Rescuing little Abby, Moab Utah

Whilst we were cycling away from the little square in Moab, where we had bought a couple of pre-owned movies I spotted a little Yorkshire terrier walking along the pavement. I assumed that there would have been somebody calling the dog in no time, since the little doggy was close to the main road. I try shouting towards Wahid that I had spotted this dog walking along the pavement and that I thought it was rather dangerous. Before he could react the dog started crossing the road, I feared that the dog was going to be run over by one of these great big trucks, every thing went so fast, felt really helpless when she was out on the road, but to my surprise cars stopped left right and centre from the dog and was unharmed. The dog ran bag to the pavement and went onto the grass, a white truck stopped to see what was going on. I managed to get to the dog faster and called for it, to my surprise she just rolled over in the grass and seemed that she wanted to play, I had no problem picking her up. She was obviously no stray dog; she had a pink collar with “diamante” studs and little pony tails in her hair. There I stood with this little doggy, not knowing what to do with her, nobody was rushing towards us claiming the dog. Luckily there was a hotel right near the corner of the road and the dog had a dog tag on her collar with a local Moab phone number and her name, so I went inside the hotel, inquiring whether they could make a phone call to the number on the tag. Nobody answered, but the receptionist did leave a message. Still I did not have a clue what to do with this doggy, her name was Abby. Here she was snug in my arms; she did not seem to be displeased to be there.

I went back outside to talk to Wahid what to do next. We could not take her, but I felt reluctant to leave her at the hotel. Went back in and asked the guy I had spoken to before if I would be a problem leaving her behind till the owner would show up. He said that was not a problem, so I took her over to the backroom, put her on the ground and immediately she started exploring the place. Within a minute she was out of there and back in the lobby, before she got out I called Abby over and to my surprise she responded really well, I lured her into the backroom, the guy said that he would keep her inside. After talking to him for a little while longer I had to leave, we still had to cycle back to the campground and wanted to make it before it became dark. Now I am sitting here wondering what happened to little Abby, gosh she was so cute, could not help feeling that I had to protect her at least a little bit. Maybe tomorrow morning before we leave for the park we can stop by the hotel and find out if the owner did turn up and pick up little Abby.

Our own little Alp d'Huez

We woke up pretty early, around 7 o’clock we started driving towards Gila National Forest via the Pinos Altos, which hours later would crowed with cycling fans because the tour de Gila would finish there. While driving we did not see many other vehicles on the road, maybe the odd cyclist on his way to Silver City for another cycling day. After a short while, the road became narrower and it had a couple of hairy turns. A good thing that we did not encounter any traffic coming our way, because some of the turns were so tight that we took the entire road to turn the motor home. At one of the overlooks we stopped, somebody had gone over the edge of the road in the past and had crashed their car in such a way that the poor sod probably would not have survived the crash. It was a sobering moment. After a short stop, we went on and we came to another overlook. A couple was having breakfast, while were admiring the stunning view we stroke up a conversation. The couple told us that in a matter of a couple of hours the Tour the Gila would come by at that same spot and that is was probably one of the better spots to view the cyclists up close. At first, we wanted to continue to the park, but we both thought it would be fun if we could see them up close. We parked up the motor home properly; it took almost the entire turn out to park up. We had some breakfast and a cup of tea whilst waiting for the cyclist to arrive.

More and more cars were pulling up trying to park at the same spot we were in; it was turning in a right little Alp d’Huez! Around ten-thirty the first cyclists were in sight, than a second group with Lance Armstrong with some other big names as well. I managed to get a couple of descent shots of Lance Armstrong.

Nils & Karen, the couple we had met at the viewpoint, drove us to a better point along the road, it was impossible for us to pull out our motor home at that point. From our new advantage point, we had a second change to view the cyclists one more time. We met up with some of the other people we had met in our previous spot; one of them was the spitting image of John McEnroe. Even his voice sounded the same. Some of the were huge cycling fans and they seemed to know a fair bit about cycling and kept us up to speed. In the distance, we saw the leader coming up and shortly after that; we saw a second group coming up with Chris Horner leading and Lance Armstrong right beside him, followed directly by Leibheimer. After waiting a short while the cyclists had to start their climb back up the mountain, this time the Lance Armstrong and his teammate, followed by Leibheimer were much closer to the leader. Here I managed to get a couple of decent photos.

