October 2004 Volume 30 Issue 9  

Mountain Rats have a summer to remember

by Valerie Weber

Eighteen members of the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council’s backpacking group, led by Dave Lee, experienced the trip of a lifetime this summer. This group of “Mountain Rats” braved backpacking trails through the mountains of Northern New Mexico in early June. The 11 girls and 7 adults drove from Houston to West Texas and made an arc up through New Mexico, starting at the southeast corner of the state and ending at the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range in the north central region. The group stayed at numerous state parks in New Mexico along the way.
Just inside the New Mexico border, the Mountain Rats toured Carlsbad and Slaughter Canyon Caverns. The tour of Slaughter Canyon Cavern started with a grueling 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot up the side of the desert hill, where the natural cave entrance sat high above the valley. Park rangers led the tour of the undeveloped Slaughter Canyon Cavern, which was viewed from unpaved paths and illuminated with flashlights. Looking at a cave with only a hand-held flashlight was rather spooky. At several points in the tour, the park rangers assisted the group from one area to another using knotted ropes to traverse the slippery slopes.
The group then toured Carlsbad Caverns, which was highly developed compared to Slaughter Canyon Caverns. Carlsbad boasts a visitor center, souvenir shop, restaurant, and easy access to the main part of the cavern, 900 feet below the earth’s surface via elevator. Around every turn of the paved paths were a new set of wondrous, fantastical shapes all beautifully lit to best showcase the natural beauty of the geological formations. The stalactites and stalagmites rose high and low to foster the imagination of the entire group.

An important part of backpacking at high altitude is acclimatization. When the Mountain Rats reached the base camp at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the first order of business was to get accustomed to the higher altitude. After all, anything is a higher altitude when compared to Houston on the Texas Gulf Coast! A hike up to Williams Lake without backpacks gave the group a chance to see what the “real hikes” would be like, and the satisfaction of a successful climb. A beautiful view of the


The group atop of the tallest mountain in New Mexico.


GSSJC back pack Mountain Rats took a summer trip to many mountain tops in New Mexico.

lake, framed by snow-peaked mountains, greeted the backpackers upon reaching their first high altitude goal at 11,000 feet.
The next morning, the Mountain Rats set out on the backpacking part of the trip. The first day of hiking up into the mountains started off with a fun encounter of a hiking party using adorable lamas as pack animals to carry gear, but the day eventually proved a real challenge. The trail consisted of seemingly endless narrow switchbacks, heading up what appeared to be at least a 45 degree slope. Those lamas sounded like a really good idea by the end of that first strenuous day!

A continual concern during hiking was maintaining fresh water supply. The group was able to use natural streams as a refreshing source of water along the trail. Water extracted from the streams was filtered and treated for safety. The cool water from the streams actually tasted better than the water in the state parks!
The going was slow and the first night’s campsite was set up in the dark, amongst a dense grove of Aspen trees, with a limited level area in which to pitch tents. The next morning, the campers awoke to a virtual sea of yellow tents, sandwiched between trees with hardly a walkway between them. Breakfast tasted SO good the morning after a full day of challenging backpacking!

Further into the mountains the next day, the Mountain Rats were treated to the picturesque “Lost Cabin,” an abandoned, roofless log cabin structure poised on the edge of the woods. After checking the trail map, snacking and resting at the Lost Cabin, the group headed into the woods…and the remaining snowdrifts from winter’s bounty. The trail was quite difficult to follow because it was covered with 3 to 4 feet of snow! Dave Lee had to search for other signs of the trail’s location such as tree markings and elk tracks in the snow. Believe it or not, the elk actually follow the man-made trail.

The Mountain Rats attempted Gold Hill that day, but were thwarted by high winds. A fun discovery was the herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep grazing on the hillside nearby. The late afternoon winds proved too hard to make it past Gold Hill for the night, and the group took refuge in the woods below the tree line to

set up camp. Finding the right spot to pitch tents between snow banks was tricky. There were no streams nearby to replenish water supply, but the many snow banks seemed a good source, being 100% WATER! The girls scooped up heaping pans of snow, boiled them and, voila, quick, sterilized water for drinking and cooking.

The group met the challenge of Gold Hill, at 12,700 feet, the next day. Awesome views from its peak were of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The trip down Gold Hill into Taos Ski Valley was a breeze. The Mountain Rats celebrated their sweet success with lunch on the deck of a local restaurant by the slopes.

Wheeler Peak, at an elevation of 13,161 feet, is the tallest mountain in New Mexico. It was also the group’s next goal. They left heavy backpacking gear at the campground and headed up with minimal provisions. The upward trail was quite steep and boulders in the trail proved a nuisance. Most of the hikers had to stop frequently to rest. Highlights of the long trip up the mountain were the friendly marmots, which are large furry creatures that look like beavers with long, fuzzy tails. The marmots are familiar with hikers and approached members of the group to beg for food. It was hard to resist their funny way of begging. They stood on their hind legs, wrung their front paws and rotated their tails in helicopter fashion!
After several hours of what seemed like uphill torture, the Mountain Rats finally reached the summit of Wheeler Peak! Surveying the world from the crown of New Mexico made everyone feel like a queen or a king! After taking group photographs, everyone signed the logbook, which is a spiral notebook in a sealed tube at the summit. It contains the signatures of hikers that brave the journey to the top of Wheeler Peak. There were even pens in the sealed tube for this purpose. Just think of how disappointed hikers would be if they made it to the top, but didn’t have a pen to sign the book!
Celebrations were cut short when it was time to head back down the mountain. But oh, what a trip down! Mountain Rats learned how to “ride the scree.” This is like downhill skiing on small, loose


The group rests at Lost Cabin, an abandoned roofless log cabin.

rocks by gently moving your feet back and forth. The other downhill excitement was sledding! The Mountain Rats each had a piece of plastic on which to sled down a large snowfield. Members took their turns on the snowfield and great peals of laughter rang out with each bump, tumble, lost hiking stick, speedy or slowpoke run. Afterwards, some Mountain Rats proclaimed this was the best part of the trip! Eventually, the Mountain Rats made to the bottom, and the mountain climbing adventure was complete.

The exhausted, but fulfilled hikers spent that night in a local state park. The next day the Mountain Rats went sight-seeing in the little ski town of Red River. After riding the ski lift and lunching atop the mountain, the group had time to souvenir shop. That night they stayed at a youth hostel called “The Abominable Snowmansion” in Arroyo Seco, a small town outside of Taos. This was the first night of the trip that the tired hikers got to sleep in real beds. And the best part of the Abominable Snowmansion were the hot showers! After eight days on the trail without a bath, showers felt like a miracle! The evening was spent in Taos at a local pizza restaurant, then off to the movies to see the new Harry Potter film.

The adventure was almost over, with one last stop in West Texas at Palo Duro Canyon to spend the night during the two-day drive home. The Mountain Rats attended a fabulous open-air production of a play called “Texas Legacies” depicting the history of the Palo Duro Canyon territory. The historical characters leapt to life amid real horses, live musicians, period costumes and settings; all with the natural beauty of the canyon walls as a backdrop to the story. Tired Mountain Rats slept in the open under the West Texas stars that night. Rumor has it that, during the night, curious coyotes roamed through the campsite and sniffed at a couple of the sleeping campers.

Upon reaching Houston late the following night, each Mountain Rat greeted their family with a big smile, a bigger bear hug and a promise to share the tons of stories from their epic adventure. Each girl and adult has memories to cherish of a great journey where they made new friends, deepened old friendships, learned new skills, met the challenge of nature, and experienced Girl Scouting like never before!