Left my house Friday morning preparing for a long drive, and it was. It took me over eight hours to get to Guadalupe N.P. I was hoping that I would make it in time before the ranger station closes. I was doing fine till I got to a little town of Pecos,Tx. I have to warn you if you are driving on the I-10 or on the I-20 and you have to drive through this town and you are in a rush. Try to avoid this town. The speed limits are slower then driving through a subdivision and then you have a bunch of lights. When you turn onto route 285 there are a lot of 18 wheelers that will go slower the the speed limit. You feel like you have been on this farm road forever. Then turn left on to farm road 652. Yes, a real farm road. I thought I was turning onto an industrial park, with all the trucks. Nope, another road that seems to go on forever. I was stressing for the next half hour hoping to make it in time. Then I had to turn onto hwy 180, and there is a sign that said “ entering mountain time zone” I had forgotten that this part of Texas was mt time zone. I started laughing. I made it with plenty of time. I found a nice camping spot, unrolled my air mattress and went to sleep.

In the morning the clouds rolled in and it started to lightly rain. It did not not seem to bad so I went ahead a started. (7am) trails were well marked and there were some nice things to see. About 1/2 hours in my hike, the clouds really rolled in and I could not see much at all. I kept focused on the mission at hand and kept moving forward. I made it to the top with one other person. We were soaking wet and did not care to stay there very long. So, we took a few photos and high tailed it back down. Made it back to the base around 11am. It was raining so hard that I through everything in my truck and left. I was planning to leave in the morning. I started heading north to climb Mt. Wheeler…