Number o4. is Lance Armstrong
Number 71. is Chris Horner
And in the red jersey is Levi Leibheimer





After waiting till most of the cyclists had past by, a small group with Floyd Landis came by. Landis had won the Tour de France a number of years ago, but after the tour he tested positive and was banned from cycling for a number of years. This year he was trying to make his come back, however he did not seem to do that well. After the last cyclist had gone past we all exchanged e-mail addresses and said our goodbyes and hitched a ride with Nils & Karen back to our motor home, they also were heading towards the park, but it took us longer to get up there. Besides we had to find also a spot for the night, which we did at Upper Scorpion Campground.

Drive to Silver City, New Mexico

After waking up early, we drove away from the park at 6 in the morning, very early start. It was barely getting light, we both felt a little sad to leave this park, it might not be a big park, but it holds a special place in our hearts. Along the road toward El Paso we saw many dead animals along the road side; one of the most shocking things was to see a dead bobcat in the middle of the road. We have never been able to see one in the wild and it was a little heart wrenching to see one dead on the road. But we also saw dead deer, some rabbits and even a dead turkey vulture. We did not drive into El Paso like previous times, this time we continued to Las Crusas to get some grocery shopping done at one of the Wal*Marts. We also popped into Best Buy where Wahid bought a couple of the series he is collecting. After that stop we continued to Silver City, in New Mexico, we had heard that is was a funky little town, the gateway to Gila Cliff Dwellings, a good 45 miles away.

Lance Armstrong is nr. 4 ( in the middle of the photo, dressed in black, next to number 45)

When we arrived in town we saw that most of the centre of town was blocked off. As it turned out there was a criterium going on, and the rumour was that Lance Armstrong was going to be there as well. At first a bit annoyed because this would have a At first we were not too bothered to watch the race, but there was no escaping. First the women were cycling, the men pro group a little later. Wahid had left his camera in the motor home and went back to get it. While I was waiting for him to come back, I was chatting to this lady sitting next to me on the pavement. Her son was cycling with the men pro 1 group. He had been cycling in Europe for the last number of years in some of the major tournaments. Her son, Jonathan McCarthy, was now cycling for a team that was not going to go to Europe this year, but he was hoping to go back to Europe in 2010. When Wahid came back we went to another spot to shoot some more photos. The race in the end was won by a guy from New Zealand, Armstrong was not up front. I did manage to get a relatively good shot of Mr. Armstrong before the race had started. After the finish we went for a beer in Isaac’s, a bar off Broadway, it had a good vibe. Wahid was hungry so we ordered some nachos and spicy chicken wings. After the food we switched to drinking cocktails, in the meantime musicians had come in and we kept on ordering cocktails. We did not stay out that late because the next morning we wanted to get to the park early. On the way back to where the motor home was parked, Wahid wanted to start chatting to the police officer, but since we both had a little too much to drink I told him not to, did not want to take the risk ending up in the slammer to sober up.

Hike via Bear Canyon to the Bowl

Out of bed by six and on the trail around a quarter past seven, the sun was getting warm immediately and we both regretted a little that we hadn’t left earlier. Via the Frijole trail we hiked up to Bear Canyon, this part of the hike was going to be the most strenuous part, sometimes it seemed that the trail was going straight up. Once in the canyon we were out of the sun, the cooler temperature was more than welcome. Sooner that we had expected we arrived at the top of the mountain. The area called the bowl is a rare thing in the middle of a desert, a huge meadow with lots of pine trees. The place was deserted, no humans, but we did not see any animals either a part from the birds. In this area there supposed to bear, mountain lions, deer and even elk, we did not see any.

