Skip to main content

Day 29 - Big Bend part 3

I gave myself two very different options this morning: Option 1- if my shin pain was gone and I felt good I would ascend the Chisos mountains tallest 7900 ft Emory Peak and then while up high hike to the south rim of the range-- a total journey of 16 miles with 3000 vertical feet gain/loss-- a tough day hike, but Grand Canyon rim-river-rim and Superstition's Battleship hikes had been tougher. Option 2 was a complete rest day-- no hiking, just reading and relaxing in the pleasant Chisos Basin. 

I took Option 2. I needed option 2.  I walked up to a park bench overlooking the "window" and read The Wise Man's Fear-- a lord of the rings-style fantasy novel for five hours. I brought snacks with me and enjoyed this peaceful shaded spot alone-- amazed with how few people came by. It was great. See the bench and the view behind me. 


At 2pm, I decided I would drive back along the scenic road to Santa Elena and hike the 1 mile hike there in daylight. After six miles of driving though I noticed that my right shin, the one giving me pain, was hurting.  I tried using my left leg to brake and felt the same muscle pain point. Aha. The shin splint was from driving 1000 miles a week (with hiking not helping). I pulled over, enjoyed the view for a while, and then drove back to Chisos. No more driving today either. 

Then I found wifi!  Yes, by the restaurant there was a reliable and fast connection, so I camped outside on the patio and checked email, sent some updates, a little news, then started creating this blog. I had wanted to create the blog as the first 25 posts were just emails to family only-- but didn't have time or wifi. This was the perfect time, so I researched blogging, settled on blogger and created some posts from my emails. Three hours later I had 15 posts up and going (only using my phone) and then the sun started setting. More people had come for dinner, slowing the wifi down to nofi, so I left and went back to my bench for the perfect view of the sunset. Pics below. Tomorrow I leave early from Big Bend and head north to Guadalupe and Carlsbad. 






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 104 - Glacier to Vancouver

The hike up Balu Pass was supposed to be fairly easy, beautiful and dotted with waterfalls, but when I talked to the park ranger and learned that Vancouver was an eight hour drive away, I decided to skip Balu and drive west.  I left behind this pretty view.  And drove many hours through pristine mountains, fewer and fewer snow-capped ones the further west I drove. Some of the valleys were flooded to make reservoirs, leaving scenic sights.  I eventually made it to Vancouver and drove right on through to Point Roberts USA, a five mile by five mile coastal land just below the 49th parallel and thus in the USA. The park ranger had suggested this as a good place to camp but being late of the Thursday night before the Fourth of July there were no spots available. I drove around instead and stopped at a forested coastal park. After ten minutes of walking I came to my first grand Pacific view with Mount Baker 60 miles east.  The San Juan Islands and Orca Islands could also b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 122 - Mount Saint Helens

Mount Saint Helens is sinister and wonderful. I spent the morning at Rainier watching the end of the British Open on my phone, then drove south to Saint Helens.  I arrived at the park's northeast entrance by early afternoon.  A massive bulge of rock built up on the northeast side of the mountain before the 1980 eruption and then caused a tremendous landslide when the eruption started. I drove to the Windy Ridge at the end of the road, listened to a ranger describe before and after photos of the mountain, then hiked up to a high viewpoint.  You can see the circular ridge with a notch missing where the landslide occurred, the desert-like exposed right-side where the landslide blew away life and covered 15 miles of terrain with 150 feet of dirt and rock, the greenery that was on the lucky side of the eruption, and Spirit Lake which was covered by dirt and slime and fallen trees for years. The mountain was over a thousand feet higher before it erupted.  After taking in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 62 - Colorado National Monument

Established as a national monument early in 1911, Colorado NM is known for its high canyon "rim road" and sandstone spires of Monument Canyon.  The canyons of west Colorado are pretty--as they have more green trees and shrubs than the more famous Utah canyons. This gives them a more alive feeling, although the sandstone spires were formed many thousands of years ago by erosion.  Rim Rock road curves up the the top of the canyon cliff, goes through several round tunnels and is lined with scenic viewpoints. The best views were in he Monument Canyon section, and included in sequence, the Coke Ovens, The Kissing Couple (behind my head), and the most famous of all: Independence Monument, the tall spire in pic 3 and viewed from the side in pic 4.  The original promoter and caretaker of the park, John Otto, was the first person to climb Independence Monument and now it's a climbing right of passage. Every July 4 climbers ascend and mount an American flag at the summit. Fun! ...
2 comments
Read more