The next morning we got up and cooked breakfast tacos. We prepared for our hike, not really sure what to expect. It had never rained that night, and it was now a beautiful, sunny morning. The temperature was somewhere in the mid-60s, and it was just gorgeous. We got on the trail around 10:00, and it was starting to warm up as the sun rose over the tops of the Chisos Mountains and shone down into the Basin.
Almost immediately, the trail was difficult. I'm not sure whether it was because of the elevation (the Basin sits at about 5400 feet) or because I'm out of shape, but I was sucking wind right off the bat. The trail was uphill most of the way, which meant frequent stops for water and rest. Luckily, the trail was well maintained and was even stair-stepped in many places, which didn't make it any easier, but did make it more level for getting a good footing.
I was amazed at how un-desert-like the hike was. There were pine and other trees all along the trail that gave plenty of shade. Flowers were everywhere and there was green grass all around. There was a lot of wildlife, too. We saw a lot of smaller animals such as squirrels, birds, lizards and even a rabbit. Then we came upon an open meadow that was simply stunning. I would have stopped and settled there had I been a pioneer headed west.
The variety of plants along the way up the mountain were intriguing. There was an interesting mix of desert plants and mountain plants with deciduous plants (such as some amazing-looking maple trees) mixed in for good measure. I bet it's stunning in the fall. One day I'd love to go back and see. All along the path were "century plants," which is a form of agave (but unfortunately not the making-tequila-out-of kind). Many were in bloom or getting ready to bloom.
While we were walking, we were still generally talking and joking around. In fact, Johnny made a comment that had all of us laughing for minutes, literally. Something about standing outside the cabin in the dark in a cat suit... My sides were hurting, I was laughing so hard. Spirits were high, and we were having a great time.
As we walked up the mountain, suddenly the Basin hotel and cabins came into view through a break in the trees. We could see the huge water tank that we passed as we set out. And we were well above the huge "Disney hill". It was quite satisfying to see how high we had climbed. Unfortunately, we had no idea how much we had left to do. We were probably only halfway to the Emory Peak trailhead, where we would break for lunch.
We broke for lunch at the Emory Peak trailhead. I had dried sausage and some mixed nuts. Mark had brought some sausage and cheese. Harris shared my sausage and ate some kind of bar, I think. Johnny, on the other hand, (I'm pretty sure) took off into the woods, hunted and killed an antelope and ate the whole thing raw. That's my recollection, at least.
As we were eating, we heard someone coming up the trail behind us. Imagine our surprise when around the corner of some trees came Creepy Guy - the guy we had met in the car the night before. Unfortunately, he was just as creepy in the daytime as at night, and he was traveling alone (as all serial killers do). He stopped, awkwardly, to talk for a minute and then headed up the Emory Peak trail. We waited a few minutes, stashed our packs in the bear boxes available and then followed him up to Emory Peak. Cue the scary music.
Along the way, we walked next to "Boot Canyon," so-named because of a rock formation on the south side that looks like an upside-down boot.
The walk up to Emory Peak was actually very nice and was very well maintained. There were some rough patches, however, where the rock was uneven and loose. It was on one of those places about two-thirds of the way up to the peak that Harris turned an ankle. He decided that he wasn't going to continue to the top, so Mark elected to stay with him and start heading back down toward the trailhead. Johnny and I continued up the trail to the peak. We were about 50 yards from the end of the trail when Creepy Guy came out of nowhere back down the mountain. He said he hadn't made it to the top because he didn't have the proper rock climbing skills, but that he had eaten a nice lunch - of liver, fava beans and chianti, I suspect - near the top. He continued on his way and we continued on ours, hoping that his evil plan wasn't working and that Harris's ankle injury wasn't the opportunity he was looking for to divide the group and slaughter us all.
Johnny and I soon found out what Creepy Guy meant. To get to the top of Emory Peak, one has to do a bit of rock climbing. It was a 15 or 20 yard climb up to the top up some fairly easy rocks. As we got toward the top, we noticed lots and lots of ladybugs. They were everywhere! It was kind of surreal, actually. Here's a shot of two of them, um, playing...
