Monday, November 22, 2010

Thanksgiving Trip- Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe National Parks

Vital Stats

November 18-22.
18: Drive to Denver
19: Drive to Santa fe to meet up with my aunt & uncle, pack their car, and change around our trip plans
20: drive to Carlsbad Caverns- Hall of the White Giant Tour. Camp in main campground of Guadalupe NP
21: Solo hike up Guadalupe mountain - 8.4 miles, 3,000 ft elevation gain (up to 8,749 feet) ascent 1 hr 50 minutes; descent 1 hour 40 minutes. Trail is has a fairly continuous but reasonable grade through its length.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park - Spider Cave Tour. Stay in Roswell overnight
22: Drive to Santa Fe, move stuff into my car & drive back to Ft. Collins

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Carlsbad Caverns - Spider Cave

We explored Spider Cave the day after the White Giant, and the afternoon after my ascent of Guadalupe Mountain. This is the only other "dirty cave" tour offered at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and was a very different experience.

Spider Cave is officially not part of the Carlsbad cave system. While research indicates that it may be connected, a passage connecting the two has yet to be found. Access to this cave was more challenging, as it involved driving and a short hike. Even well within view of the entrance it was still difficult to spot.

This cave tour was less athletic and filled with more amazing cave structures. Still, the entrance involved a very tight squeeze through a narrow hole, and we had many moments of slithering, sliding, and crawling through the cave. At one point the person ahead of me moved out of sight and I couldn't tell where to go. The maze of holes appears impenetrable. Thankfully the tours include a ranger at each end, and while out of sight, the people ahead of me could easily hear me when I requested directions.

I was constantly filled with awe at my surroundings; the brilliant white of calcite, the crazy fuzzy-looking chemolithoautotrophic bacteria excrement. Even while enclosed in the earth I had trouble fully realizing that all of these wonders existed unto their own in the truest dark that exists. The fragility of these wonders also astounded me; simply by our presence we were altering the cave, changing the delicate balance of life that lives on the edge. Even though the park strictly regulates the number of people who enter the cave each year - 520 including rangers - they can still detect changes in this delicate ecosystem that isn't even detectable to the unaided eye!

As with the Hall of the White Giant, our exit mostly retraced our steps out. As we retracing our path everything looked different from our new angle of approach. As with my morning hike, I felt that my exit back into the world of civilization brought me out of a deeper place of reality than what we usually exist in.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park- Guadalupe Mountain

Several times through t he night the near full moon awakened me with a false dawn. Thankfully, when my alarm awoke me I was well rested enough for my planned morning hike. With sunrise I arose from tent, greeded with dazzling colors.

As I started up the trail, my body still waking up, I questioned my ambitious hiking plans - 8.4 miles round trip, with 3,000 feet of elevation gain/loss in under 4 hours. Ascending the switchbacks of the visible face I slowly settled into a reasonable pace and began to appreciate my surroundings. A handful of deciduous trees growing along the stream bed had turned vibrant reds. They stood out brightly amidst the greens and browns of the desert. The cacti and yucca studded desert held its own splendor as it unfolded across the plains below me. Rocks along the trail were pained with vibrant purple scat of ringtail cats.

As I journeyed into the wilderness I moved upward in elevation and through changing vegetation. My approach to the lower treeline occurred as I wound around the face of the mountain visible from the campground, and was greeted with several false peaks reaching into the distance.

My first reaction was disappointment and some trepidation. the highest peak I could see looks unreachable far away and I do not relish long, exposed ridgeline hiking in windy conditions.

As I continued onwards, I discovered that the trail stays off the ridgeline, staying protected from the wind and following an easy grade upwards. I feel the universe teach and remind me - obstacles in view aren't necessarily what they seem. Throughout my hike upwards I repeat this experience, observing my gut emotional reactions to discovering yet again that the peak is further away than I thought.

Eventually I reach the summit, but misread a sign that veers me off trail just before surmounting the final rocky to pof the peak. Quickly I determine that the brambles and rock scrambling that lay between me and the actual summit are not something I want to traverse, even if they are the only way up. Reading the signs around me, I listen to myself instead of becoming summit-driven. Again I see life parallels.

Back on trail I quickly hike to the summit and stand on the highest point in Texas. The landscape below me unfolds with different textures in different directions. Salt flats, cacti, and shorter mountains all lay before me.

Exactly at my turn around time and almost at my turn around water level, I head down the trail. The easy grade allows quick travel downwards. the increasing winds and human traffic make me grateful for my early morning ascent. As I retrace my steps and eventually return to the campground, I fell that I am leaving the real world instead of returning to it.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Carlsbad Caverns- hall of the White Giant

Today was the first of our "dirty" cave tours, crawling up, over, under, and through the cave to places most people never visit. This is intentional on the part of the park; human impact is a serious issue.

Following our safety talk, designed to assure the guide that we all really wanted to be there and were ready for the intensity of the tour, we donned our gear and headed into the cave.

We immediately maneuvered through tight, twisting passageways to reach our first room. I fared better than some, due to the combination of my climbing experience, yoga, and body type. I am well built for slithering through tight spaces while still being able to reach across and over things.

As we progressed through the cave we stopped regularly, waiting for people to make their way through difficult passageways. This gave me time to gaze around each part of the cave, taking in all the features that surrounded me. They physical challenges of our adventure only added to the amazing cave features we saw. Even while climbing up slick quartzite using a knotted rope, my knees, and butt, I occasionally took the time to cavern gaze, however I can only hold myself in position while dangling from a rope for a limited amount of time.

At the terminus of our trip we visited the Hall of the White Giant, a large room with a giant white column of pure calcium rising from the floor. Much of the rest of the room was full of stalactites and stalagmites. The whiteness of the room glitters in our headlights as we tried to absorb the beauty that surrounded us, made even more spectacular by its remoteness.

The journey back followed our footsteps, retracing them much more quickly as we covered now-familiar ground. Passages near the entrance that had seemed tight now felt spacious. The hall we exited into loomed immensely. While we returned exactly the way we came to our starting point, we each were metamorphosed by our journey into the depths of the cave.