Alan and I got up a little after sunrise and walked around Parks Ranch taking pictures. After we'd satisfied ourselves we headed into Carlsbad to meet Jim Burke. Jim needed to get gas so he told us we should visit Billy the Kid Cave across the street. Jim's directions left a little to be desired. Eventually, we ran across a sink hole area and found a short through trip cave connecting two sink holes. Three barn owls flew out of the entrance as we approached. Alan wanted to check out one more spot before we went back to the car and it ended up being the cave.
I descended through the small entrance at the bottom of the sink. After a couple climb downs, I encountered a rather small room with a sketchy climb down. Since everything I'd touched so far inside the cave had either crumbled or flaked off, I opted not to descent the climb-down. I exited, and headed back to the car.
Alan and I drove to the meeting spot but Jim wasn't there. We sat there awhile waiting. My boots hadn't fully dried from the previous weekend so I sat them on top of the roof. I fully expected to forget them but what I didn't expect was how long they would cling to the roof. We decided to drive back to Jim's house. As soon as the car hit 70 mph we heard a loud clunk. There goes my boot. The other boot was still clinging by a shoelace accidentally shut in the door. Alan pulled off and we watched hoping the incoming semi would miss the boot. I think it did but the rush of air flipped the boot around. We back up and I retrieved my boot. There was a small hole along the steel toe but otherwise it seemed undamaged. I put some goop over the hole and tied the laces together and hung them out the window to continue air drying.
We decided to head on up to Texas camp. We saw Jim about 4 minutes from camp. He'd waited quite awhile at the meeting spot and thought we must have headed into the mountains. Jim had a little mishap while turning around in Texas Camp. He'd accidentally backed his truck into a tree and shattered and bent the back hatch of his topper. To One Room Forest Cave
Parks Ranch
Desert flowers fill the foreground below the Guadalupe Mountains.
Desert flowers fill the foreground below the Guadalupe Mountains.
Parks Ranch
There's Guadalupe Peak!
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Viewed:
Parks Ranch
Desert flowers fill the foreground below the Guadalupe Mountains.
Me and my boots. There's a reason you don't take close-ups with a wide angle lens.
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