JOIN US! Ride for Reading in Fort Davis and Terlingua!

Last week, Ride For Reading organized a book giveaway at Hart Elementary School, thanks to our El Paso/Texas Mountain Trail friend and volunteer, Don Baumgardt.  Won't you join us on your bike for this week's deliveries in Terlingua and Fort Davis?


We'll be on Marfa Public Radio's Talk at Ten show THIS MORNING...listen in for more information!

One of the best quotes of any Ride for Reading delivery was spoken yesterday in El Paso, TX! Congressman Beto O'Rourke said, "I always wanted to be a rock star, because I wanted to come into a stadium and hear the crowds cranked up...people cheering with pom poms and signs...and today when I rode my bike here, I finally felt like a rock star!" That's right cyclist....Ride for Reading can make you feel like a rock star!"

US Congressman Beto O'Rourke, Dejay Birtch,
Hart Elementary Cub mascot, Josh Smith and Don Baumgardt

JOIN US in Fort Davis on Thursday and Terlingua on Friday for similar book giveaways at the elementary schools! 

Fort Davis:  Meet at 11 am at the Fort Davis Chamber of Commerce Office.  We'll ride as a group to the Elementary School, where the students will be able to pick out books to take home as their very own!

Terlingua:  Meet at 11 am at Big Bend Resorts and Adventures.  We'll ride as a group to the Elementary School, where the students will be able to ALSO pick out books to take home as their very own!

Who is making this happen?

Our non-profit Texas Mountain Trail is happy to coordinate these events, but we've had LOTS of help from wonderful people who've helped make this opportunity available to our Far West Texas schools.

Devon Balet, Ride for Reading, Better World Books, Fort Davis Chamber of Commerce, Stone Village Tourist Camp, Davis Mountains State Park, Big Bend Resorts and Adventures, Visit Big Bend, Big Bend Ranch State Park, Friends of Jeff Davis County Library,  Big Bend Chamber of Commerce

The Story of Frijole Ranch

Frijole Ranch, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe Mountains National Park has incredible scenic vistas and terrific hiking trails, but it is also blessed with stories from the past.  A brief visit to Frijole Ranch tells so much about the efforts of early ranchers who tried to made the mountains their home.  Around 1876, the Rader built the small stone structure and stayed there until sometime before 1900.  The Smith family lived and worked at the ranch for thirty-six years and made it the social center of the area, beginning around 1906.  You can tour the ranch house, and peek in the post office and one-room school building from the Smith family's time at the ranch.

The ranch is just adjacent to the trailhead to Smith Spring, one of our Texas Mountain Trail Heritage Hikes, included in our Peak Fitness Challenge.  The 2.6 mile loop trail takes you through desert, into a cool shaded spring area, into arroyos and by a pond, where birds and wildlife like to gather.

Read more about the Ranch here and here.  It is a great place to visit!

Peak Fitness Challenge!

Sign up for the free, fun hiking and trail running challenge
www.GeoBetty.com/Peak

We're lucky to have two TERRIFIC parks participating in our Peak Fitness Challenge, a fun and FREE challenge for all you hikers and trail runners of all fitness levels.  Our friends at Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Franklin Mountains State Park teamed up last year with GeoBetty/PhiDev, Inc. to launch the challenge, with us, the Texas Mountain Trail www.texasmountaintrail.com.  Head on out on the trails for fun and you may win some prizes as you log your miles!  

McKittrick Canyon Trail,
Guadalupe Mountains National Park

First step?  Go to www.GeoBetty.com/Peak and create an account. 
Then?  Browse the site for a hike you'd like to take, or create your own route.
Then?  Head on out for your hike or trailrun, and when you return, log your miles on the site.
Watch your miles add up...we send prizes out to participants at random!

HAVE FUN!!

Hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains

One of the jewels in our region is our own Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  Some national parks are great to drive through...but not this one.  This is a TERRIFIC hiking park, for folks who like to tackle long or short trails.

