Holidays

Hello Friends,

Hope your Christmas was everything you wanted it to be. Ours was very sedate. John caught my cold and feeling rather lousy yesterday. He's feeling better today, but we're taking it easy all the same.

Earlier in the week we took a boat ride on the Pecos River to see the Christmas lights with other friends from the cave. We were lucky it was the warmest night all week. The lights were beautiful, some set to music. We missed the lunar eclipse because of clouds, but hope to see the meteor showers in early January.

Back to work for me tomorrow. This was to be my last week here in Carlsbad, but I've been extended until 'spring' so we'll be here for a while longer. John is taking the week off - he has to use the rest of his vacation time before the end of the year - use it or lose it! :-(

That's about it from here. Miss you all...

VAL & JOHN

Rock of Ages

Hi Friends,

Tonight will be the last of the "Rock Of Ages" presentations. I'm portraying the character, 'Elizabeth Lee', the first female to ever explore Lower Cave. Our dress rehearsal was a week ago, and John was our unofficial photographer. Last night was our first performance for the public. It went pretty well.


In case you're not familiar, it was a program that ran in the early days up until 1944 when crowds became too large. Back then, visitors were escorted through the cave, then they would turn out all the lights and sing 'Rock of Ages' at the large formation which bears the same name. Now, we lead visitors through the cave using lanterns. Staff portray historical characters at different spots in the 'Big Room'. It's fun and an interesting way to view the cave. At the Rock of Ages formations, all larnterns are extinguished, and in total darkness, one of the staff members sings "Rock of Ages". After the solo, they turn the lights on and visitors exit the cave with modern lighting.


Here are a few pictures from our dress rehearsal...

That's all for now...

Love,

VAL & JOHN

Chimney Cave

I promised you pictures of my Chimney Cave adventure. So here they are. Look at the bottom of this picture. You'll see the entrance to the cave! Yes the little dark spot.

Inside the cave, but before the 35' drop!

Geared up a few moments before the big drop...

Down inside the cave. I survived the drop!

Going back up. It's a lot of work. Going down was much more fun.

I've been extended at CAVE until 'spring'. So I'm not sure when I'll be heading home. Hope to find a summer job elsewhere in the NPS.

Love ya all, and miss ya,

VAL

Chimney Cave

Hi Friends,

I never thought I'd ever be saying this, but yesterday I used verticle gear to get into and out of Chimney cave! I've spent two 'off days' training for this particular skill, using rope and various climbing equipment. Even after training, I think I was more nervous than excited, but on we went...

First, I had to hike a little over a mile in the canyon to the opening of Chimney cave. There are two openings, but we used the lower opening. The entrance hole, is all of about three feet wide. You could easily walk past the entrance, never realizing what lies underneath. After squeezing through the small hole, I had to use a hand line to drop down about ten more feet. That was pretty simple and my adrenaline was beginning to flow.

Next, was walking through the cave, on uneven surfaces, but nothing too difficult. But soon you come up to the area where you put on all your verticle gear. That in itself can be daunting. With help from the group, I eventually got all my equipment ready. Jason, our leader/teacher, tested the rope, finding it was fine, coming back up to give us last minute encouragement.

I hooked up my rack, and started walking down backwards, until I couldn't walk any more. Then down to my knees, nearing the lip of the dropoff. I could see Tami's headlamp from the bottom of the pit, 35' down. Yeah, I definitely had second thoughts for a moment, wondering the the he?? I was doing at my age trying something this crazy. Knowing that both Jason and Tami have spent many hours training me to do this, I knew I couldn't back out now. So I pushed off, holding the rope tightly in my right hand, sliding down into the pit under my control.

When I finally realized, I did have control of my descent, the fear was gone, the rush and joy took over and I had a blast as I zipped down into the bottom of Chimney cave. The few seconds it took to slide down that line was worth the clumsy equipment, new vocabulary, and sore muscles.

Once our group was down into the cave, we hiked around, enjoying the beautiful formations. A small cave, one quickly explored, but certainly not easy to get to. I signed the register, wanting the world to know of my journey and accomplishment. It's a popular cave, one a lot of beginners get to try.

