The great state of Texas is a boring flat land, no mountains or forests in sight for hundreds of miles. But with us being in Dallas during new years of 2007, we decided to drive across the state, from it's eastern border to it's western border with New Mexico and camp at Guadalupe National Park. Guadalupe is a beautiful National Park -- bang on the border of Texas with New Mexico. We, a bunch of 4 guys -- Vijay Mishra, Vikas Hegde, Sudhi Murthy and yours truly, had made up our minds to camp at the park and celebrate new year's in the wilderness. We planned carefully, listing all the required items under the 3 categories -- Food, Clothing and Shelter. We noted that the park is devoid of any amenities (including drinking water) and we were advised to get everything possible. We packed a lot of food, tents, stove, lots of water, but surprisingly we didn't pack a lot of warm clothes. We regretted this later though.
Renting the car was an adventure in itself, as we got delayed in reaching the car rental center at the airport as we missed a few exits. Tempers flared as a mini blame-game began as to the cause of the delay, but we made it just in time with a minute to spare as we picked our car at midnight. We quickly dumped all our stuff, and fled Dallas at 3 am on the morning of Dec 30, 2006 with me at the wheel. I had slept for most of the morning and afternoon the previous day, so was feeling fresh (it was "day" for me then). It was a gruelling 9 hour drive across the great state of Texas as we reached the park headquarters in the afternoon of Dec 30,2006. Then, our first surprise, it was snowing -- in the middle of this freaking desert!! I knew the kind of landscape to expect, having lived two years in Tucson, but snow was a pleasant surprise. It was the first snow experience for my friend Vikas as we got down from our cars, rolling in the light half inch snow. The majestic El Capitan and the Guadalupe peaks greeted us as we entered into Indian territory and New Mexico.
We had originally planned to camp at Dog Canyon and trek a day towards McKittrick Canyon, camp in the wilderness, and then trek back to Dog Canyon. The rangers at the Headquarters of Guadalupe said that there is atleast 3 inches of snow at Dog Canyon as it is at a higher elevation. He also said that we would pretty much be all alone in the campsite as no one had registered to camp there for the night. We drove to Dog Canyon, warming up with a light hike at McKittricks' and then driving up to Dog Canyon. Then it hit us, snow everywhere, atleast 6 inches of snow and we were in a sedan with no wheel chains. Luckily, there was a truck ahead of us and it made a clear cut path across the snow on the road. We reached Dog Canyon just before sunset and it was a fairyland there -- snow everywhere, everything covered by a blanket of snow. 
Light fades fast in these mountains as we scrambled to setup the tent. It was cold, and we tried to fix up our torches as we bought up the camp tent. Our stuff was not organized and we dug up the whole trunk to find the stove and matches to heat up some veg pulao that our friend Vijay had prepared. Call it inexperience, but we realised that the stove we had bought didn't match the propane gas tanks and we couldn't light a fire. There was only one other guy in the entire campsite. He gave us his stove and a spare gas tank, but then we still couldn't light it up (and we call ourselves engineers!!). It was cold, and we were hungry, so we decided to eat the cold pulao and call it a day. We cheered ourselves with some vodka which made us warm for a little while. Luckily there was a campsite restroom nearby, which had a heater and that saved us a bit.
Night was cold, with each of us trying to curl up as much as we could to keep our limbs warm. Sun shone above us and I came out to see my shoes frozen so hard that I could't put my leg inside them. The camp ranger came and chatted with us a bit, saying he didn't expect us to camp the previous night. It was time for the hike and and our chef Vijay made hot tea and heated some rotis (we had figured out the stove by this time, after all we are engineers!!). We decided to leave our campsite as it is, as none of had the strength to dismantle and setup the tent again. We just packed lots of food and water and decided to trek for the day and return.