And through our association with the national park, it is our pleasure to offer a free, fun program to all hikers heading to the Guadalupes.  Join the Peak Fitness Challenge, hike the trails in Guadalupe Mountains National Park and/or El Paso's Franklin Mountains State Park, and the miles you log qualify you for regular prize drawings! 



Our Peak Fitness Challenge participants
 have run or hiked
a combined 1,048 miles!

Challenge participants have
come from all over!

 

Many of the trails are Texas Mountain Trail Heritage Hikes, meaning they were the location of an historic event, or offer historic scenic vistas. 

Join the Challenge today!

El Paso's Lovely Franklin Mountains

Pink light of dawn on the Franklin Mountains as seeen from I-10

From what we can gather, most visitors heading to or through El Paso miss the charm of the city because they rarely get off the freeway.  I-10 directs travelers efficiently through the city, but that route never gives you a clue as to the charm or adventure available RIGHT THERE.

 Case in point:  Franklin Mountains State Park, the largest urban wilderness park in the continental US....offers terrific hiking, mountain biking and wildlife watching IN the city!

From the park's website:

"The Franklins are the largest sustained mountain range in Texas, with the summit of North Franklin Peak rising to an elevation of 7,192 feet, approximately 3,000 feet above the city below. On the eastern flank of North Franklin Mountain lie the remnants of our nation's only tin mining, milling and smelting operation, which was active from 1910 through 1915.
Two hiking trails are currently accessible off of Loop 375/Trans-Mountain Road. Work is underway for a trail network that will ultimately offer a system of more than 100 miles of trails. Rock climbing is one of the park's newest recreational activities, with established climbing areas in McKelligon Canyon.
A limited number of primitive tent-camping sites are available in the Tom Mays Unit. Traditional sites allow for tents placed on the ground. Five self-contained RV sites have also been added. All potential campers should be forewarned: there are no ground fires allowed within park boundaries and no water or electricity supplies. Those desiring camping reservations may contact the park office. Reservations are recommended."

We've partnered with Franklin Mountains State Park (and Guadalupe Mountains National Park and our friends at GeoBetty.com) to bring you a free, fun hiking challenge, called the Peak Fitness Challenge!  (The challenge website is here, the facebook page is here!)  Sign up, create a log page, hike your miles, record them online and your name is entered into prize drawings...simple as that!  In the meantime, you'll be outside, getting sunshine and exercise, having fun, and seeing a new side to El Paso!  And the challenge is for EVERYONE, including walkers, hikers, runners and trail runners...even YOU!

Mountain biking is one of the favorite activities in the Franklins, and many trails have dual use--hiking and biking.  For mountain biking information, check out www.geobetty.com

Smith Spring Trail

Smith Spring

by Drew Stuart
Editor, Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley ReviewTexas Mountain Trail Board Member|

Photos by Stephanie Smith

 

This is the third installment in a series on hikes in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The park celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year, and the Herald editor plans to hike all the park's trails by the end of 2012 and to share something from each of the hikes with Herald readers.

Sunday, Aug. 5, I made my third hike in three weeks in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, to Smith Spring. I was joined on the hike by Amy Muise of Crow Flat, her children Rhiannon and Emmett and Amy's sister, Stephanie Smith. Stephanie was visiting and hoped to take a hike in the park – Amy suggested Smith Spring, which was still on my list, as a good short hike. I appreciated the company. Apart from McKittrick Canyon, which I expect to leave for the fall, the trails that remain will be long treks – mostly into the high country of the mountains – and it seems likely they'll be made alone.

A 2.3-mile loop, the Smith Spring Trail begins and ends at the historic Frijole Ranch compound and, like other day hikes on the park's east side, passes from grasslands marked by cacti and desert shrubs into wooded canyons and limestone cliffs.