Soon, it was time to leave. Going back up requires more physical exertion. Again, I attached my gear to the rope, and began the journey UP UP UP! Going down was more fun, and quicker. Took me a good five minutes or more to get up the 35' and get up and over the lip (that was certainly the hardest part). I know it wasn't the most graceful arrival up and over the lip, but I made it without injury.

The journey out of the cave was fun, then the one mile hike back to the truck. Can't explain how exciting it all was, and encourage any of you who think you might be interested to give it a try. Now, I need to get John trained so he can come with me on the next trip...

Thinking of you all as the holidays get closer.

Miss ya and love ya,

VAL

Goat Cave

Today we hiked to Goat Cave, one of over 100 caves in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It's a two and a half mile hike each way to get there through Arroyos, or rocky trails where water flows after a storm. Tough on the feet, ankles, knees and both John and I are sore tonight.

It's not an extremely scenic cave with many formations. It was mined for guano in the 30's, and damaged extensively. Here are a few pics John took at the entrance with our fellow hikers/rangers and inside the cave.



The cave itself isn't that long, maybe 1000 ft deep or so. Dark enugh to need a flashlight, helmut or something, but you can't really get lost in it.

One of the little nooks that we investigated. Some graffitti on the formations here back as far as 1920's????

One of the prettier areas in the cave...

Still some activity in the cave - meaning growth for water dripping. New calcite deposits forming a stalagmite.

Appeared to be some fresh bat guano in the cave, but the bats have already migrated south for the winter. Also lots of bird poop, and they too have migrated south for the winter. As the bats and birds have, John and I will migrate back to FL next month some time. I'll keep you posted.

Love,

VAL & JOHN

Caving Photos

Finally got pictures to share with you on some of the fun we had with my friend Kathy! She visited us last weekend and we took her on a whirlwind tour of the cave. This included two 'Off Trail' tours, one of 'Lower Cave' which I led and another of 'The Hall of The White Giant', which Tammy led! Lots of fun and a few pictures to share...

John disappearing in the Hall of White Giant...

John again, this time going up the ladder in Hall of White Giant

Lower Cave tour

I led the tour into Lower Cave...

Kathy in Lower Cave

Kathy climbing the rope in Hall of White Giant

Kathy and me in Hall of the White Giant!

Me again!

John and Me in Hall of the White Giant

A few more weeks at the cave... anyone else want to visit????

Verticle training

Hi Friends,

I spent the morning with Jason from Cave Resources learning the basics of verticle training. At first, everything was rather confusing, names of things, the unfamilar feel of gear that didn't quite fit my petite body.

By the end of the morning, and some equipment changes to something a little smaller, I was using the equipment, getting myself off the ground, then changing gear to repel back down safely. Still have more training to do, but when I get the official approval, I will try verticle caving in one of the caves at the park. Looks like December will be a busy month! :)

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Love to all,
VAL & JOHN

Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for a wonderful husband who spent the entire day cooking a turkey in a tiny RV kitchen while I was working at the cave. He did a great job, everything tasted yummy and it still smells great in here! :)

I'm thankful to my friends and family who have followed us through this crazy journey. I miss you all.

Hope your day was as blessed as ours.

Love to you all,

VAL & JOHN

Friends

Hi All,

It's been a weekend of ups and downs. For many of my co-workers, it was their last day of the season for them at the Cave. There were too many goodbyes and quite a few tears shed by us all. I will miss my new friends dearly and the next few weeks at the Caverns won't be the same without them. The new winter seasonals are here, and I'm sure they're good people, but they won't be able to replace the friends I've made over the long hot summer.

I would have been very down this weekend except for a wonderful bright spot. My terrific Glacier friend, Kathy flew down to visit us this weekend! Since we didn't get to Glacier NP this summer, we missed seeing Kathy, Mel, Jen, and the rest of the gang. Spending time with Kathy this weekend filled a big void in our summer.

Kathy has never been to Carlsbad Caverns, but we filled her weekend with a lot of cave time. I arranged for two off trail tours for her. The first, and in my opinion the best tour we offer is "The Hall of The White Giant". This is a true caving tour where you have to do a belly crawl, squeeze through tight places, climb ladders, ropes until you get to the "White Giant". The first 'obstacle' is the corkscrew. That's how you enter that part of the cave. You twist and contort your body through the rocks and disappear into the rocks. Other than the light from your helmut, it's totally dark in this portion of the cave.

