Lessons learned on last trip

[West Texan]

I went out for a one night trip couple of weeks ago. Was in the desert area as usual, but more desert than my normal hiking grounds. Was going to hike out to where there is nomally a small water supply. The book I have on the park called it 6.5 miles. My gps called it 8.8 miles. I carried enough water to make it out and back. Ranger said there should be water there from recent reports. It was an awesome trip, saw amazing scenery, wildlife, canyons, and welcomed every bit of shade I found...lol.I did have a short stand-off with a collered peccary. Had a cacada scare the bejesus out of me, thought it was a rattler right beside me. Did learn about animal tracks. I found an area that was covered with bear tracks, possible mountain lion or bobcat tracks, coyote, skunk, fox, and many more. On the hike back out, I spotted many more tracks in the dry wash. Temps were up there in the low hundreds. Night time dropped down to 66 and was so dark I could see the milky way. Things I learned were carry a larger water bottle, keep spare water more accessible in the pack, and keep high protien snacks easy to get to in pack. Last thing I learned was hike the desert in the winter, hike the mountains in the summer...lol.

[James.]

Re: Lessons learned on last trip

I remember going on camping trips in what my dad laughingly calls "flatland camping" but what I call the "middle of the freaking desert camping". Either way I don't have any particular desire to do that. I want trees and shade and maybe even some water in the form of a river or lake.

That being said I think the desert is beautiful and laugh at all the "desert landscaping" people do. I have been all over Arizona and have never seen anything that looks like what most people put in their front yards. Which is sad because, like I said, it is beautiful in its own way.


It would be nice if there was some kind of standing on a soapbox ranting smiley that I could use here and then say....but I will get off my soapbox now. I guess you guys will just have to use your imagination.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Lessons learned on last trip

I had to google "collared peccary" to know what it was, LOL! Amazing amt of wildlife in your area and to see the full depth of the Milky Way just sounds splendidly glorious. Thanks for the astronomical reminder: need to make a camping reservation to view the Perseids minus light pollution.

Lessons learned on my last trip was.........I have too much stuff. Too much cooking utensils, at least one more cooking pot than needed(a CI wok...sigh)and maybeeeee I really don't need a screen tent.

[West Texan]

Re: Lessons learned on last trip

One thing I thought was interesting was from where I parked, I could see the mountain where I camped that night. I could not see however all the different terrain I had to go through to get there. It actually looked like a somewhat flat terrain but there was tons of canyons and hills and cliffs. Somehow it slopes down and the canyon walls can not be seen until you are down at them.

I'll try to get some pictures on here.

[West Texan]

Re: Lessons learned on last trip

This was the view from my turn-off on the second morning. The Sierra del Caballo Muerto or roughly translated, Dead Horse Mountains.


These were the animal prints.


Cliffs scenery on the hike out


Canyon at my destination

[West Texan]

Re: Lessons learned on last trip

Me at the shut-in


Best shot of the peccary after our stand-off



This was two weeks before at the same park

[West Texan]

Re: Lessons learned on last trip

The javelina in the mountains are used to people and will not bother you. This little family was down in the desert and we both stood our ground for about a minute not 20 feet apart till the others were over the hill and he decided I wouldn't bother him.

The bear picture was in the mountains two weeks before when my wife and I went down for the day. She has been wanting to see a bear ever since we started going to Ruidoso every year. Hadn't seen one yet. I had been telling her that the bears are coming back to this part of the country and she was sure she would still not get to see one. We went into the visitors center in the mountains and I asked the ranger if there had been any recent bear sightings and he said, "Funny you ask that. A couple came in not two minutes ago and said they saw a momma bear and her cub". We followed another ranger out to the trail and my camera has a 30X optic zoom and 2x digital zoom so I got a few shots from a good distance. I did my best to not disturb the momma or her cub and she only turned to look at me once which was that picture. Anyway, my wife got to see her bear and cub and now wants to see a mountain lion.

[West Texan]

Re: Lessons learned on last trip

I wanted to get a picture of the night sky, but either my camera isn't good enough to do that or I have a user issue. What I saw that night was totally and completely breathtaking. Almost looks like white smoke lit up but is is nothing but so many stars you can't even begin to count them all. I tried longer exposure times and different appurature settings, but could not ever get my camera to focus on the stars.