Determined to beat the heat, we planned a daybreak start for our hike. I arrived at dawn, before my companions and in enough time to watch the sun rise over the hills and flats to the northeast. Unlike the sunset display Dell Citians and Salt Flatters can take in each afternoon – the two-, three- or four-hour light show on the mountain's western escarpment – sunrise on the other side of the mountain was a shorter and sharper affair – the sun rose, and the limestone cliffs capping the mountains lit up briefly and intensely, looking, for that moment, like a golden crown. I had some time to walk around the old ranch house and splash cold water from Frijole Ranch Spring on my face.

The group arrived, and we organized and hit the trail. At Rhiannon's prompting, we reviewed how we would respond to an encounter with a mountain lion or bear – always a good thing to consider – though the only the big fauna we see are three mule deer, enjoying the ample forage of the slopes.

The ascent offers views of the bluffs and canyon above, a dense jumble of white rock. It is a gentle and pleasant climb, and one broken up, this day, by occasional breaks to sit down on the trail.

Near the spring, the trail passes into a clutch of woods, a mini-forest. Rhiannon and I are in the lead, and as we enter the woods we hear the thud of wings and watch a buzzard lift itself from a tree limb and fly down the canyon. Then we catch the smell of something dead – confirming the claim of the park's interpretive signage that Smith Spring is a “place of life and death.” The trail crosses live water flowing over the rocks, and we come to the springs themselves, draped with maidenhair fern and surrounded by oaks and pines. A big madrone stands above the water, the red peels of its bark scattered on the ground below, like piece of fancy stationary.

The rock of the Guadalupes is an ancient marine reef, formed 250 million years ago, when a vast inland sea covered much of what's now Texas and New Mexico, geologists tell us. Rock made of algae, the skeletons of small sea creatures and lime that precipitated from the ocean itself. The sea came and went before mammals even existed; a dizzying thing to consider, however much you've tried to think about geologic time. The stone formed hundreds of millions of years before the volcanic activity that thrust up many of the other mountains of Far West Texas and Southern New Mexico. 

The limestone in the mountains is layered with other rock – including sandstone, through which water can pass. Smith Spring – at 5,955 feet, one of the highest springs in Texas – flows from Bell Canyon sandstone; rainfall in the mountains percolates through the joints in the sandstone and limestone to emerge here and at the series of springs downhill.

Back down the trail, now on the north side of the canyon, to the grasslands. Grass that, if not lush, would still gladden the heart of ranchers on the other side of the mountain, Amy points out.

Nearing the ranch house, Smith Spring's water rises to the surface again, at Manzanita Spring, surrounded by reeds and trees, including at least one walnut. A sign here says that Manzanita and Smith springs and Frijole Spring at the ranch house are among “five springs in a three-mile radius” – a pretty remarkable concentration of water in this desert.

I sit on a picnic table back at the trailhead, with the mountains behind me, chalky-looking mounds casting their cool white light as the midday approaches. After the third walk in three weeks in the eastern canyons and flanks of the Guadalupes, I feel the beginnings of a new comfort, feel newly at home with this side of the mountains.

We eat lunch at a picnic table outside the ranch house, where the heat is tempered by the presence of flowing water. Walking around the ranch buildings, we meet up with a rattlesnake, just outside the ranch house door – Rhiannon displays some impressive instincts and reflexes in jumping away from the snake, which doesn't rattle. On our way out, we inform Eric, the park muleskinner, about the snake, and he tells us he'd removed a snake from that location recently – likely the same one. He can't blame the snake for coming back, he says, as “this is the honeypot of the whole park,” which seems like a good description for the wettest corner of the Guadalupes.

Our heartiest thanks to Drew and Stephanie!   ---Texas Mountain Trail

The Smith Spring Trail is part of the Peak Fitness Challenge....sign up, hike the trail yourself and compete for prizes!  The Peak Fitness Challenge is a cooperative program of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Franklin Mountains State Park, GeoBetty.com and Texas Mountain Trail!

Have you joined the Challenge?

