, hopefully, our last time to see miles and miles of oil wells and rigs and flares and all the wonderful job creating but smelly and unsustainable things that the industry has brought to the region. Dinner was at Cracker Barrel and was a welcome end to the day and a great value. It rained all night.
2 nights camping, Carlsbad caverns, Guadalupe peak, on to Kerrville
By Chris Ransdell
There were lots of first world problems at the hotel last night (Tuesday). The hot tub wasn't hot (or clean), the wireless internet was very poor at all hours and the shower diverter thing didn't work. On top of that it was almost as expensive as Gilroy CA (Bay Area). I complained vocally and the manager wiped my bill clean for the stay which is obviously appreciated. I woke up very early (5:30) thinking I was done sleeping and tried to work but after a frustrating hour (see bad Internet above), gave up and we headed out, both of us a little tired and crabby. The drive to Carlsbad was fast and dull (fine with me).
I was under the impression that Cavern tours were guided and thus might sell out on spring break. Luckily, there is a very smartly placed national park service information building in the town of Carlsbad which has information on both Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains national parks. In just a few minutes we had information on hiking options in Guadalupe and a complete run-down of the tour options and hours at Carlsbad. Most visitors to the caverns do a self-guided tour. Since it was early (getting up early and losing an hour in time zone change) we decided to get on with it and go to the Caverns after having a basic lunch at Wendy's.
There didn't seem to be any real traffic on the way to the park but as usual, once at the park people seemed to pop out of the woodwork and there was a hefty line to get tickets for the tours, even the self-guided one which we did. Having an annual national park pass meant there was no charge for the tour tickets and there were no other admission or parking charges (same for Zion). We opted to go into the natural cave entrance which involves walking down numerous paved switchbacks into the mouth and seemingly forever down into the cave itself. We were in a fairly small group (people are bunched into little groups at the entry point for the cave where each group is given a brief orientation before being set off down the trail) but some people were slower than others and Brian and I cut through the amphitheater and passed people when they paused for the first .25 mile and soon we were more or less on our own for the rest of the tour. It was a nice illusion of not having a lot of people around but in truth there were a few hundred people in the cavern the whole time. I wasn't expecting it to be so huge and sprawling and it is well setup for the high volume of people that traipse through each day. Even more amazing, there wasn't anybody who stood out as being loud or rude on the whole trip. That's about all I can hope for from a busy national park.
After the caverns we farted around in Carlsbad trying to find a good outdoor store to buy a folding chair but ended up at Walmart. The campground (Brantley Lake state park) is only 20 minutes from town and has great LTE coverage (how do I know that???). Setting up camp was easy after picking out a good tent site (other than the one we had been given on the Internet). Dinner was basic, leftover spaghetti sauce with pasta shells and some simple sauteed Zucchini. When we were passing through TX I got some beer and unlike NM it's normal beer not 3.2% beer so that's completing my evening as I write this. More to follow after the first nights camping at this campground and hopefully a successful Guadalupe hike tomorrow.
Thursday started with us having gotten a decent (not great) nights sleep. We haven't really had a fantastic nights sleep camping since we started the trip. I say it's something about the new gear, Brian says its because I am 40 minus 1 years old. Still, it was enough sleep and we woke up at dark o'clock which was a good fit for driving over an hour to Guadalupe Mountains and then hiking 8.4 miles, 3000 feet vertical in the TX sun. It was a brutal trail, up and up and up, stairs, rocks, slopes, all manner of uphill conveyance. I set out from the get go to be very plodding and deliberate on the way up and I stuck to it. At one point, when we could see that the thing we'd been climbing for so long was not even the thing the summit was on and some cold fog was blowing in, I came close to saying I was as close as I needed to get. Brian really wanted to finish it though and I slowed down even more but kept going one foot in front of the other and we both made it eventually. The fog cleared up and it was mostly good conditions and the whisper of rain from this morning meant it wasn't dusty which was a treat for the desert. The trail is quite popular though there are only so many people willing to drive to such a far flung location and hoof it for 8 miles. The information we had said to allow 6-8 hours and between being deliberately plodding and feeling very abused by the time we got to the top, we assumed we had in fact been walking at least 6 hours but when we got back to the car finally it was less than 5 hours. From this we (re)learned that hike time estimates can be very conservative and that we are awesome. We are now relaxing back at the campground with birds cooing around us and temps wonderfully mild in the low 70's with a sometimes brisk breeze.
Friday was to be our last night camping at Brantley Lake. Between the shelters around the picnic tables, the quiet setting and the campsite location close to the bathroom, it wasn't an unpleasant space to spend time. Still, Thursday night the wind picked up and there was a lot of lightning on the other side of the lake. The forecast for Friday night was wet and worse so, having done the two major attractions in the area, we decided to break camp Friday morning. Surprisingly, even with our late decision (after showering) we were out of there at 10:30. I called the Kerrville Best Western (repeat visitor, wonderful people) and made sure there was room at the Inn for a 3rd night. The drive was boring but the 200 miles of uninterrupted 80 MPH on I-10 with very light traffic was appreciated. It was, hopefully, our last time to see miles and miles of oil wells and rigs and flares and all the wonderful job creating but smelly and unsustainable things that the industry has brought to the region. Dinner was at Cracker Barrel and was a welcome end to the day and a great value. It rained all night.
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