Wonder Above and Below

I have now been in Carlsbad, New Mexico almost three weeks.  The Chihuahuan desert is a beautiful place.  I'm excited to get out and explore this new environment and to get some good hiking taken care of at Guadalupe Mountains National Park to the west of us and Big Bend National Park to the south.

My first two weeks here were spent in training.  They don't mess around!  In our first week we completed two of the park's offered "adventure tours".  It was exhilarating!  My first wild cave was Spider on the second day of training.  What made me very nervous about Spider Cave was not its namesake, but the part of the SOP that states, "enter the cave before the group to check for rattlesnakes...should a rattlesnake be found, remove it, then proceed with the tour."  Thankfully, there was no rattlesnake removal.  We hiked down into a canyon and came upon this mound of rocks with a locked gate on top.

Our leader unlocked the gate, we followed him down a ladder, slithered on our stomachs using elbows and toes to propel us through a 40ish foot stretch until we reached the first room, the Auditorium.  Spider is fun because rooms and formations follow the ABC's.  The highlight of the tour was the Ghost Room, a place covered in beautiful white calcite and aragonite formations. 

Our second adventure in the first week was the trail to the Hall of the White Giant.  This too was pretty incredible.  This was a more strenuous trail with slippery flowstone to maneuver on, Matlock's pinch, a rope and ladder to climb, Castration Rock, and more.  It was AWESOME!  I was able to go again after hours for training purposes, and this time brought my camera.  Unfortunately, because I had the camera, I didn't get any pictures of myself.  Below is a photo of my roommate Natalie B. climbing through a tight place on the rope.  You can see the rope in the picture.  Understand this is vertical, although the angle of the picture looks horizontal.

This coming Friday I enter the schedule for real, in uniform, on the desk, in the cave, and give my first "big" cave tour Saturday.  Bring on summer!  Let the adventure begin!