If you're a walker, hiker or trail runner, there's a fun challenge waiting for you, the Peak Fitness Challenge.  Developed through a partnership with the Texas Mountain Trail, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Franklin Mountains State Park and GeoBetty, the Challenge is designed to encourage folks to get outside and enjoy our wonderful regional hiking trails.

Here's how it works:
1)  go to GeoBetty.com/Peak to sign up
2)  pick your park, then pick a trail you'd like to try  (trails are rated by difficulty, there are topo maps and "how to get there" information, and some have history attached to them, the "Texas Mountain Trail Heritage Hikes" )
3)  get out and enjoy yourself!
4)  when you return home, log in and add that trail to your profile...the website will automatically add miles to your record!
5)  your name will be entered into that month's drawings, and you might win a prize like these! 

The Challenge is still in "beta" and we're hoping to add other Far West Texas hiking locations to the Challenge, but it is up and ready and waiting for you to take part!  Note the home page says "560 Miles Hiked"....that's the cumulative number of all of our early participants' mileage on our trails!

Why do the Challenge?

1)  If you want to build your fitness, we've made it easy...just start at the easier hikes (some are very easy!) and then challenge yourself with progressively more difficult ones...until you can reach the highest peaks in the Challenge, such as Guadalupe Peak, the highest in Texas!
2)  If you're looking for new motivation to get outdoors.....
3)  ...and try trails new to you!
4)  If you want to meet like-minded people, you can join the Challenge's Facebook page or either of the park's MeetUp Groups!  (We post MeetUp opportunities on the Facebook page!)
5)  You want to learn more about the heritage of our wild places, by hiking our Texas Mountain Trail Heritage Hikes
6)  You might just win some nice swag!

Consider yourself invited to join in on the fun! 

Have you joined the Peak Fitness Challenge?

The view of the Chihuahuan Desert from the top of Texas at Guadalupe Peak in Guadalupe Mountains National Park,
Photo, courtesy: Dennis Vasquez

We've got a challenge for everyone, whether beginning hiker or experienced trail runner.  A joint project of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Franklin Mountains State Park, GeoBetty.com and the Texas Mountain Trail, the Challenge allows participants to take part in easy hikes in Far West Texas or plan their training to ultimately reach the highest peaks in both parks.

Many of our hiking trails have some interesting history attached to them.  You'll see them labeled "Texas Mountain Trail Heritage Hikes" on the GeoBetty.com/Peak website.

Hikers can log the trails on their own, or tackle them as part of a park-led excursion.  Read more at the Peak Fitness Challenge website, or here or here! 

Join the fun! 

Our Peak Fitness Challenge Begins!

YOU CAN REGISTER NOW!
(Since the website in in beta, we're inviting folks to use the Feedback button liberally...help us build the website right at the beginning.  Please send us your suggestions and feedback!  You're part of this effort at the groundfloor!)

The Peak Fitness Challenge, a free hiking program for Franklin Mountains State Park and Guadalupe MountainNational Park launches today, June 21^st   at the monthly meeting of the El Paso Hotel Motel Association.  A joint program of the parks, the Texas Mountain Trail regional non-profit, El Paso’s GeoBetty.com and PhidevInc.com, the Challenge encourages everyone from beginning hikers to experienced trail runners to get out on the park’s trails.  Participants can earn prizes for their accomplishments.

“Hikers can use the program to build their fitness and confidence levels to reach the highest peaks in the Franklins and the Guadalupes, if they want,” says Don Baumgardt, GeoBetty creator and publisher of the El Paso Visitors Guide.  “Participation is easy and free.  Folks can go online to register, log miles hiked and compete for prizes.  This Challenge is for regional residents and visitors to Far West Texas.” 

