Howdy, everyone!

I wasn’t able to spot George in the City of Brotherly Love last year, so I’m starting off this 2018 adventure season with a trip to the American Southwest! Specifically, I’m setting foot in the Republic of Texas for the first time, and I can’t wait to see what it has in store! I’ve decided to start off with its westernmost national park: Guadalupe Mountains!

My goal today was to climb Guadalupe Peak, highest in Texas with an altitude of 8,751 feet! Before I got started, though, I had to check in for a little local history. Nestled at the base of these mountains was the last wall of the Pinery Station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route! I’d spent so much time finding Butterfield Stations on my Historical Landmark Quest that it was neat to see one of the stations leading toward the Golden State!

This particular station was called the Pinery Station, named for the pinewood corral and stockade, and nearby Pine Spring. It was basically the wagon equivalent of an auto body shop, equipped with an onsite wagon repair and a blacksmith for the horses! It served the mail route for eleven months until a better route via Forts Stockton and Davis became the default!

Though the clouds made the time of day deceptive, it was rapidly approaching noon. The visitor center said this hike would take 6-8 hours, so I needed to get hustling! The hikers’ parking lot claimed to be full, which meant taking a little extra jaunt just to get started. The trailhead offered four beautiful options for an afternoon hike. I chose the 8.4-miler!

The trail started with steps, which reminded me of my struggle climbing Baegundae with Mom and Master Sae last year. I hoped this wasn’t how it was going to be the entire way, but I sure was grateful that the air quality was vastly better! It was breezy leading up the slope, chilly but not too cold for mid-February. I was pretty nervous about meeting gale-force gusts at the summit!

The Guadalupe Mountains are huge limestone remnants of an ancient reef! How ancient, you ask? 251 million years! This was the undersea home of trilobites and ammonites and crinoids galore, but today the entire seafloor has been shoved clear up into the air! The view has gotten much better too!

Up, up, up, the trail climbed along the north-facing back side of the mountain! The switchbacks were few and gentle, much unlike the fierce ones on Mount Whitney last September. It wasn’t a super crowded trail by any means, even though it was Presidents Day Weekend, just a smattering of groups and couples making their ways up and down. Then, one big curve led out from behind the north-facing slope, and the magnificent fronts of the Guadalupe Mountains came into view!

The clouds, now well below, were boiling up along the sides of the mountain, reaching for the summit, but falling short! They moved so quickly that they seemed to be alive, petting and clawing at the rock that seemed to be holding something very desirable just out of reach!

After two hours of hiking, the summit pyramid came into view! Placed by American Airlines in 1958, this three-sided metal pyramid commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Butterfield Mail Route! So from top to bottom, this really was a Butterfield kind of park!

I made some new friends at the top while looking out on the vast salt flats so precious that they started a local war in 1877! There was Justin, the self-described redneck who loved guns, anime, and SCUBA diving, and there was Ian, the Montana-based chairman of Rocky Mountain Grotto, who let me interview him on the way up. Keep an eye out for the interview in the Meet the Helpers section!

I hiked down with my new companions, and boy does a trek go quicker when you’re conversing! Before long, we were back at the bottom, saying our farewells and heading off to new adventures. I stopped to appreciate the setting sun on the distant face of El Capitan (not to be confused with the one in Yosemite), before heading north to continue my journey.

I didn’t find George at the top of Guadalupe Peak, but I’m going to scour the whole Southwest if I have to. Meanwhile, tomorrow I’m going to drop from the high altitudes to a more subterranean adventure.

Stay tuned!

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More 2018 Adventures

Total Ground Covered: 149 mi (239.8 km)

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