Going into Bear Canyon

There was a strong wind atop, and we had to take shelter behind a big water container. Some remnants of older water tanks were there too, but they had been blown to bits. After an early lunch we did the small trail in the bowl. A number of years ago there had been a big fire in this area and you could still see the evidence. The trail led to the rim from where we could see the top of Guadalupe Mountain and some of the other mountains. At the end of the Bowl trail we came to a vista with a beautiful view of the valley below. The fun part was that we were the only people to enjoy this stunning scenery. When we decided to walk the rest of the trail we at first did not manage to find the trail back to the valley. Wahid was looking on his GPS and said that the trail had to be right below the rim; I said that we had to walk the path we had been walking on till we would come to a junction. But according to Wahid’s GPS that was wrong, so for a while we were debating what to do, in the end we decided to walk the path and after a couple of minutes we did come to the trail junction. Not long after we hit the Tejas Trail, without a doubt gorgeous, however the sun was right above us and there was no shade. Via many switchbacks & stunning views we arrived back at the campground around a quarter past two, we had hike a good 10 miles. My feet where feet were killing me and I stayed on the couch for a while, knackered! Because we were so close to the trailhead we did see all the people come down from the various trails. I was not the only one suffering from sore feet. One guy kicked off this shoes and socks the moment he found some shade. Later in the evening I met a lady we had seen in Big Bend as well, we talked for ages near the restrooms, people started noticing and commenting about the fact that we were talking for such a long time there. When it got dark I went back to the motor home, finished up the dishes and went to bed. The next morning we had to wake up early again for the drive to New Mexico.

Drive from Big Bend NP to Guadalupe Mountain NP, West Texas

The alarm went off at 5:45, still very dark outside; we both had slept poorly, so you can imagine that the alarm went off way too early. Within a good 20 minutes we were on our way. The first part of the drive was in complete darkness, within 45 minutes the mountain got their contours back and the sun was peeping behind the mountains by the time we arrived at Panther Junction. Along the way we saw quite a bit of wildlife hopping around, loads of bunnies, deer standing next to the road and finally we saw on two different occasions Javalina´s. Some deer jumped right in front of us over a fence beside the road side. The turkey vultures were not flying yet; most of them were sitting in groups on fences. Some had found their meal for the day on the road, on one occasion one of the vultures would not leave the road kill even when we started honking the claxon in order to make it fly away. Instead he just kept on pecking on the carcass and we had to swerve the motor home to avoid a collision with the vulture. Not far from Marathon we saw many border patrol trucks parked at the side of the road, and when we arrive at the check point nobody was there, this time we had prepared and had our passports ready.


Our motor home at Guadalupe Mountain NP

In Fort Stockton we stopped off at the local Wall*Mart for some grocery shopping. Next short stop was in Pecos, gosh that town seemed dead. I definitely would not like to live there. We filled up with petrol and drove straight to Guadalupe Mountain NP. By the time we arrived there we both were hungry, so I made some chicken stuffed tortillas. All though it was still very warm, there was a cool breeze when in side, very nice after the sweltering heat in Big Bend. After a quick stop at the visitor centre we decided not to hike up to Guadalupe Mountain the next morning, but to do the Bowl Route, a little less elevation gain, but for 1,8 miles straight up the mountain it will be strenuous nevertheless. I wanted to do a short hike later in the afternoon, but Wahid was too tired because the lack of sleep and went to have a snooze in the bedroom, which gave me some time to keep the blog updated doeonce.

In the end Wahid was wiped out for the rest of the afternoon, I finally had some time to read a book and go for a short stroll along one of the trails when the sun was setting, to my surprise a deer appeared right in front of me. All three times we have been in Guadalupe; deer always have appeared not far from the campsite. That is the great thing about being close to nature.


Nice view of the surrounding mountains

Day 6, Scenic Drive to Santa Elana Canyon

All though up early, we left a little later than planned, first stop along the route was Sam Nail Ranch, or what was left of it. From the old house only a couple of wall are still standing, the mill is still going and pumps up water which creates a little haven for plants and birds. The Nail family planted fig and pecan trees that still grow there, however the native species are taking over the area rapidly. Mossies and flies infested the place big time, so we did not stay there that long.

