OT texas help

Approximately 9/24/03 18:50, Nathan W. Collier uttered for posterity:

The offroad trails vary. There are more or less flat or rolling hill areas going east of El Paso, with some cool lava flows to chew up your tires a bit more effectively than sandstone will. These still have probably a hundred or so feet max vertical, except for the Dona Ana range which is a bit higher but not a 4-5000 foot elevation as in elsewhere.

There are also trails along the highway heading out northwest to Las Cruces, again fairly little elevation except for washes and stuff, except that if you bear right you'll be in the lower reaches of the Organs... and then you run into trails which are really dry wash beds.

North of town there are no trails, just a rim of mountains, and in the other directions you get military bases.

Heading up and around the back of the Organs you find some really interesting and extremely challenging mountain trails. Nothing like heading up a trail that only a SWB Jeep could make it thru, and there are rocks sticking out of sidewalls 50-100 feet high, and there are rattlesnakes taking naps on those rocks less than 10 feet from your head. These are tight, narrow, twisty trails. You can't get off the trail since it is really a canyon bottom.

And of course you can always try to find the big stash of gold rumored to be buried on the range... enough of a rumor that folks have sued the Army to get access...and the Army has let them try.

Lotsa flourite, galena in the mountains near EP. Other areas are desert dry lakebed with gypsum crystals, desert roses, etc. Then a short drive away there is a pretty good peridot deposit. And some silver, cinnabar, etc.

You'll want excellent heat proof shocks to head on the trails as they can burn out shocks with small oil reservoirs unless you sneak along. The army uses some of the trails for training tactical vehicle drivers.

Approximately 9/24/03 18:26, Jerry Newton uttered for posterity:

Yeah, Montana is where all the Texans that are too grouchy for Texas go. Odd, I never yet met a Texan I didn't like, much like a Montanan, you are very likely to know pretty much where you stand in the first few minutes and if you shoot off your mouth much you are likely to be asked to prove it or shut up. And the women in Texas.... ymmmmm, altho they do tend to throw ashtrays when pissed off.

Approximately 9/24/03 18:36, L.W.(ßill) Hughes III uttered for posterity:

El Paso is nothing like that. The town is ringed by mountains to the north. Real mountains. And the humidity in El Paso rarely gets above 20% even when it rains... and when it rains it is a typical desert washer.

Approximately 9/24/03 19:17, Tyler Dirden uttered for posterity:

Probably because El Paso isn't that hot, and when it is hot it isn't that humid. Unlike Tucson Az. And I can prove this since during my time in the area, one of my jobs was automating meteorological data collection from the lower range [just outside El Paso] up almost to Albekewkew.

Approximately 9/24/03 19:48, Nathan W. Collier uttered for posterity:

Actually it is kinda nice to have a bikini type top to shade your head, yet let the dry air thru. One of the few places where you can darn near freeze water with one of those old canvas cooler bottles and 60 mph.

Plus you take a coupla dry ice extinguishers to play with the rattlesnakes...

Until just a few years ago, you didn't pack a handgun, period, unless you were a peace officer. They have concealed carry now but there's a lot of local options left to the county sheriff - join the posse if he has one. Texas hunting (and riding) is a little tricky in that income from hunting and access is a major revenue source for lots of folks. I kept Dad's farm outside Abilene open for a long time - had a creek bed and gulch that were interesting as well as enough mud to be fun. A bunch of local a$$holes decided the back 40 we were grazing looked like more fun and tore it one time too many so that ended that - invitation only, releases and all that stuff until it sold last fall. If you can get to know the local ranchers, they don't mind opening up but pitching some hay and helping around the place is a good start. The Big Bend country is pretty open but be careful - it's a desert mountain range and unforgiving of stupidity. The Park Service has some rules about firearms - just learn the rules and be very careful if a trooper pulls you over out there since they are a bit twitchy given the environment.

I rather liked Amarillo. I'll see if I can find the web page for the Jeep group there. Some of their events draw from all over the state and most of the runs end up with an impressive list of broken parts for the aggressive rigs. They also have some events over in the New Mexico mountains on private land - sounds like a good group to be around but I've never hooked up with them. I've always been on my way someplace else or had the top and wife along so I haven't stopped to play - yet. BTW, a couple of hundred miles is in the local neighborhood in West Texas. You couldn't give me the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and Houston comes close to my definition of the armpit of the world. The area south and east of El Paso is sparsely populated, to say the least. When I was in Del Rio in the late 60's we had 2 two-ship formations collide headon. The two lead a/c went down instantly - 850 kt closure rates don't leave many survivors - and one wing crew punched out. Even with locator beacons it took over 48 hours to find them just north of the Big Bend. There's some good country north and west into New Mexico up near White Sands as well but you have to like the desert. Amarillo is more plains and cow country.

Desert rains in west TX and NM are referred to as "Turd Floaters" by locals.

Go to Montana, Jerry.

Dust and sand gets into everything, even your house.

Here's the Amarillo Jeep club:

The description of the sand blowing the size of peas sounds extra inviting.

:-)

I see no contradiction. I-10 comes in from the northwest and goes out on the east southeast. Now if you were an old fart with bad glasses and extremely nearsighted or always went thru in a heavy wind storm, perhaps I can see how you could miss looking almost directly in front of you [coming in from the west] and off to the right a bit at the Franklin Mountains and Ranger Peak. And as you head east, you are indeed heading into the flaaaaaaat. And in a truck, you probably wouldn't be all that welcome trying to cruise from Robinson street to Scenic Drive to Alabama along the edge of the Franklin mts. And even on the run from Las Cruces to El Paso on !-10, I guess if you are old and blind you could probably miss the Organ Mountains since they are a ways off in the distance on highway 70. And you wouldn't have gone east on Hwy 62 to the Hueco Mountains just directly east of town. And heading north-northeast along hwy 54 it is pretty flat until you get near the Jarilla Mts, although you can see the Franklins off to the left.

But yeah, I can see how a trucker just drivin thru might get the false impression that El Paso is completely flat.

Approximately 9/24/03 21:41, L.W.(ßill) Hughes III uttered for posterity:

I suspect this may have changed to Hummer Floaters now...

Approximately 9/25/03 06:24, Gerald G. McGeorge uttered for posterity:

Approximately 9/25/03 07:07, Jeepers uttered for posterity:

Yeah, but when you want to repaint your car, all you need to do is leave it outside in the late spring and it will be cleaned to bare metal. [Actually happened to a friend's brand new GTO]