With summer camp starting today, the Conley’s took off a day early to spend a night in San Antonio. On our way down, we decided to spend a little time at Blue Hole in Wimberley. The night before I was at a wedding and met a man who lived in New Braunfels, which is home to three of Texas’ top swimming holes. He informed me of some flooding and encouraged us to go somewhere else. He told us that Krause Springs in Spicewood is absolutely enchanting, but Blue Hole is the quintessential Texas swimming hole. So, Blue Hole it was.

Blue Hole is totally different from both Barton Springs and Hamilton Pool. The water is a few degrees warmer than Barton (which makes a huge difference) and there’s a lot more fun to be had here than at Hamilton. There’s a small dock on one end of the hole where you can swing into the water. It’s ideal for kids and those who aren’t looking for too much adventure. At the other end of the hole is a swing that’s a little more challenging. You have to climb 4-5 feet into a huge tree (not really climbing, just walking up into the main branch) where you can grab onto a ring and swing 20-30 feet out before bombing into the water below. Boys who seem to be regulars take the challenge of running out and trying to grab the ring in mid air. I saw a lot more unable to do this than those who were successful. Although there is a sign that says you’re not allowed to jump out of the tree, I did see one guy jump out of the tree as high as you could. He climbed up and up and up until he was standing on a high branch at least 50 feet up. Although it looked pretty amazing, it looked like one of the stupidest things to do as well, the water wasn’t really that deep.

We all had a blast. I swung out on both swings several times and Sara finally got up the nerve and swung out on one of the swings two or three times. Titus jumped in from the dock a few times. He wasn’t thrilled with the water temperature, but seemed interested enough to jump into the water a few times and float out in the water with his daddy. He seemed genuinely intrigued with the place and wasn’t very happy about leaving as they were closing down. What I find really interesting is that these swimming holes are totally new to me, like something from old movies and stories I heard from my dad, yet Titus is going to grow up with fond memories of going to local swimming holes. I’m just glad he’s going to grow up with these kinds of memories.

Sounds like the the sequel to the Gunfight at OK Corral, huh? For Christmas I got a book on hikes around Austin and this was the first hike we chose.

Rimrock  Loop is part of the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Austin. Technically, it’s a little over 26 miles west of Cedar Park. It’s definitely off the beaten path. When we arrived, there were two other cars in the small parking lot and on the trail we only ran into one other couple. Although we took this hike in late February/early March, it just didn’t seem to be a well known hiking spot. Fortunately for us, it was a great find. It’s a light to moderate hike, only three miles or so. There was a little bit of elevation change as the hike took you up a ridge (maybe 200-300 feet), which will bring any flat-lander to some heavy breathing and pain in the legs (especially if you’ve got a 30 pound kid on your back).

Supposedly, this area is home to the golden cheek warbler, which is one of the reasons this entire area is protected. Either they weren’t around or I didn’t know what I was looking for. Regardless, it was a great hike for this little family of three. Titus did okay, as long as we kept him occupied with munching on peanuts and raisins or gave him a stick to hold (as long as he didn’t hit his dad in the head with it).

I can’t really judge as I haven’t been on too many hikes in the Austin area, but from what I can assume, this is a great little hike. I highly recommend getting out to hit the Rimrock. You’ll have some nice views and the hike feels substantial for what low-landers are used too.

[View with PicLens]

I really like to hike. I like it a lot. Being that I grew up in the flat swampy region of South Georgia, I didn’t really get a lot of opportunities to really hike. When I was 18, I trained for and climbed to the top of Pikes Peak and I was hooked. Unfortunately, I still live in the flat lands. The good thing though about where I live in Texas is that there are some hills to explore, some beautiful outlooks and great water features. It’s better than nothing, right?

So, I got this book and I’m excited to knock some of these hikes off the list (becasue that’s the way I am). Already, Sara and I (and Titus too) have done two hikes and we’re looking forward to getting more under our belt. Now that it’s summer, we’ll either have to do early morning hikes or pick back up on the hiking in the Fall when the weather is more agreeable. That’s okay though, we still have a couple dozen swimming holes to hit, BBQ joints to taste and burgers to try (did I not tell you about my burger list)?

Maybe one day I’ll live next to a mountain. Until then, these Texas trails will have to do.

