The Grueling Hike up the Lamenting Mountain

This is also known as the Guadalupe Peak Trail. It started off neat enough with desert wildlife and plant life. This 8.4 mile hike seemed more like a 16 mile hike. We switchbacked more times than I care to count and went over multiple peaks. Each time we looked up we thought we saw the peak that we were headed to, only to travel a little further and see a peak that was higher. We were going to wait to eat until we made it to the top, but we stopped at a rocky place that had a nice breeze. If it were not for the breeze I really do not think we would have made it to the top. It is hard to describe how long it felt, but I will tell you it took us 3 hours to get to the top. The sun was so unforgiving and beat down on us the entire way. The mountain views were really nice. Every once in a while the views would be panoramic. Brad got a pretty bad blister on his heel, luckily we had moleskin in my backpack, but we did not get to it in time. We almost turned around three times going up. We made it to the top. There was a spire marking the highest point in Texas, and once we saw that I was so glad that we kept going to the top. There was a journal for us to sign for climbing all the way up. Now our name is there forever. We were able to use a rock as a tripod and get a picture of both of us on top of the conquest. We were almost out of water at this point. So we were trying to ration it. We learned a lesson about not underestimating any hike, and take more water than you think we need. I couldn’t even eat most of my lunch because my mouth was so dry. We also were starting to feel our skin burning and we still had to make it all the way back to the base of the mountain. I was looking forward to the way down the entire hike up. I should not have, because the hike down was just as hard as the hike up, if not worse. The rocks would slide under your feet making every step tricky. There was no shade and it was blistering hot. The slope hurt our knees, mine mostly. I am not going to lie there was one point with about a mile left after many false hopes of the end being near that I wanted to cry. I did not mostly because it would be silly and we were out of water and I knew I was dehydrated as it was. We finally did the last switchback and saw the end of the trail. I ran to the end and we both got powerades. We took a nap back at camp, but it was too hot with a sunburn to nap in the desert. We made dinner and made friends with our neighbors who just adopted two children and were having their first family vacation.