With ample sunlight on our backs, we set out from Dog Canyon onto the Tejas Trail hoping to touch Lost Peak and return. It was beautiful. Snow covered trees and mountain slopes greeted us as we walked in foot deep snow across the valley in our worn-out running shoes. Some mule deers crossed our paths along the way -- pretty much the only mobile life form we saw in the entire hike. I think it was just us 4 doing the hike on this trail. We stopped at all the "patel" points we could find, taking profile pictures of ourselves. The hike towards Lost Peak is quite a steep one along the ridges with a sharp drop. We were huffing and puffing our way up with power bars to energise us. Sudhi pointed at a few mountain lion tracks on the way, but we couldnt confirm. Supposedly these lions are always watching and would have been aware of our presence. We had made our decisions, if a lion attacks, we run, the slowest one loses, hard luck.
We finally reached Lost Peak, jumped about as we took in the magnificient view of the valley at such a high elevation. I was trying to visualize an ancient sea that is supposed to have surrounded these mountain ridges. We had our food there, took the mandatory pictures and decided to return as it was getting darker and colder. Hiking back was a breeze as it was down all the way. We quickly made our way back, bearing the biting cold. As we reached campsite, we talked to the ranger who gave an account of his various travels around the world and also gave a book on mountain lion encounters for the night.
We decided to cook something up and had bought some rice along, with various ready-to-eat gravy stuff. It was painful, trying to boil rice in the cold night. Not much heat was being contained in the open vessel and we tried to cover the utensil with plates and sticks. It was long and painful and in the end we gave up and decided to eat the half boiled rice and mask it with the gravy stuff. This was new year's eve of 2006,with 2007 about to dawn on us. We took the last sips of vodka and cozied into the tent. Sudhi was reading the mountain lion encounters book aloud with a pen torch. Maybe we were tired, or maybe it was the gruesome encounters of the mountain lions, or even the eloquent voice of sudhi (ahem!), we quickly fell asleep...well before midnight.
Jan 1, 2007 -- a new year and a new hope. We dismantled the tents, packed all our stuff, dumping it into our trunks and left Dog Canyon as a 11 hour drive stared before us. Roads in Texas and New Mexico is characterized by long straight roads and we shot forward. I looked around as we drove across the state, and the most striking aspect of the state is the flatness. It hits you, not a mountain or hill on sight, just plain flat. Amazing. Why is it so flat?
We reached Dallas close to midnight again and scrambled to return the rental car with minutes to spare, again! I had a flight to catch early in the morning, so packed all my stuff as I thought about the momentous trip to Guadalupe.
Renting the car was an adventure in itself, as we got delayed in reaching the car rental center at the airport as we missed a few exits. Tempers flared as a mini blame-game began as to the cause of the delay, but we made it just in time with a minute to spare as we picked our car at midnight. We quickly dumped all our stuff, and fled Dallas at 3 am on the morning of Dec 30, 2006 with me at the wheel. I had slept for most of the morning and afternoon the previous day, so was feeling fresh (it was "day" for me then). It was a gruelling 9 hour drive across the great state of Texas as we reached the park headquarters in the afternoon of Dec 30,2006. Then, our first surprise, it was snowing -- in the middle of this freaking desert!! I knew the kind of landscape to expect, having lived two years in Tucson, but snow was a pleasant surprise. It was the first snow experience for my friend Vikas as we got down from our cars, rolling in the light half inch snow. The majestic El Capitan and the Guadalupe peaks greeted us as we entered into Indian territory and New Mexico.
We had originally planned to camp at Dog Canyon and trek a day towards McKittrick Canyon, camp in the wilderness, and then trek back to Dog Canyon. The rangers at the Headquarters of Guadalupe said that there is atleast 3 inches of snow at Dog Canyon as it is at a higher elevation. He also said that we would pretty much be all alone in the campsite as no one had registered to camp there for the night. We drove to Dog Canyon, warming up with a light hike at McKittricks' and then driving up to Dog Canyon. Then it hit us, snow everywhere, atleast 6 inches of snow and we were in a sedan with no wheel chains. Luckily, there was a truck ahead of us and it made a clear cut path across the snow on the road. We reached Dog Canyon just before sunset and it was a fairyland there -- snow everywhere, everything covered by a blanket of snow. 