Information and sign up is available at GeoBetty.com/Peak .   Hikers and trail runners can compete as individuals or team members.  Participants may count the miles they log on organized hikes or adventures they tackle with friends and family members.  Everyone is invited to join the facebook community for the challenge at www.facebook.com/PeakFitnessChallenge

Planning for the Peak Fitness Challenge began last fall, when the new Superintendent of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and El Paso native, Dennis Vasquez, approached the Texas Mountain Trail for assistance in planning the park’s 40^th anniversary.  “The park had ideas for a hiking challenge similar to programs we’d been considering for some time,” said Beth Nobles, Executive Director of the Texas Mountain Trail, a regionally-based heritage tourism non-profit organization serving Far West Texas. “When we invited GeoBetty.com and their developer Phidev, Inc. to join the project and handle the technical aspects of the Challenge, the program really took off.  With the addition of Franklin Mountains State Park, we knew we had a winner.” 

From the beginning, the Peak Fitness Challenge was designed to encourage everyone to get out on our Far West Texas trails, including beginning hikers.  Adrianna Weickhardt, Parks Interpreter/Ranger at Franklin Mountains State Park, started Women’s Only Hikes earlier this year to encourage more participation at the park.  “They’re great opportunities for females of all ages who may feel some apprehension or fear about starting this new activity.  We cover the fundamentals of hiking, and we take a slower pace, starting with beginner level trails.  There’s an experienced guide along for the entire hike to lead them, assist, and answer any questions.”

To encourage new hikers, Nobles began a blog called, “One Foot in Front of the Other,” (www.onefoottostart.blogspot.com)  which features fitness tips and interviews with hikers, runners and cyclists.  The blog has several “Hiking 101” entries already addressing topics such as, “What’s a Trailhead?” and “How do I Find the Trail?”

Some of the trails are labeled “Texas Mountain Trail Heritage Hikes,” to encourage participants to learn about the heritage of the Far West Texas region.  One trail runs past a historic stagecoach route, another was the site of a murder of a Texas Ranger.  The TexasMountain Trail is a regional non-profit heritage tourism and economic development organization, representing the six westernmost counties of the state.  It participates in the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Heritage Trails Program.

In the days after the June 21^st launch, participants may choose join hikes organized and led by volunteers or rangers at the participating parks:

Franklin Mountains State Park:

Make your reservation by calling:  (915) 566-6441

Bring:  Water, snacks, sturdy hiking shoes/boots, hiking stick, camera, binoculars, a flashlight for the tin mines, a map and dogs are welcome on leashes!

Saturday, June 23 –“Couch Potato Hike” on the Lazy Cow Trail   

Start Time: 8:00 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Length: 6.3 miles/ 2 – 3 hours

Trailhead:  Meet at Chuck Heinrich Park/East side of the mountains (call for directions)

*Difficulty Level:  Easy to Moderate.  This single track trail is often used for mountain biking, but is a nice leisurely stroll as a hiking trail as well.  It is not difficult terrain to traverse, however, it is a longer distance and may be challenging for new hikers.  The plant and animal life in this area is readily seen and with the Franklins as a backdrop, this hike is beautiful.

Sunday, June 23rd– Mine Shaft Exploration

Start Time:  8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Length:  1.4 miles / 1.5 - 2 hours

Trail:  Begin on West Cottonwood Springs trail, then enter the mineshaft to explore and end on the Agave Loop. *Difficulty Level:  Easy to Moderate.  Rocky along some sections, with a few short steep stretches.  The exploration into the mineshaft is fun and easy with one initial short belly crawl through the opening. 

Friday, June 29 – Women’s Only Hike – Upper Sunset Trail

Start Time:  8:00 a.m.

Length:  2.6 miles / 1.5 - 2 hours

*Difficulty Level:  Easy to moderate.  We’ll encounter some elevation gains, with some short steep inclines/declines, a few rocky/rough sections, and great vistas as we walk along the ridgeline.

 Guadalupe Mountains National Park:  All hikes begin at 8:00. Bring water, food, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, and wear sturdy footwear.

