I woke up in my car after a quick 5 hours of sleep. My plans were to get an early start to meet an old friend at Guadalupe Mountains National Park to begin a one night backpacking trek up the mountains. I thought it was extremely strange the floodlight was still on at the neighbors picnic site. When I drove away I got a better look at what was going on and they had a sheet set up and catching hundreds of moths and other incontinent insects. I've heard of black-lighting but I've never seen anyone just pull in hoards of moths to sift through the next day. That's what I assume their plan was anyways.
I began my drive out of the Davis Mountains and my draw dropped as soon as I noticed the must stunning dawn moon rise I've ever seen. I stopped my car on the small highway (there definitely wasn't anyone else on the road at this time) and took a few pictures that came out amazing. You might hear a lot of photographers (or amateurs) say they're not doing any justice but I'd say these do a pretty damn nice job.
Right at the Interstate 10 intersection I saw an old gas station that was tagged with "NO NUCLEAR WASTE AQUI" and it reminded me very much of the book I had just begun at Balmorhea. Edward Abbey's the Monkey Wrench Gang.
I began my drive out of the Davis Mountains and my draw dropped as soon as I noticed the must stunning dawn moon rise I've ever seen. I stopped my car on the small highway (there definitely wasn't anyone else on the road at this time) and took a few pictures that came out amazing. You might hear a lot of photographers (or amateurs) say they're not doing any justice but I'd say these do a pretty damn nice job.
Right at the Interstate 10 intersection I saw an old gas station that was tagged with "NO NUCLEAR WASTE AQUI" and it reminded me very much of the book I had just begun at Balmorhea. Edward Abbey's the Monkey Wrench Gang.
I stopped in Van Horn to buy emergency warm clothes (socks and a flannel shirt) after I realized I might be dealing with some actual cold weather and the whole world wasn't stuck in Hill Country hell (this was one of the major reasons for my trip, mind you.). I made it to the park and found Romey at his campsite. I met Romey when I first started bird watching in college. I looked up the Wildlife Society group on campus and found he was president. We slowly became friends and I ended up learning a lot from him about wildlife and biology and having some very memorable experiences volunteering with his field work at Palmetto State Park. Since we've both been long gone from school we haven't seen each other much but always commented on each others adventures and noted it'd be fun to do some West Texas hiking together. The stars just happened to align this week and we ended up having a really nice time catching up on our lives and Romey did a lot of catching up on the trail ;) Romey's friend, Lee, also joined us.
I hopped back and forth between the ranger station and their campsite gathering details to obtain our back country permit while the other two finished packing their bags and closing camp. Eventually we got on the trail and on our way to the Pine Top camp area of the Bowl.
I hopped back and forth between the ranger station and their campsite gathering details to obtain our back country permit while the other two finished packing their bags and closing camp. Eventually we got on the trail and on our way to the Pine Top camp area of the Bowl.
I don't backpack very much, I'm usually very fond of lightweight day hikes, I mean, I think I've only ever really done it maybe 4 times now. This go around I tried some very minimal packing and had a nice single-person tent and even with 6 liters of water my pack only weighed 40 lbs. I was very happy with my setup and this was the first time I ever felt backpacking was a reasonable thing to do. Halfway up I switched to my wide angle lens because I was tired of not capturing the entire vistas in one frame. That night I would be very happy I brought that second lens!
Our hike speed for the group was a pretty slow. Moving at that speed kept my fatigue to an absolute minimum. I would stop at the few shade trees to let everyone catch up. After one last particularly long break (30 minutes) I put the burners on. I blazed the rest of the climb and finally got a nice burn and workout. When Romey finally reached the end he made a comment about it being "amazing to watch me speed walk up that entire stretch." It was flattering of course. I hiked at my hyper speed for the rest of my vacation.
Our hike speed for the group was a pretty slow. Moving at that speed kept my fatigue to an absolute minimum. I would stop at the few shade trees to let everyone catch up. After one last particularly long break (30 minutes) I put the burners on. I blazed the rest of the climb and finally got a nice burn and workout. When Romey finally reached the end he made a comment about it being "amazing to watch me speed walk up that entire stretch." It was flattering of course. I hiked at my hyper speed for the rest of my vacation.
To avoid bringing a stove with fuel I tried bringing "slow perishables" and just had bland veggie tacos for dinner. I didn't bring a plate, I only had a pocket knife on my key chain, but those things are luxuries anyways right? I was reasonably satisfied with my choice. Shout out to Rebekkah on the tacos, but she doesn't know they were inspired by her when we ate similar tacos at the Barton Creek Preserve.
After dinner wrapped up we were all considerably worn out but Lee and I strapped our lights on and went to the nearby overlook to take some pictures and look at the stars. There was definitely more light pollution and air traffic here in the Guads versus the Davis Mountains the night before, but it was breathtaking nonetheless. For the portraits we did 25 seconds exposures with about a second of headlamp shined on us at the beginning. I was very pleased when Lee's shot of me came out even better than the one I took of him (he aimed the light better). I got to rehash everything I learned from the Star Party and saw some more Perseid meteors. It felt great to be up there. I also had a funny scare when I lost my balance posing in the dark on the edge of that overlook. I threw all of my weight immediately forward and down to the ground and just started laughing. It wasn't a sheer cliff hundreds of feet down, but it would have definitely been a bad time going over the edge.
After dinner wrapped up we were all considerably worn out but Lee and I strapped our lights on and went to the nearby overlook to take some pictures and look at the stars. There was definitely more light pollution and air traffic here in the Guads versus the Davis Mountains the night before, but it was breathtaking nonetheless. For the portraits we did 25 seconds exposures with about a second of headlamp shined on us at the beginning. I was very pleased when Lee's shot of me came out even better than the one I took of him (he aimed the light better). I got to rehash everything I learned from the Star Party and saw some more Perseid meteors. It felt great to be up there. I also had a funny scare when I lost my balance posing in the dark on the edge of that overlook. I threw all of my weight immediately forward and down to the ground and just started laughing. It wasn't a sheer cliff hundreds of feet down, but it would have definitely been a bad time going over the edge.
