This last segment of my trip has been a lot of fun. Most days the weather has been great and I
have had an opportunity to meet some awesome people on my ride through
Texas. Lets start where we left off
though. Upon leaving El Paso I went
towards Guadalupe Peak with Mark Brooks who was also the sponsor of the
summit. We arrived at the parking lot
around 3pm. This only left a couple
hours before sunset and the hike was going to be 8.5 miles round trip. The rangers mentioned that there was a little
snow and ice on the trail but we figured we would just give it a go. 
Mark and I
arrived at the summit just before sunset, which proved to be a nice view
although it also meant that we were going to have quite the hike down in the
dark. We got about a mile behind us
before the light really died out and we had to start using our headlamps. Upon starting up the trail we thought we were
going to have a full moon to help us down but not so much. The sky had become pretty overcast so we had
no extra light other than our headlamps to see by. Thankfully the trail was very well defined so
it was not hard to follow. The icy
sections in the dark were a little tricky but otherwise the hike went well.
I took the
next day off and went to check out Carlsbad Caverns, which was fairly close to
Guadalupe. The cave was very impressive
to see. There is a self-guided tour
where you can hike down through the natural entrance. It was a little over a mile long and took you
down about 800 feet below the surface. Once
down there I was free to wonder around the Giant Room. Just to walk around this one room was another
mile and a half. After going on these
self-guided tours I went on another tour that was off the trail and was guided
by a local geologist. This one lasted 3
hours and took us to a deeper part of the cave that did not have any artificial
lights. We were able to get a much
closer look at a lot of different formations in the cave. The guide also had us experience what it felt
like to be in complete darkness 900 feet underground. It felt a little oppressive being down there
with no sense of sight to comfort you and knowing there was hundreds of feet
just sitting above your head. 
After
leaving Carlsbad and continuing my journey east across the state of Texas I was
very lucky with the weather. Every day
has been over 60 if not 70 degrees. One
or two days actually got up into the 80’s.
It also seemed like I had a tailwind almost every day, which was
awesome. While the riding was
comfortable and easy do to the flat landscape I do have to say that it got a
little old because there is not much going on in west Texas other than oil
fields. All this meant for me though was
that there were a lot of trucks and oversized trucks going back and forth on the
roads all day. Luckily though there was
a really big shoulder on most of the roads I was on.
While the
terrain was not overly entertaining I did get a chance to meet and stay with a
lot of awesome people all across the state.
Well as I am writing this in Denton, Texas, which is just north of
Dallas, we are getting pounded with a lot of rain. Texas has been in a pretty severe drought
this is rain is much needed although there are a lot of flood warning for much
of the area now. Well here is to hoping
that the people in Oklahoma and Arkansas are just as nice as the people in
Texas.
In case you
have not heard I am trying to get 500 people to like the Cycle for the Summit facebook
page by February 15. IF we reach this
goal a 65-liter Jansport backpack will be raffled off to one lucky person who
has liked the page. We still have 75
people to go by then so tell you friends and family to check it out. It only takes 30 seconds to do. Here is the link for those that may not have
been there yet. http://www.facebook.com/cycleforthesummit
- Michael
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