Moss Creek Lake

There's a little reservoir east of Big Spring, TX called Moss Creek Lake.  Just big enough to scoot around on a jet ski.  We went there on a blustery Saturday.  West Texas spring must be here, because the wind is blowing.  72 degrees seems pretty warm on land, but go out on the lake and get soaked with spray, and you will freeze.  I did.

Mary rode with me for one or two laps of the lake.  The water level was fairly high and the water seemed pretty clean.  No other boats were out on the water, although some campers had kayaks pulled up on the shore.  Mary tired of riding so she went ashore to ride bikes with her mom.

Mare & me

We tried to splash Debi, who stayed on shore

Jet skiing is fun. But also cold.  Mary got off, then I could open it up.

 

Taking a break, rain clouds in distance!

The wind gathered speed and it got too choppy to have fun riding.  Debi backed the trailer into the water so I could load up.  We headed back to Midland after driving a bit through downtown Big Spring to check out the newly reopened Settles Hotel.

Cedar Lake - Lamesa - 11,000 MSL

On Sunday I went out flying in my Cessna 150.  It was a relatively cool afternoon.  After preflighting I took off from runway 16 and headed northeast toward Lamesa, TX, which is 55 nautical miles from KODO and therefore counts as a cross-country flight for log purposes.  I decided to climb.  The plane was running well and seemed extra powerful.  Just me in the plane and a cool day with low density altitude (3,600' at KODO).  Climbing toward Lamesa, keeping an indicated airspeed of around 70 mph.  About 10 nm from Lamesa airport I decided to turn NW toward Cedar Lake, which is a normally dry lakebed near Lamesa.  Legend has it that Quanah Parker was born on the shores of this lake.  At this point I was at about 10,000 MSL.  My previous record in the Cessna 150 was about 9500' MSL, so I decided to go for a new record, a nice round 11,000' MSL.

Cedar Lake from around 11,000' (8,000' above the ground)

Cedar Lake.  Note the islands and the drill pads for wells.

Drainage into Cedar Lake

Photographic "proof" of my altitude

After enjoying being "up high" for a while, I swooped toward Lamesa airport in a series of roller-coaster type dives.  Always fun.  A few split seconds of zero gravity at the "top" of each sequence.  I topped out at 145 mph indicated airspeed.  I landed in Lamesa and topped off my fuel tanks at the self-serve for $5.00/gallon.

On the way back to Odessa, I decided to stay low.  Low is fun because you can see more.  Low is also a little scary, because if there is a problem (engine failure), there is less time to think through what to do and to act.  Altitude gives you some measure of safety because (in theory) you have time to think about what to do, and some range to make a nearby airport or landing strip if one is available.  In reality, out here in west Texas, there are lots of places to land.  An engine problem at 700' AGL would be very scary, no doubt, but all you have time to do is get your airspeed set to best glide (Airspeed), look for a place to land straight ahead or with a slight turn into the wind (Best place to land), and then pull out the Checklist to see if you can restart the engine.  Probably no time for Checklist when you're at 700' AGL.

Flying at 700' is much more intimate than up high.  The higher you go, the more you can see -- but it's like using a wide-angle lens.  Sure, you can capture more of the landscape, but your film frame is still the same size.  So everything gets kind of... diluted.  When you're flying down low, you look more closely at individual things or places.  Also it makes you feel like you're going faster, which is important in a plane that cruises at 90 mph.

Frac pond north of Odessa, TX

Back near KODO, I loitered around in the air for a while, just enjoying flying.  Cross country can be a bit stressful, but when you're within easy range of your home airport, that melts away and it's fun just to hang around at 700 or 800' above the ground, doing lazy gentle circles.  The sun began to sink below the horizon and suddenly I had a thought -- why not climb to a few thousand feet and see if I could spot the silhouette of the Guadalupe Mountains far off to the west?  Ben and I had gone hiking there the day before, climbing to Hunter Peak.  Sure enough, when the sun sank to the right position and I got up to 2,000' AGL, there they were, in perfect silhouette.  The photo I snapped through the windshield with my phone was not that great, but it was awesome to see in person.  I could even pick out Hunter Peak.

The sun sank a little lower and I turned toward Odessa, calling my position 10 miles out on the KODO CTAF, 123.0.  A Beech twin passed by somewhere in the dusk, far above me, but I never saw him.  In a few minutes I was passing over houses north of Odessa on a straight-in approach to runway 16.  Taxied to my hanger, shut down the plane, got out, and backed it into the hanger with the tow bar.