Light fades fast in these mountains as we scrambled to setup the tent. It was cold, and we tried to fix up our torches as we bought up the camp tent. Our stuff was not organized and we dug up the whole trunk to find the stove and matches to heat up some veg pulao that our friend Vijay had prepared. Call it inexperience, but we realised that the stove we had bought didn't match the propane gas tanks and we couldn't light a fire. There was only one other guy in the entire campsite. He gave us his stove and a spare gas tank, but then we still couldn't light it up (and we call ourselves engineers!!). It was cold, and we were hungry, so we decided to eat the cold pulao and call it a day. We cheered ourselves with some vodka which made us warm for a little while. Luckily there was a campsite restroom nearby, which had a heater and that saved us a bit.
Night was cold, with each of us trying to curl up as much as we could to keep our limbs warm. Sun shone above us and I came out to see my shoes frozen so hard that I could't put my leg inside them. The camp ranger came and chatted with us a bit, saying he didn't expect us to camp the previous night. It was time for the hike and and our chef Vijay made hot tea and heated some rotis (we had figured out the stove by this time, after all we are engineers!!). We decided to leave our campsite as it is, as none of had the strength to dismantle and setup the tent again. We just packed lots of food and water and decided to trek for the day and return.
With ample sunlight on our backs, we set out from Dog Canyon onto the Tejas Trail hoping to touch Lost Peak and return. It was beautiful. Snow covered trees and mountain slopes greeted us as we walked in foot deep snow across the valley in our worn-out running shoes. Some mule deers crossed our paths along the way -- pretty much the only mobile life form we saw in the entire hike. I think it was just us 4 doing the hike on this trail. We stopped at all the "patel" points we could find, taking profile pictures of ourselves. The hike towards Lost Peak is quite a steep one along the ridges with a sharp drop. We were huffing and puffing our way up with power bars to energise us. Sudhi pointed at a few mountain lion tracks on the way, but we couldnt confirm. Supposedly these lions are always watching and would have been aware of our presence. We had made our decisions, if a lion attacks, we run, the slowest one loses, hard luck.
We finally reached Lost Peak, jumped about as we took in the magnificient view of the valley at such a high elevation. I was trying to visualize an ancient sea that is supposed to have surrounded these mountain ridges. We had our food there, took the mandatory pictures and decided to return as it was getting darker and colder. Hiking back was a breeze as it was down all the way. We quickly made our way back, bearing the biting cold. As we reached campsite, we talked to the ranger who gave an account of his various travels around the world and also gave a book on mountain lion encounters for the night.
We decided to cook something up and had bought some rice along, with various ready-to-eat gravy stuff. It was painful, trying to boil rice in the cold night. Not much heat was being contained in the open vessel and we tried to cover the utensil with plates and sticks. It was long and painful and in the end we gave up and decided to eat the half boiled rice and mask it with the gravy stuff. This was new year's eve of 2006,with 2007 about to dawn on us. We took the last sips of vodka and cozied into the tent. Sudhi was reading the mountain lion encounters book aloud with a pen torch. Maybe we were tired, or maybe it was the gruesome encounters of the mountain lions, or even the eloquent voice of sudhi (ahem!), we quickly fell asleep...well before midnight.Jan 1, 2007 -- a new year and a new hope. We dismantled the tents, packed all our stuff, dumping it into our trunks and left Dog Canyon as a 11 hour drive stared before us. Roads in Texas and New Mexico is characterized by long straight roads and we shot forward. I looked around as we drove across the state, and the most striking aspect of the state is the flatness. It hits you, not a mountain or hill on sight, just plain flat. Amazing. Why is it so flat?
We reached Dallas close to midnight again and scrambled to return the rental car with minutes to spare, again! I had a flight to catch early in the morning, so packed all my stuff as I thought about the momentous trip to Guadalupe.