Less than an hour after arriving at the cave, we were walking in the dark, down the Natural Entrance of the cave. Kathy is always a good sport, and went willlingly, although she must have had some reservations. Despite them, she manuvered through the 'pinch', moved through the chimney, climbed the rope and ladder with great enthusiasm and plenty of joy. If the smile on her face was any indication of her feelings, I think she caught the cave bug.

On Saturday, we continued our exploration of Carlsbad Caverns with the more traditional, self-guided tour of The Big Room, and later in the morning we walked down the Natural Entrance (which she did the night before, but in the dark). We missed the King's Palace tour, but I had permission to walk her through the area. She really enjoyed this beautiful part of the cave.

The afternoon, I was leading an off trail tour of "Lower Cave". This tour is not as physical as "The Hall of the White Giant", but is beautiful in its own right. Another rope, and a series of ladders takes you down into "Lower Cave". Then you can view cave pearls, see the bottom of The National Geographic Pit, and view a formation which is approximately 600,000 years old among other beautiful things.

In the short time that my good friend was here, we squeezed in a lot of caving. Next time she visits we hope to add some hiking in our sister park, Guadalupe National Park, since hiking was what brought us together in the first place. Thanks Kathy for the visit. I think the kitties miss you, and I know John and I miss you as well. Hope you arrived home safe and Morgan forgives you for your absence!

I'll be working all week, including Thanksgiving. So have a great holiday. Pics to come soon of our weekend adventure.

Love to all,

Val & John

Seasonal employees

Hi Friends,

This next week will be a hard one at Carlsbad Caverns. Many of the summer seasonals will be leaving - their six month assignments over. Over the past six months I have made some great friends and really don't want to say goodbye to them. They will be missed dearly, but hopefully we will get another opportunity to work together soon. Regardless, there will be quite a few tears shed this week. Luckily for me, I have had my season extended for a few more weeks and won't leave until the new year.

Working as a seasonal for the Park Service gives you the opportunity to work for a variety of parks. You can apply to whatever parks you'd like to work at, and hope you score high enough on their list to get a phone call from the park. Some parks are more competitive than others. We'll see what next year brings. I would return to Carlsbad Caverns, but preferably in the winter season when it's not 100+ degrees outside. Most of you know I'd love to spend the summer at Glacier, but I'd be content at many other parks as well.

That's it for now. Need a shower before it gets much cooler tonight. We were below freezing last night. Had both the fireplace (electric) and heat (gas) on last night. Even the cats were cold!

Miss you guys,

Love,
VAL & JOHN

Balloonfest

Hi Friends,

Went to the town north of us called Artesia this weekend to enjoy their Balloon fest. Much smaller than the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, but beautiful in its own right. Most importantly, when you have to get there around sunrise, a short drive is much better.

Here are a few pics John took.

Enjoy,

VAL & JOHN

Three Rivers Petroglyphs

Hi Friends,

Went to pick up John in El Paso on Thursday, after he took a short trip back to FL to handle some pressing issues. On the advice of a friend, we decided to take the long way back to Carlsbad, via Three River Petroglyph National Site. In case you don't know, petroglyphs are rock art from Native Americans.

By taking a short hike (about a mile) on a ridge, you can see hundreds, and if you have a good eye, possibly thousands of petroglyphs. They range from animals, birds, people, geometric design and other things scientists are still debating about. Some small, only being a few inches apart, others using large rocks to create extensive designs. They were created anywhere from 900 -1400 years ago.

Sadly, the people who created these petroglyphs mysteriously vanished. At one time they believed that this community was quite large, and given how many petroglyphs we saw, it seems believable. We were glad we stopped by the site and we both wondered how long it took for them to create the images we observed. Seems amazing after hundreds of years in the hot New Mexican sun, that they have lasted. Of course, the biggest problem is theft and vandalism.