Hunter Peak, Bear Canyon, Tejas -- Guadalupe Mountains

I'm not accustomed to getting out of bed at 6:45 am on a Saturday. Maybe I should do it more often! The first five minutes were tough, but after I hit the shower I was awake enough to get excited about the days' adventure ahead. My friend Ben had suggested we do a day trip to the Guadalupe Mountains, about three hours west of Midland, in far west Texas. I threw my stuff together (backpack, some cold weather gear, three liters of water, two bottles of Gatorade, a Frappicino, some snacks) and picked Ben up at his house. We were on the road around 7:45 from Midland, driving west through Kermit, then Mentone, TX and up to Orla, where I visited a wellsite a while ago when I worked for Concho. We cut west near Orla and crossed part of Delaware Ranch, and saw a rig or two drilling Bone Spring horizontal wells. On 180, we headed SW into Guadalupe National Park.

 

Last time I was here was February 2013 when my parents visited. It seems like a few months ago, but they have already visited again last month. Ben suggested we hike McKittrick Canyon. We headed to the Visitor's Center to see if they had any food -- I had neglected to eat any breakfast. No food at the Visitor Center, but the employee we spoke with recommended Bear Canyon, and we decided McKittrick was going to be too easy for ambitious hikers such as ourselves. We drove over to Frijole Ranch (just the name made me hungry as I still hadn't found any food -- typical of me to undertake 5 hours of driving and a major hike with little or no food) and headed up toward Bear Canyon on foot. Guadalupe NP is a very nice place, but it's not exactly the busiest National Park you'll find. It was the first weekend of Spring Break and that meant instead of being totally deserted, we actually saw a few other people on the trails. At the Bear Canyon trail intersection with Frijole trail, we came upon a sign that read "trail closed due to flood damage". Hmmm, ok, the NP employees in the Visitor Center had just recommended this trail 30 minutes before. We pressed on up the Canyon.  Moderate at first, the trail soon became quite steep.  Although I can't remember much of it, because my blood sugar was so low, my brain was barely functioning and certainly wasn't recording memories.  Thankfully I took some pictures (with my phone, which takes better pictures than my 3-year-old $500 camera.  Progress...)

Bear Canyon

More of Bear Canyon

Bear Canyon again

The day was cold, and mostly cloudly and overcast, with occasional sun shining through.  It was an odd weather day, and felt much colder than it really was.  It also felt like it might rain at any moment.  The wind picked up throughout the day, and by the end I was wearing a full winter jacket, freezing and cursing the wind, hiking along as fast as I could with my hands in my pockets.  Yet at the truck the thermometer read 50 degrees!

Limestone boulders in Bear Canyon

Up, up, up we went in Bear Canyon.  Limestone everywhere; this is a mostly limestone range.  (Look elsewhere for the geology.  This is of course a classic locality.)  Ben said some things about the geology, and I kept reminding him that knowing about fossils doesn't help a person find oil.  Ok, maybe it does.  

Odd rock formation on wall of Bear Canyon

Rock Formation

Almost at the top

Ben, hiking partner

Up top, the trail flattened out and we had a pleasant walk through a wooded, grassy area.  Very nice.  But also very dry.

Guadalupe Peak and part of El Capitan

Not far and we came to Hunter Peak, about 8300' elevation.  Good views of Guad Peak and El Cap.  I've hiked Guadalupe Peak twice before.  It's tough up but even tougher down -- steep trail with lots of frustrating loose rock.

View from near Hunter Peak

Ben on the Rock of Contemplation

My turn

Chockstone

Hunter Peak with El Cap in background

Notice how there aren't any more photos.  From here we went down Tejas trail, which is a series of hundreds of switchbacks down to the Visitor Center.  In some places, it looks like the switchbacks are all around you, with some leading uphill.  It was getting a bit late so we started hoofing it.  We met several groups of hikers on the way up the trail - backpackers actually.  Some were well prepared.  One group of two people clearly were not.  One guy had a small backpack and a single rolled Mexican style blanket.  I felt bad for him because clearly he was going to feel warm until he stopped hiking and then he was going to have a very cold and miserable night up at 7500'.

Finally, after hiking for an eternity directly into a blasting, freezing cold wind, we arrived back at the truck.  I'd survived on a couple bags of pretzels and two bottles of Gatorade.  I think Ben had even less.  We went into Carlsbad for gas and tried to find some local food, but settled on McDonald's, which I could barely stomach with my hike-induced migraine-like headache coming on.  This is an assured experience for me on any hike over about 6 miles, especially with elevation change over a few thousand feet.

Somehow we drove home to Midland from Carlsbad.  Ben slept a bit on the drive, and maybe I did too (not sure who was driving).  I dropped Ben at his house at 11:00 PM.  A long day. During the hike I thought several times "why do I do this?".   And today, the day after, I'm ready to go back and do it again.