At the Homer Wilson Ranch Overlook we took the trail to the ranch. This ranch was deserted in 1945, but the ranch would still make a very nice house. Amazingly how cool it was inside, in spite the fact that the temperature outside was soaring. In the olden days they used to keep 4000 sheep and 2.500 goat up in this area. In the summer months they would herd them up into the canyon not far from the ranch. Just when I was contemplating out loud how life would have been in those days and I stepped outside, I heard the rattle of a rattlesnake. With two jumps and a big yell I was back inside the house. Just in the corner outside near the steps was a smallish rattler, no mistake about that. Strangely enough Wahid had gone down those steps only minutes before and had walked the small path right passed the rattler. Even though we stepped onto the porch in order to see the rattler from the other side, he was very much aware of us. Because the animal was all coiled up we did not come in striking range. After taking a couple of photos we went back to the motor home to continue our route.

At Mule Ears Overlook we stopped off and decided to go for the 3,8 mile round trip to the springs. It was around 13:00 and the temperature was probably over 90 degrees again. This hike leads though a desert area with no shade what so even until the end. We walked the trail in 45 minutes, and we were both glad to reach the shady area of the springs. Surprising to see how many frogs, tadpoles, dragonflies and other insects were living in this little oasis. After a good rest we walked back to the overlook in just over an hour, this time the heat seemed even more intense, probably a part of the route was uphill. We stopped off at Tuff Canyon, we walked up to the overlook, but this time we did not go into the canyon. We both could not face another hike in the heat. At Castolon we stopped off at the store, had an ice cream and walked up to Abobe House, which was in the middle of restoration, the floods of September 2008 nearly destroyed it, Mexicans came to help the restore the adobe with old techniques, a lot work still has to be done. Cottonwood campground was near by and we searched for a nice shady place for the night. A bucket with water to cool my feet in was like sheer heaven to me.

After a good hour rest we drove to Santa Elena Gorge, at the Overlook we stopped but remained in the shade, the heat seemed too intense. When we arrived at the canyon, the sun had turned so a great part of the canyon was in the shade, all though still very warm it made the walk up into the canyon a little more bearable. The water level of the Rio Grand seemed lower than last time we had been there, therefore we could wake up a little further up the canyon. I think I managed to get some darn good photos of the canyon. By the time we arrived back at Cottonwood it was after 20:00 hours, filling up the fresh water tank took ages, and half an hour later I was cooking diner. By that time we were both bushed and wanted to go to bed as soon as possible, all so because the next morning the alarm clock would go off early. Unfortunately again, not a breath of fresh air came into the bedroom and it took ages before we finally fell asleep.

Hiking in the Chisos Basin, Big Bend NP

Awoken again very early by the bloody step, this time after a little effort he managed to unplug the wire once the steps was in, it meant that we could go for a hike today after all, the downfall was that once the step was in that we had to climb in and out the motor home, since the opening was about 80 cm off the ground. But better this than not be being able to drive at all. In spite the early wake up call, we drove off kind of late and by the time we arrived at Panther Junction the visitor centre was open all ready. Finally we picked up our brochure and map. Just before the basin we stopped at the Lost Mine trail, nearly 5 mile round trip to the top of the mountain, with an elevation gain of 1100 feet. The trail was easy to follow and not that strenuous, only the last bit was a little more steep, but oh boy what a treat at the end, a grand view of the mountain ranges surrounding the top of the trail. Since it was cloudy the temperature was some what moderate and it looked for a while that it could have rained, but it did not. We stayed at the top quite a bit to admire the view, luckily we had the place to ourselves, a bus load of kinds just had started their descent.

After the trail we drove to the basis where we had an ice-cream and had a quick look at the visitor centre. Around 14:20 we hit the trail again, this time the Window trail, it starts with a descent through desert area, later going though a forest area and finally along the wash to the Window. This trail is about 5.6 miles round trip with an elevation loss of 980 feet, with at the end you have to climb back up. The view at the Window was nice, but we both had anticipated an arch like window, not an opening with cliffs on either side. The was a lovely cool breeze, because the temperature had gone up again in the high 80´s of maybe even the lower 90´s. The hike back was some what grueling because my feet were killing me big time. It took us about an hour and half to get back a the motor home, we drove straight back to the camp ground, both a little peckish so we dove into a bag of Jalapeño tortilla chips, we had bought some Salsa Verde and guacamole with Jalapeños, man that was hot!!!! Afterwards we both we too tired to do anything and laid down on the bed for a while, unfortunately not a breath of fresh air came in. Where is a hook up when you need it! (Just kidding)