I found this link recently on a friends blog. Sara’s been to a few states I haven’t yet been to, but we’re pretty close to each other. There’s no doubt that I want to visit all 50. You know I’m way into knocking out lists like this one and this one. There’s another challenge we’re working on too that I haven’t posted about yet. Seriously, there are too many great things to do here in Texas!

So, here’s the plan. I’m going to Alaska with my friend Joel when he turns 40. I made that commitment to him 5 or 6 years ago and I’m looking forward to that. It’s still 5 of 6 years away. Sara has wanted to see the leaves change in New England. I told her that it’s something old people do (sorry if that offends any old people reading this blog). So, we know we’re going to do that  sometime, but I’m not sure we’ll hit all the New England state in one trip. Perhaps we’ll do a trip centering around Boston and hit a few surrounding states (I’ve never been to Philadelphia and I’d like to spend some time there). Then we can do the fall colors trip on another vacation.

Of the northern mid-western and western states, it might take 2 or 3 trips. I really don’t have any desire to visit North Dakota or Nebraska except for saying I’ve been there. However I’m a little curious about visiting Green Bay (I have no idea why) and I really would like to see Minnesota (although I have flown through the airport twice). There are many national parts and sites I’d like to see in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah, so those are definite visits. Idaho, I really want to go see it, but the only thing I think about when I think of Idaho is potatoes. I guess I’ll have to see for myself.

So, that’s where I’ve been and that’s my plan for seeing the rest.

We recognized that our window of opportunity was quickly closing. Afternoon thunderstorms are frequent in the Rockies and a thunderstorm WILL end your quest to summit. Lightning is the leading cause for death in the Colorado Rockies. We continued to push on toward the summit. As we advanced higher into the 13,000 foot rang, our visibility got less and less. Our route kept us anywhere from 50 to 200 feet from the road leading up to the summit. It was getting foggy enough that we could hear the cars, but no really see them as they passed. Since our line of site was getting pretty limited, we had to focus on following the cairns (small stacks of rocks left by previous hikers to show the way) to keep us on the right path. We started to hear the rumble of thunder all around us (probably because we were actually in the middle of the storm cloud by now).

Ever since we crossed the road, we would feel the occasional rain drop. Once in the middle of the cloud, we started to see a little more raindrops mixed in with some sleet/hail. At this time we put on rain jackets/ponchos to keep us dry. It was already cold, so there was no sense in being cold and wet. As soon as we were all covered up and we started moving again, the hail began coming down hard. Pea-sized to marble-sized hail came down for the next 5-10 minutes. When it was light, we continued walking but when it got heavy, we stood motionless waiting for it to subside. The little pellets were somewhat soft but it did sting a little when one hit you in the face. Dad continued to talk to Shayla every 10-15 minutes letting her know that we were okay and that we were still coming.

Not too much longer after the ridiculous barrage of ice, visibility shrank to about 30-50 feet. Walt had disappeared in the lead. Sara was in front of me and dad behind me. Eventually Walt came walking back to let us know that the trail was coming along side the road once again. We huddled together for just a minute to decide the future of our hike. Because we were so close to the road, Shayla could drive down and pick us up. After many attempts to get Shayla on the radio (reception had gotten really bad due to the weather) she finally connected and she confirmed that she was coming down.

What we didn’t know was that the rangers were in the process of clearing the parking lot on the peak. The weather was getting to dangerous and it was best for everyone to get down off the summit. Shayla told the rangers that she was waiting for four hikers. The ranger seemed concerned. Another ranger confirmed that he had seen us recently where the pavement ended on the road. The first ranger perked up and explained that we were still too far away to make it to the top in a reasonable amount of time and that we needed to get off the mountain. Shayla was beginning to panic. The fog was so bad, she was glad that we were hiking up to be able to drive down. Now that we weren’t going to be able to make it up, she had to drive down the steep mountain road where visibility was only a dozen or so feet in front of you. In addition, she got Dad’s last transmission about her coming to pick us up on the road, but she didn’t really know why. She started to think that maybe one of us was injured. To make things worse, as she got to the road, it had been closed until a scraper truck could come through and clear the ice from the road. Shayla couldn’t get us on the radio again and was concerned that we would be waiting on the road wondering why she wasn’t coming. Later, Shayla would reveal how scared she was. Although is was a pretty crazy situation we found ourselves in (13,300 feet in a storm), Shayla was all alone without complete information and a reliable way to communicate.

