Climbing the top of Texas - Mt. Guadalupe

After quitting my current position I wanted to climb the top most part of Texas, the state where I was based for the last 3 years. Yes, I know it sounds a bit ridiculous that Texas being a desert has anything more to offer, but it is true. Texas actually is like a whole new country. It has the gulf coast to the west and the Chihuahuan desert to the East. The tallest point in Texas is the Guadalupe Mountain at an altitude of 8700 feet (2650 metres). I wanted to spice up the trip a bit to turn it into an adventure and so decided to hike up with bedding stuff (tent, sleeping bags, accessories etc). Pavi being a sportive companion agreed to dance to my tune. Thus psychologically I would feel I have conquered before leaving Texas.



We rented a Toyota Yaris and drove the 500 mile to the Eastern part of Texas near El paso. We drove the night and reached the Guadalupe Mountain national park at 10 AM. We got some information and registered for backcountry camping (It is free!). We then drove around to White city (35 miles) to have some food and then came back to start the hike up. We started climbing by 3 PM. We had hoped to reach the base camp site in 3 hours but had grossly underestimated the task. Height and heat slowed us down besides the fact that this was our first time.


The view along the way was breathtaking and by 8 PM we reached the base camp site. We pitched out tent and tired as we were went to sleep immediately. The night was cold and rained a few times. Early the morning, we got ready and begun the steep hike up the mountain. At 10 AM we were on top of Texas. We had successfully climbed Mt. Guadalupe, the tallest point in Texas.



We took a few pictures and climbed down to base camp and after dismantling and packing the tent, began the hike down which was equally stressful as the hike up. This is because we walking with gravity and have to do so carefully arching the body backwards. This movement also causes the foot to slide inward inside the boot pushing against the top causing pain. After 3 hours we finally reached the car and then drovw to White's city for food and then on to Carlsbad caverns for a quick tour. We started around late evening to drive back to Dallas, stopping and sleeping along the way finally reaching Dallas the next day in the morning.

This was our first mountain hiking trip and was quite an adventure to remember.

Check out the pics here

Primitive camping at Dino Valley SP, Glen Rose, TX

Everything about this camping trip went wrong.

That made the trip awesome.

First we started late due to some last min hold up in the lab and finally got there at about 7 PM without knowing when the park might close. We got a primitive campsite as the regular sites were filled up for the 4th of July weekend. After parking the car we took our tent and bedding stuff and began our hike.

Hike - The first bummer was it was uphill and we had to cross a river that was running dry. Secondly we had to carry our bedding pack in a box which was uncomfortable and heavy.


So we quickly returned back to the car and repacked the stuff in my hiking bag (the bag that I very thoughtfully bought in Singapore) and began our hike up. The hike to campsite #6 was about 0.6 miles with hike through thick forested and hilly terrain. Worse it was hot as hell (about 38 degrees maybe?) and I was sweating like a sausage out of the oven. We finally reached the campsite and pitched our tent at about 8.45 PM when we realised we had not had dinner yet and it was getting dark. To not play spoilsport and eat out we took our stuff to the picnic site and started the grill to cook some food. The food was ready at about 10 PM which was the quiet time of the park and we were chased out by the rangers. It was pitch dark and that when we realized we did not have good flashlight and the only one that I had luckily packed was a 2 LED manual charge light. The good thing was that we did not have to carry a lot and so we started our hike uphill.




Now there is a difference between hiking in daylight versus at night. The night creatures are very active and I believe I saw a furry animal about a foot in height running around. Add to this snakes (copperheads I was told) and spiders spinning webs on the path, the hike gets a bit spooky. Fortunately it was a full moonlit night and the light from the flashlight was just enough to navigate to our site. Since primitive sites are only accessible by hiking, there was no human presence around and only 2 of the 6 sites were filled that night. We reached our site at around 11, had food and crashed. The night was warm with heat from the earth radiating through the bedding and no wind to cool it. Tired from the hiking, we slept peacefully through it anyway.

The next morning (4th of July) we woke up at around 9, packed up the tent and began our descent back to parking and to the picnic area. We cooked some scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast, reserved our grill and explored the park.

The Dinosaur valley state park was one of many places in Texas where fossilized dino footprints were found early this century. The glenrose formations were apparently filled by the sea (We saw seashells along the Paluxi river valley) during prehistoric times. When the dino walked, they crushed the soil under them, the soil that was mushy with lime from the seashells. This then hardened to form limestone preserving the footprint and later filled with multiple layers of soil. Now as the Paluxi river flooded, it erodes the top soil and the underlying hard limestone containing the footprints is exposed. This was discovered and further unearthing revealed the presence of Dinos in this region, some of which were similar to the ones found in Europe.

It was interesting to follow dino tracks and hike around the place. Some parts of the river was not completely dry and had one o two feel deep water where we could swim. We got into the water and played some frizbee and then got back to exploring the park. Finally at about 5 PM we decided to get back to Dallas, a 85 mile trip north.

Macallan Whisky tasting

I got this email about a whisky tasting in Dallas. Macallan, the makers of finest single malt scotch (Scottish whisky) are sponsoring a tasting event of their whisky collection.

I am no whisky enthusiast but the event seemed a good saturday night timepass so I signed up Pavi and myself. The event was held at the 'Edison's' hall in downtown Dallas. We arrived at around 8:00 to a hall filled with about 300-400 people and were handed out a coin token for the first round of whisky (a Macallan 10 year). The Dallas Macallan rep Jay the gave a presentation about the history of Macallan which was established in Scottish highlands in 1824. He went on to tell us about the process, the company, Scotland in detail with a pinch of humor sprinkled here and there. The presentation stops time to time with a Macallan logo where they distribute whisky glasses of increasing aging time.
We tasted whisky that was aged 10, 12, 15, 17 and 18 years and each time the screen would go on to show notable events in those years i.e. 1999, 1997, 1994, 1992 and 1991.

The tasting was good and the presentation was really interesting. In the end we got a tasting glass to take home as a souvenir and enough whisky to be tipsy!


Not a bad sat'day nite afterall :D