Saturday, June 23-- Devil's Hall

Start time:  8 am.

Length:  4.2 miles roundtrip, moderately difficult, but very rocky, 3-4 hours.  Meet at the Pine Springs Trailhead near the RV campground.  Bring water, food, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, and wear sturdy footwear.

Sunday, June 24-- Smith Springs

Start time:  8 am   (2.3 miles roundtrip, moderately difficult, 2 hours) Meet at the Frijole Ranch Trailhead.  Bring water, food, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, and wear sturdy footwear.

Sunday, July 1--McKittrick Canyon to Pratt Cabin

Start time:  8 am (4.8 miles round trip, moderately difficult, 3-4 hours) Meet at the McKittrick Canyon Trailhead.  Bring water, food, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, and wear sturdy footwear.


BONUS---1895 Cycling Story! 

 Follow along on our Texas Mountain Trail facebook page for clips, photos, and insight into cycling in 1895 as El Paso gets ready for the arrival of famed cyclist, Annie Londonderry!

We'll be rolling out the story exactly 117 years after the fact, with clippings from the El Paso Herald from June and July 1895.  

You'll learn all about the cycling craze at the time women were JUST starting to get out on bicycles and JUST starting to wear bloomers! 

And you'll see that cycling hasn't changed much in several ways...there were concerns about road conditions and safety.

And you'll see that El Paso was completely enthralled in Annie Londonderry's story (though there was at least one NOTABLE exception) and thoroughly enjoyed her visit during the July 4th holiday in 1895.  Follow along and join the fun!  

New bike route: from cycle-friendly Hyatt Place to downtown El Paso and back!

Park your bike in your room!

 Our friends at GeoBetty.com put together an easy 12.8 mile (roundtrip) route from the very first Texas Mountain Trail cycle-friendly hotel, the Hyatt Place Airport El Paso, to downtown and back.

Starting Point:  Hyatt Place El Paso Airport, 6030 Gateway Blvd. E., El Paso, TX 79905
Phone 915-771-0022; Fax 915-771-0599, hyattplaceelpasoairport.com
Cycle-friendly features include: oversized guest rooms for safe storage of bikes, purchase freshly made breakfasts/lunches/snacks packs for cycling adventures , complimentary shuttle to airport and within 3 mile radius, 24 hour fitness center, outdoor pool, laundry/valet services, and more.

flowering cholla at Concordia Cemetery

Grave of gunfighter John Wesley Hardin

The route includes a swing by El Paso's historic Concordia Cemetery.  In the shadow of the Franklin Mountains, this is a wonderful stop, especially for history enthusiasts.  There's a special section for Buffalo soldier graves, for Chinese railway workers, for El Paso's earliest settlers, including famed gunfighter John Wesley Hardin!

 

Interior of the restored Plaza Theatre
 in downtown El Paso!



The El Paso Museum of Art is in the heart of downtown!



Downtown El Paso, the destination for this bike route offers so much to do!  There's a museum "campus" with so many great spots to visit--the Museum of Art, the Museum of History, a railroad museum, holocaust museum, science museum, and more, and more!



Historic Union Station still serves Amtrak...get off the train,
unpack your bike and head down this route
to the cycle-friendly Hyatt Place!



Dancers performing at one of El Paso's great downtown festival celebrations..here a Day of the Dead performance outside the El Paso Museum of History!

For more images from this route, visit our flickr slideshow, here.

For full route information from the geobetty.com website, click here. 

For a link to the Hyatt Place hotel, click here.

For regional cycling information for Far West Texas and the Texas Mountain Trail, including a full list of cycle-friendly hotels, click here.

Your Best Mountain Biking Resource for the Franklin Mountains

A terrific new resource for mountain bikers, GeoBetty.com is THE place to go for information on adventure in El Paso's Franklin Mountains.  They've profiled all the great trails in the area, providing terrific information and even virtual races for you!

Thanks to TPWD for the use of this photograph!