Lone Star High Point

West Texas is solar system vast. I remember in the 55 mph Jimmy Carter days leaving El Paso for Houston and thinking it would take me days to get there. We left Carlsbad and headed for Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Before long, we could see El Capitan rising from the desert floor, bony white, like an open fracture extruding from its brown desert skin. Less than an hour later we had parked at the base of Guadalupe Peak and stared up at the beginning of the mountain in wonder at how the trail might navigate the steep escarpment, and how we might fare this day. The trail climbs 3000 feet in 4.2 miles, topping out at 8751 feet. The elevation isn't that big a deal for us since we live at 5600 feet. I hike almost weekly throughout the year, Turner plays football and runs track, and Rene', amazingly, works out in our basement at 5 AM on weekdays. That leaves our dear Alex, who hasn't lifted a finger since basketball ended more than a month ago. How would she do? The first third of the trek does indeed switchback up the first mountain with engineering genius. Mountain straight up on the left, down on the right, then switch. At one point, horseback riders are encouraged to DISMOUNT AND LEAD (and some prankster has added a line to the final capital D giving it the appearance of a P... dismount and leap, ha). We climbed the first thousand feet and already we were marveling at the vistas. We think of Radiator Springs from the movie Cars as a legitimate point of comparison. Bluffs, mountain ranges and canyons march off into the hazy distance, each a new color: brown, blue, gray. The parking lot and our car are shrinking to tiny dots below us. Alex was out of breath from the beginning as she tried to keep up with Turner and me, and she was a little discouraged until we got to the top of the first mountain and realized what she had accomplished. Now she was good and trooped the rest of the way at her own pace. The trail shifted to the next mountain, and before we knew it we were on a bridge, another DISMOUNT AND LEAP place, and a mere mile from the top. As we turned south and saw the summit itself, we came to another view. The back side of El Capitan was below us by a few hundred feet. Wow. We knocked out the final switchbacks, and suddenly the American Airlines steel pyramid was right above us, the joyful summit. We four had a giddy time as we took photos and shared stories with other highpointers. Smiles all around, and then... descent. It was a warm, windy day, and though we descended in only 2.5 hours, we were beat and parched when we reached the car. Once again we made an IOU to the United Bank of Alex and bought soda pops at the visitor's center. There is something truly delightful and refreshing about ice cold soda after a long and arduous desert hike. ahhhh. We hopped in the car, and drove through Van Horn. The last time I was here I got to meet the judge late on a Friday afternoon, some 26 years before, after not coping well with the speed limit and having a close encounter with a Texas DPS officer. Turns out the judge was a former Marine, and I was headed to USMC OCS. We got along great, though I was a chunk of money poorer for the experience. Van Horn looks desolate and in serious decline. Many closed businesses and once-decent hotels are now unsavory at the least. We drive on to Fort Stockton, for steak dinner, and a dip in the pool and soak in the hot tub. Now THIS is how to do a high point. What a day! Next up, Driskill Mountain, Louisiana.