More soon,

VAL & JOHN

Guadalupe Room

Hi Gang,

Last night I finally got to go into the 'Guadalupe Room'. It's an off trail cave tour, which is NOT available to the general public. It does follow the route of the 'Hall of the White Giant' cave tour which is available to the public on Saturday afternoons. Here's a link for those of you who are curious: www.nps.gov/cave.planyourvisit/hall_white_giant.htm

However, this trip continues past the 'White Giant' to the 2nd largest room in the cave (second to the big room). This area is still an active part of the cave, and it's very physically challenging. You climb over breakdown, crawl on your belly, corkscrew through rocks, you have to carefully navigate large cracks, crevices with drops you don't want to fall in to! You slide down an area of muddy clay (and later have to negotiate your slippery way back up it). I'll be honest, my back, shoulders, and legs are all sore this morning, but it was worth every minute.

There are no electric lights, only the lights from our helmuts and flashlights help us find our way. The trail is marked with orange plastic tape and at times is only a foot or so wide, other times it's non-existant. The beauty in the area is breath taking, with stalagmites, stalactites (which are often only inches from your head), columns, flowstone, various colors in the rocks, and an entire room of soda straws.

We continued to the Canary room, having to change our hiking boots for aqua socks to protect the resource (the cave floor). The canary room has odd shaped formations. One of them being a canary, another a woodpecker, and a thin column the width of a soda straw, but about ten feet long. My fellow rangers took pictures, I'll share them with you once they post them.

It was truly an awesome trip. Although not available to the public, if your interested, book the Hall of the White Giant tour. You'll have to book several weeks (sometimes months) in advance. Only a limited number of visitors are allowed because of the sensitivity of the area. If that's too much for you, there is the 'King's Palace' tour which is available daily and only requires a one mile walk and a variety of other cave tours which vary in intensity!

Come on out and visit while we're still out here.

Miss you all,

Love,
VAL & JOHN

Fall in New Mexico

Devil's Hall

Last week we hiked down in the Guadalupe Mountains in TX. A short hike, just over 4 miles and only 200 foot gain. Leaves were beginning to turn. Nice hike, fun day.


Devil Hall - October 2010

Caving Pics

A couple weeks ago, we went caving. John didn't bring his camera, but the other couple we went with sent us these photos. Thought I'd post them for you all to enjoy!

Me on the rope coming back up!



John on the rope coming back up!

Tonight we hope to see the bats exit the cave from INSIDE the cave. The bats will begin their migration south to Mexico soon. Might be our last opportunity to do it before they leave.

VAL & JOHN

Autumn weather

After having survived the long, hot summer in New Mexico, the cooler autumn weather is a welcome change. The past few mornings it's been in the low 50's and the afternoon only reaches the mid 80's! The air conditioner is only on for a few hours, we can enjoy the cool evening temperatures, and we've even let the cats wander outside of the rig for a few minutes while we watch them closely.

The past week at work was busy, despite it being October. The annual Balloonfest in Albuquerque brought additional tourists to the cave. Also, we had the last 'Star Party' at the park last night. We had four telescopes set up for viewing, a couple of presentations about the night sky (including one by me) and the Draconid meteor showers. Only noticed one meteor myself, but up on the hill it's quite dark with the new moon, you can easily see the Milky Way! :-)

Hope to do some hiking next weekend. The leaves might be changing up in the mountains. John is waiting for his new camera to arrive, and I'm sure he'll want to get out and take some pics.

More soon...

Love to all,

VAL & JOHN

Lower Cave

Yesterday, John finally got to go into 'Lower Cave' thanks to Tammy who led an off hours tour. Although I trail this tour almost weekly, John had never gone down into the area below the "Big Room". It's wet, slippery, requires going down a rope and a series of ladders, but it's scenic and fun.

An extra treat that I wasn't expecting was going the long route. I hadn't taken the long route before so that was new to me as well. Definitely more physically challenging as you have to climb up and over some 'break down' rocks. You also get to see lots of dead bats (OK, some of you think it's gross, but many have been there for hundreds of years). Lower Cave for the most part has no lighting, you're wearing a helmut with a light source.

It had been a difficult weekend at the cave this weekend. With two elevators off line for major improvements, we're down to the two freight elevators. On Friday, only one was working. For most of Saturday NONE of them were working. Yesterday they did get them working for the afternoon. Not sure what today will bring...

