The next morning takes me around the Smith Spring loop trail. The trail named for the spring and the spring named for the family who discovered it and settled the area. The 3 mile trail leads me past three separate springs and a restored Smith homestead. Water.... I’ve already seen signs of its awesome destructive power. Up rooted trees and boulders rubbed smooth. But heres another. Giver of life, the source of everything. It really is incredible.
After my hike I cruise down the highway a bit to find a place to make lunch. The first sign I pass is for the charmingly named Rattlesnake Springs and Slaughter Canyon picnic area. I take the exit while thinking someone in the marketing department should have gotten fired when they came up with that one. I can see right away that this road leads nowhere for miles but I’m enjoying the wide openness of my surroundings too much to have any real reservations. I press further down the dirt track deeper into the middle of Someplace. It takes some time but eventually it snakes along the edge of a large fenced grove spotted with a few trees and picnic tables. I continue passed, looking for a place to turn around when the road ends abruptly at an old, weather worn gate clearly posted with “GOV VEHICLES ONLY”. Creepy. I immediately think about how close I am to the New Mexico border then: New Mexico!?….Roswell!….Aliens!?…GOVT VEHICLES ONLY?!?! Holy shit it’s some sort of cover up! That’s why the place has such a horrible name! They don’t want anyone coming back here! What have I stumbled into!?
I turn around and drive back to the picnic tables. The gate and sign are well out of sight from here but the low angle of light and the long shadows it creates, plus the stillness and eerie serenity of this place are all working together to freak me the fuck out. 
The crunch of tires on gravel makes me look up from my cooking just in time for an SUV to whip around a distant corner and into view. It slows clumsily when I assume the driver has noticed me but never stops completely. It crawls along….a snails pace…down the road and towards me. I stir my dinner and pretend not to be watching the car. Now it’s close enough for me to see it has government plates. Holy Shit! It’s going down! Right now! Some kinda crazy alien shit! You'll never be seen again! Prepare to become a statistic! All this in my head while I try to look not terrified. My heart pounding. I can see the driver now. Dark sunglasses. Tight fitting, heavily starched uniform with official looking paraphernalia on the chest. My face hot, blood pumping with adrenaline. He knows I’m looking at him and I get a single nod as I watch him slowly roll passed. Holding my breath. A green stripe runs the length of the vehicles side. Underneath are printed the words ‘Border Patrol’. I let my breath out slowly and realize the South is worried about a different kinda aliens then I am.
I wake up early the next morning at the rest stop. I really fit pretty well in the back of the jeep and can get a decent nights rest sleeping back there. As I fix breakfast I go over todays plan in my head. Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in the state of Texas and my most challenging hike yet. 8.5 miles round trip with a 3000 foot elevation gain. I came up with the plan a few days ago; had to warm up to the idea. I’m still not sure if I can make it and the memory of that first hike fiasco is still fresh in my mind. For two days, while wandering shorter, less demanding trails, Guadalupe Peak looms in the background, taunting me. I keep telling myself I’ll regret it if i don't give it a shot. Plus it’d be a decent metaphor. For the most part living in Texas was a low point for me. The circumstances that put me here were not the best and the events that occurred while I was here were the worst of my life. So what better way to move on from those events and this state than from it’s highest point. To climb from the depths of the lowest lows and up to the highest point this place has to offer, then climb out. And don’t look back….or something like that…Anyway, the day of the hike is here and I’m no more convinced that I can I do it, but I will try.
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