Guadalupe Mountains National Park

I just spent the last three days exploring Guadalupe Mountains National Park, finally spending a night in one of the parks. They allow free backcountry camping, so I left my bike at the visitor center and took off for two nights to go backpacking for a bit. The only catch is that there are no water sources in the backcountry, so I had to carry all of my water with me. I had already been doing that on the bike, so I had enough capacity, but it was still pretty heavy. Good thing I'm in good shape from previous backpacking and now all the biking.

I left the visitor center in the afternoon and hiked about 4 miles up 2000 feet to a campsite called Pine Top for the first night. Thankfully there were a bunch of trees in the area, because it was pretty windy all day long. Camping in a bunch of trees is definitely a nice change from what I have been doing. Also, getting away from any traffic noises was a nice reward for the steep climb up.

The second day I went for a day-hike from my camp, on a loop called The Bowl, which is basically a big depression on the top of the mountains, which has been home to a Ponderosa Pine forest. There was some fire damage from a forest fire in 1990, but the forest has regrown quite a bit since then.

The last day I hiked back down to the visitor center, then went on a day hike from the visitor center to a place called Devils Hall, which is a natural stone staircase at the bottom of a steep canyon with nearly vertical walls.



See the rest of my Guadalupe pictures here.

Border Patrol

Today I passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint, one of several that I have been through. They seem  to be permanent checkpoints, but they aren't actually at the border crossings. I think they are just to systematically check for any non-citizens.

This particular check was interesting because it was in the middle of nowhere so they were pretty surprised to see a biker. It was at least 150 miles of nothingness between the towns, so they wanted to make sure I had enough water, etc. Since I knew the distance, I had prepared by taking an extra gallon of water with me. I think they didn't realize the kind of distance that someone can cover on a bike, thinking that I would be out for a week or so between towns. They did offer me extra water just in case, but I didn't need any more, so after they confirmed I was a US citizen they let me pass.

Texas

Well, my first night spent in Texas and it's already living up to its reputation. I was camped out on BLM land just east of El Paso, a little ways back from the main highway. It seemed like a pretty good campsite, where I wouldn't hear the traffic as much, and where I wouldn't be bothered by anyone since it was public land.

Instead, about an hour after dark I woke up to several ATVs revving their engines, and then spent the next several hours listening to pretty continuous gunfire. I'm pretty sure they were't hunters, since it was well after dark, and they were firing off entire clips in a matter of seconds. I don't know how you can aim 12 shots in a matter of 15 or 20 seconds, but they didn't seem to care. Also, I don't know what they were firing at, since it was way to dark to actually see any targets, but they seemed boisterous and happy.

I guess that's what I get for camping to close to a major city in Texas on a Friday night.

Falling apart

My bike is finally starting to fall apart. I now have slimed both of my tires, since even the thorn proof tire was going flat. The slime seems to be holding up though.

Also, the tire that I bought back near Capitol Reef has several cuts going straight through the actual tire. Not sure what could have caused that, other than a knife or something, but it is bad news. The actual tread  is still relatively fine though, so I'm planning on using the tire for a bit longer. So far it has almost 3000 miles on it. Not bad for a $27 tire.

The worst part happened today after I did some grocery shopping. My kick stand completely disintegrated. It wasn't just that it came apart, but that the metal actually snapped. To be fair, I did just throw a weeks worth of groceries on the rear wheel, but I wasn't expecting the kickstand, of all things, to break next.