Standing at the top of Emory Peak, the third highest peak in Texas at 7,825 feet, is amazing. The top consists of large boulder-like rocks that form a base about fifteen feet square. On top, there are communications towers and a solar array, which seemed to be fairly new. Our Recovery Dollars at work, I suppose. At this point, everything in the park seemed to be below us. A mountain a couple of miles away seemed to be roughly the same size, but it was most probably an optical illusion. On all sides were sheer cliffs, and on three sides the cliff dropped for hundreds of feet to the hills below. Even though the day had gotten quite warm, the temperature at the top seemed like it was in the lower 70s and a breeze made it feel very, very comfortable. Johnny and I got right to taking pictures. We spent about twenty minutes in all at the top of Emory Peak before noticing the time - it was almost four 'o-clock. So we climbed back down the way we came and booked it back down the mountain to meet up with Harris and Mark at the trailhead. We didn't know if, when we got there, we would be able to continue on our hike to the rim or if we would have to carry Harris down the mountain.
When we got back down to the trailhead, we found this:
Harris was sitting in the bear box. He and Mark had gotten back about thirty minutes before us, which had given Harris time to get a lot of ibuprofen in him. His ankle was starting to feel a lot better, so we took a quick rest and hit the trail. We had a lot of ground to cover before we reached our campsite. We were less than halfway there, actually, but the good news was that we wouldn't - or shouldn't- have nearly the kind of climbs that we had experienced that morning.
We followed a very well maintained trail that was simply amazingly beautiful in places. The Boot Canyon trail wove through and around the canyons and hills and along creek beds. For most of the trail, the canopy of trees kept us well-shaded by huge cedars and maple trees. This was my favorite piece of the trail, by far. It was almost park-like in places. Just as we reached the turnoff for the Northwest Rim trail, we encountered the only other people we would see along the trail. Four guys, probably in their twenties, were hiking the other way. In a way, it was really odd to be surprised to see other people out in the wilderness. I'm not sure why, but after being basically alone all day, seeing other hikers was somewhat unwelcome.
The Northwest Trail headed up again, gradually rising as it wound around the hills. We were all getting pretty tired by now (except for Johnny, who probably could have sprinted the rest of the way without breaking a sweat.) We finally reached the top of the hill and the trail maintained a fairly level course for awhile.
The sun was getting low in the sky and the light was absolutely beautiful, shimmering through the grass on either side of the trail. We reached the first of the Northwest Rim campsites and knew that we were finally getting close. We stopped for a small water break, then continued on. Spirits were at once much higher. Suddenly, we rounded a bend and found ourselves at the bottom of a little hill. The trail extended upward in a gentle incline. As we reached the top of the little hill, a huge panorama unfolded in front of us. It was the Northwest Rim. There in front of us was a line of trees and brush along a cliff, beyond which lay a mountain ridge in the distance. The sun was shining sideways and orange on the mountain in front of us. It was amazing.
We stopped for a moment to take in the vista and continued on toward the Southeast Rim, where we would be camping. All along the way, the trail followed the rim of a huge cliff that looked out onto the Chihuahuan desert below, and as we walked, the large mountains fell at first to our left and then behind us. After a short hike, we finally reached SE-3, our campsite for the night. We had chosen this campsite because it was the only one that could accommodate more than two tents. So we got lucky in that it turned out to be the best campsite on the Southeast Rim.
Facing the campsite trail was a cliff that dropped almost straight down for about 2,000 feet. It was absolutely humbling being up there on that cliff. Below, in front of us we could see a hilly desert floor and clouds. The clouds were actually below us! The photos don't do it justice, but the huge scale was incredible. It was almost 6:30 in the evening, and the shadows were starting to at the top of the mountain where we were, but not yet on the hills below. The light was a yellowish orange and a light haze hung in the air below over the desert. This was the reason we came, and it was totally worth it.
We set up our tents quietly and got our things ready for the night. Mark cooked a dinner of rice, canned chicken, peas and corn, and we ate it up gratefully. As we ate, some curious deer - that weren't shy at all - came within a few yards of our campsite to see what was going on. The sun set as we sat and ate. I was tired and not in a very sociable mood, so after dinner I went to my tent. It was actually pretty warm, and it took me awhile to go to sleep. Soon, the sound of the other guys moving around slowed, then stopped, and I drifted off to sleep. It was pitch black up on the Southeast Rim and even darker inside my tent. If a bear was going to come to eat me during the night, he'd have needed a flashlight or some night vision goggles.
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