John and I walked down the Natural Entrance, but did get to take the elevator back up after our Lower Cave tour. I walk UP the Natural Entrance a few times a week. Personally, I think it's easier than going down and it gives you a good workout to boot!

Tonight I'm back to being Bat Flight Rove. I enjoyed giving the Bat Flight program last week, instead of watching from the back. Although from the back of the ampitheatre you do get a great view of the bats as they exit the cave.

That's it for now. Need to get ready for work. Have a great week.

VAL & JOHN

Wildlife Refuge Tour

Today we went back to Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, east of Roswell. We had a tour of part of the refuge and it's interesting eco system. They have a variety of animals including several endangered species found only in the Refuge. Learned a lot.

After our tour, we did some birding. The refuge bird population swells this time of year as the migrating birds spend the winter.

White Pelicans...

Long billed curlew...


The refuge has thousands of dragonflies and damselflies. Here's a picture of a dragonfly...

A few Avocets near the edge of a pond...


Beautiful day, and a awesome place. We'll be back again as Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes will arrive in the thousands over the next few weeks!

Miss ya all,

VAL & JOHN

Bat Flight

Bat flight is the free program given from May - October when the Brazilian/Mexican Free-tail
bats fly out of the cave at sunset. They fly down to the Pecos River in search of their dinner: BUGS, mostly moths and beetles. They're a great help to the local farmers who benefit from the bats eating the insects and leaving behind bat guano (poop) which is an excellent fertilizer.

This summer I've watched bat flight from the back of the amphitheater, while another ranger gives the program. I'm not one who likes to take a back seat, so I asked if I could give the program. Tonight was my first, and hopefully not my last opportunity.

It wasn't a big crowd, sometimes the program draws over a thousand spectators. Tonight there was probably less than 200 people, but it was a lot of fun. Of course, the visitors come to see the bats, but until they emerge from the cave, you have to talk. Tonight they finally made their appearance about 50 minutes into my program! THANK GOD!!! I was running out of material and my throat was drier than the Chiahuahuan Desert.

John was nice enough to come and see it, and a couple of other fellow rangers came for morale support. They all were kind and said it was a good program. The visitors seemed to like it, although with the late bat flight (they flew at 7PM, which was about 15 minutes after sunset), the visitors didn't get to see the thick stream of bats. Earlier summer flights have provided a better show with a thick stream of bats.

Personally, I had a lot of fun and hope to do it again before the bats migrate. If you want to observe it, you better hurry. They migrate south next month sometime...

VAL

Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge

Went for a drive today, north towards Roswell. About seven miles east of Roswell is the Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge. It was our first trip there so we went into the Visitor's Center. Very nice displays of the birds and other animals that live in the area. We watched two short movies before driving around the 9 mile loop.

Although each season brings a variety of animals, the winter season here brings the migration of thousands of birds. The refuge lies along the Pecos River which provides sancuary to numerous species of birds - some for a few days, others for the winter months. We'll look forward to returning in the coming weeks to see what birds had flown in. Many of the same birds we view in Florida spend time here in the winter.

Today we saw a flock of White Pelicans. There were a few already in a pond, while we watched others fly in and land near them. Also indenified some Coots, and saw what we thought might be Dowitchers. We need to look at John's pictures to be sure. There were thousands of dragonflies flying around - and some damselflies as well. There have a large variety of both.

We'll return again soon, and I'll post some of John's pictures as soon as he goes through them.

Miss you all.

Val & John

Walnut Canyon Flood

The drive up to the caverns is a seven mile trip up Walnut Canyon. This summer has been very rainy and the desert around us has been quite green instead of the usual brown. Last night, however we had heavy rains. Lots of it, and for most of the night.

This morning, I got to the van pool only to be told we had a two hour delay. So at 9 AM we headed up the canyon. I was surprised to see water cascading over the road way in a couple of spots. Even after the water had several hours to crest, it was still moving swiftly. There was significant amount of debris (mostly dead plants and cactus) visible from the roadway.

From talking with other employees who've worked at the cave for many years, this was the worst flooding since the 80's. Flooding in the town of Carlsbad is common, but apparently, the canyon doesn't flood that often.