In the meantime, us hikers moved to the road. As we began walking up the road, we witnessed a biker on his cruiser wipe out on the wet road. We rushed over to help him pick his bike up again and send him on his way. We continued to walk up the road and no more vehicles were coming down. 10 to 15 minutes passed by and no one had come. There was probably a mile of road between us and the summit, but it should have taken that long for Shayla to get to us. We just continued to walk.

Eventually, we saw the flashing lights of the ranger’s truck with a caravan of cars behind him, including Shayla! We dumped all of our bags and gear into the back and jumped in the Envoy. Only 5-10 minutes into the descent and we were out of the cloud and conditions were clear again. We could see off to the distance many other peaks that were now covered in white, likely the hail that we experience just above.

While driving down, we replenished our energy on trail mix, beef jerky, sandwiches and fruit. It took about 90 minutes to get back down the mountain and back to the Crags campground to pick up my car at the trail head. After getting my car, it would take an additional 60-75 minutes to get back home. We were beat!

It was a fantastic adventure! We were all disappointed that we didn’t make it to the summit. We were probably a mile away with about 700 more feet of elevation to go. It probably would have taken us another 60 to 90 minutes to summit. Although we were disappointed, we don’t regret our decision to abandon the hike. Conditions were getting bad and our safety and lives were in jeopardy. It wasn’t worth that kind of risk.

So, I think everyone had fun. It wasn’t easy and it was an adventure. I think that all of us would like to do it again. We really just needed a little more time. Next time we just need to get a little earlier start and us flat-landers need to be a little better prepared for the altitude!

Sara, Titus and I drove in on September 14th. Between late nights and early mornings, we arrived to Colorado Springs pretty tired. As Sara crawled into bed at 10:00 PM, she wasn’t feeling very good at all. I finally got into bed by 11:00 PM, not quite early enough for getting up at 4:00 AM.

At 5:00 AM we were all packed and ready to head out. Although it would be in the 50′s to 60′s at various points on the mountain, the high on the summit was only to be in the low 40′s. We packed snacks, lots of water, rain coats and many layers of clothes for the different temperatures we might encounter. By 6:00 AM, we were eating breakfast at McDonalds in Woodland Park and by 7:20 we were on the trail.

The first mile was a less than strenuous hike through the woods with occasional peeks of rocky outcrops above and the ridge we would eventually have to climb. Our pace was just a little slower than we had planned. At one of our breaks I was was able to get a phone signal and I called Shayla asking her to come to the summit an hour later than planned.

At about two miles we left the treeline to see the ridge we would have to overcome. It was on this ascent that Sara and I hit a wall. Our spirits were high, but we realized that the altitude was affecting us more than we thought it would. Literally, I was taking fifty steps before stopping to rest and catch my breath. The ascent wasn’t easy, but it was the thin air that was making this part so difficult. Later I would read that overcoming this first ridge was the hardest part of the climb other than the final 500 feet.

Once we overtook the ridge, the terrain flattened out substantially. For the first time we could see the peak which was still about 3 miles away. At this point, clouds were building at the peak which meant we needed to pick up the pace. Because the terrain was a little easier we began hiking a little bit faster. After another mile of hiking, we crossed the road that went to the summit, which is the location of Devil’s Playground. Devil’s Playground got it’s name from the way lightning jumps from rock to rock during storms. This is not a place you want to be if weather begins deteriorating.

Just past Devil’s Playground was the first spectacular view of Colorado Springs on the east side of the mountain. We had been climbing the western side of the mountain all morning and now we had crossed to the other side of the ridge, ready for the final push to the top. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t looking very good for us. We had originally planned to be on the summit by 11:00 AM before we called Shayla to delay our arrival by an hour. Now it was 12:30 PM and we still had over a mile ago to travel at about 13,100 feet. Fortunately, we had a 2-way radio that we could use to contact Shayla who was waiting at the summit. We let her know that the weather was looking bad, but we were going to push through. The summit was no longer visible and we were heading right into it.

This is when things got a little scary.