It made for an interesting start of the day.

That's all for now,

VAL

The big city

Hi Friends,

We went to the big city on Sunday - a drive to Albuquerque . It's a long haul (about four and a half hours), but we both needed to go shopping in the big city. Mom sent me a check for my birthday and I desperately needed some hiking boots for work. The local stores had nothing in my size - children size 4 - yes FOUR. We went to REI, a great place for all kinds of hiking, camping equipment. They had exactly what I needed and luckily children's boots are much cheaper than adults!

We looked for a camera store for John, but unfortunetely couldn't find it, despite having the address. He'll have to shop online instead. We did some other shopping in town before heading home.
We came home through a small town of Belen, south of Albuquerque and a series of other tiny town. A pretty ride, which some of the trees in a few areas starting to change color. Looking forward to autumn, which I think starts today!

More soon...

VAL

Summer's almost over

Hi Friends,

Hard to believe this is the last weekend of the summer. Seems like we just got to New Mexico.

Went on a hike this morning. The trail was so overgrown, we had trouble finding the cairns. Eventually, we had to turn back. The wild flowers were beautiful, the mountain impressive, but the briars and brambles really tore both John and my legs up. Ouch! :-(

This evening will be the annual employee picnic and we are expecting nice weather - 80's, a nice breeze and almost cloudless sky. I baked a banana bread as my contribution (shocker, huh). Looking forward to eating lots of interesting foods, although I've yet to eat chili - red or green. Despite being in New Mexico, where I'm certain they make awesome chili, I have never developed a taste for it!

That's all for now. Need a shower before the picnic...

Miss ya all,

Love Val & John

Busy week

Hi Friends,

Sorry for not posting more often. I've been working six days a week. Today is my only day off, so I thought I'd make a quick post.

Last night I finally got John into "The Hall of the White Giant". It's my favorite off trail tour. It's a strenuous trip, with a wide variety of physical challenges. The beginning of the tour you have to go through the corkscrew. Easy for tiny me, but for the bigger men (like John, Sam, and JD) it's an interesting challenge. There's also what we call the 'pinch', 'castration rock' and that's just a few of the other fun things you get to do!!! There's an alley you need to 'chimney' through - my Glacier friends would have a blast in this cave tour. You also have to climb a rope up through flow stone (very slippery rock surface), climb a narrow ladder - only one foot will it on it's rung. All this to get to the "White Giant", which is a beautiful white calcite stalagmite.

My fellow ranger Sam was kind enough to lead the tour, and I was trail ranger for a small groups of rangers, other park employees, family and friends. My hat (or actually my helmet) off to Sam for missing most of Paul's party to spend Friday evening with us. We had a blast - thanks, my friend!

Working tomorrow for another six day stretch. No luck yet with a winter job, so the OT although exhausting, is welcome. Promise to post more soon. JD took some pictures last night, so once I get them, I'll post a few so you can see where we were. Who would have known that I would love caving so much. Just goes to show you, you're never too old to learn new tricks!

Love ya all and miss ya! Come visit. I'll take ya caving too!

Love,
VAL & JOHN

Dog Canyon

John and I went hiking yesterday up to Dog Canyon. It's a part of Guadalupe National Park, barely over the New Mexico line. There was a fire up there back in June. You can see some of the trees are still showing signs of the fire. However, the grasses and flowers have come back quickly with all the summer rains. The sky threatened rain a few times, so we didn't get in much of a hike.



Saw lots of butterflies, but it was windy and not easy to get a good pic...



However, the wild flowers up there were beautiful.




Here is one of the few shots that I took that were worth while...



More soon...

Val & John

Hiking in Cloud Croft

Hiking with friends in Cloud Croft last weekend. It's usually cooler in the mountains than it is down in the desert. A nice change from the heat of Carlsbad. Hiking requires strength, and a good hiker knows: PIE FOR STRENGTH! :-) We had Forest pie, which was mixed berry, and sadly, it didn't last very long. LOL



After eating some pie, we headed off onto a trail. The view from the trail down towards White Sands...

View of an old railroad trestle...


Heat broke last night. Actually had the windows open this morning. Hope you're all doing well. Miss ya...

Love,
VAL & JOHN