Just thought I would share a "lesson learned" moment with y'all. This will be long but I hope you read it and learn something. I certainly did.

I drove out to Pine Springs Campground in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park on Monday. The plan was to stay and hike Tue, Wed and Thu. On Thu I was going to do a short hike and go to Carlsbad Caverns to watch the bats take flight, spend a night in a local RV place to get a shower and drive home on Monday. That was the plan.

In preparation I looked through guidebooks and made a tentative plan for hikes and then got some advice from this site to do McKittrick Canyon and make sure I stopped by Carlsbad (not part of the original plan) but decided instead of trying to hike 3 peaks, I subbed in McKittrick on day 2 and a short hike on day 3 to make sure I could see Carlsbad (and get that shower).

I also made sure I was getting properly hydrated every day leading up to my trip, especially the last 3 days and the day I was driving. Because "proper hydration" is often short circuited a little at a time over many days.

I had a little navigational error and got to the campground a little later than planned. I was tired. Not surprising after 11.5 hours driving. I was not hungry, which isn't surprising as I usually only eat 1 meal a day for the past 4 months. I had actually eaten a couple of small snacks while driving. A small handful of nuts and a small piece of 85% dark chocolate that I COULDN'T leave behind. But usually once I start eating, I EAT. But that night I ended up throwing out about half my salad. I NEVER DO THIS. I chalked it up to being tired. So by 7:30 pm I was sending my husband a text that I was going to sleep. After all, the plan for the next day was to get an early start and climb Guad Peak. And, I hadn't even sorted my gear for that hike and I hadn't filled my water bladders either. Both tasks I normally would have done the night before.

I awoke at 1:30 am with a headache and need for the Ladies Room. Ok. Tried to go back to sleep but decided to take some pain med for my headache. Now, because y'all aren't all that familiar with me I will just say that I NEVER have had a headache in the front of my head. Never. I do get headaches from the back from muscle spasms but this was not one of them. I also NEVER take pain meds, not even OTC stuff. But I had these from when I had some body part stitched up (ok, I take pain meds for a day or 2 after getting stitched up) and I thought it would be good to take as part of my first aid kit in case I seriously hurt myself.

At 5:30 am I woke up again and took ANOTHER pain med, decided to sleep in, and see what the day would bring. At this point I probably should have realized there was a problem.

I woke about 8:30 am, started moving about, wasn't feeling great but got cleaned up and dressed. I sat outside, texted my husband that I hadn't "slept well" and was looking for a short route to hike. Oh yeah, at this point I thought maybe my hydration hadn't been as good as it could be while I was driving. So I focused on hydrating and making sure I had my electrolytes, etc. I started feeling good. I found a shorter hike than the one I had planned that also looked quite level. I had decided on Devil's Hall Trail, just 4.2 miles. Since it was 10:30 when I took off, I figured this was good enough as 4 miles usually only takes about 2 hours without doing much stopping. I had packed up 5.5L water in addition to the 2+L I had already taken in. And I was feeling rather good.

I texted my husband with my plan, told him it would likely take me 2-3 hours (after all, I was planning on stopping for pics and taking an easy hike).

I felt GREAT hiking the trail. I took my time, took some pics, talked with other hikers, got some pictures of 2 deer, etc. I was getting back to my start point and was determined that since I was so close to the trailhead where others may encounter me that I would make it back to the bathrooms vs. "popping a squat" amongst the "thorny things." I had taken in at least 3L of water at this point.

I made it to the Ladies room just in time. (I thought y'all would want to know that detail). But while I was sitting there taking care of business I got "suddenly nauseous." Just a little bit where you get a "little reflux" and a bitter taste in your mouth. But it also passed right away. I headed to the van, we have converted the back of it as our own mini RV. I got out of my sweaty clothes, turned on the portable fan and laid back to let the sweat dry off. I was also really happy with how cool the inside of the can stayed but that's a different story.

Well, my ears started ringing. My head was hurting, not pounding but just painful like it had been when I was sleeping. I tried adjusting how I was lying down. Then the nausea started and I knew I needed to get out of the van. I threw on some clothes and made it into the ladies room and to a toilet before I threw up. I cleaned up and went back to the van to lie down. But my GUT told me I needed to leave. That whatever was wrong, wasn't going to straighten itself out right there. In the back of my mind I knew it had to be related to the altitude. BUT I WAS ONLY AT 5700 FEET! Yeah, I reminded myself. But you feel like crap. And EVERY TIME I have ever ignored my gut, I have regretted it. So my gut/instinct was screaming at me to lose some altitude even though the last thing I wanted to do was start a drive home at 2:30 in the afternoon feeling like crap with a headache and who knew what else would happen. But I started off.

As soon as I got to lower elevation I started to SLOWLY feel a LITTLE BETTER. I drove for about 4 hours. I was making my 2nd stop, no make that the 3rd stop of the trip. At the second stop I had tried to get gas but the card reader wasn't working so I decided to go a bit longer and get gas. It was about 5:30 pm when I stopped for gas. I decided to get a room for the night as I still had a headache and I knew I just needed to rest. By this time, my back was also starting to spasm, likely from the stress, which leads to another type of headache which induces vomiting because of it's intensity. And even though it bothered me to stop driving while it was daylight I knew I needed to. So I did, and made myself eat dinner, which wasn't hard at all. I actually made myself stop in case I did get nauseous again that night. But I was fine once I fell asleep (around 8pm) and woke up "fit as a fiddle!"

So I did a little research and found out that YES, you can get High Altitude Sickness at 5000 feet. Perhaps even less. I live at about 500 feet above sea level. The campground, where I slept was at 5700 feet. Quite a difference.

The next lesson I learned is that the FIRST symptom was likely my lack of appetite the night before. My Second symptom was the night time headache that wouldn't go away. Since I woke up to pee (and that was normal), it likely was hydration related, but I went to "hydration" because I know how important that is.

The third and fourth symptoms were two sides of the same coin you might say. When I was moving I felt fine, even just a little movement like getting cleaned up and dressed in the morning. When I stopped moving and laid down, I felt MUCH worse. I didn't know this, but that's a common sign of HAS. When you are moving your heart beats a little faster and thus your oxygen intake increases. Your body compensates naturally. When you stop moving, your heart rate slows and now you aren't getting enough oxygen. This explains why my easy hike felt good. Obviously in extreme cases, even moving about won't cause your lungs to work hard enough to compensate for "thinner air."

Now, some of y'all might suggest I stay there, enjoy the beauty and try to acclimate. However, when I decided to leave, I didn't know how bad it would get, whatever was my problem, and I was "alone." If my husband had been with me we may have made a different choice and see if I would improve. I also had a time restraint in that I needed to be home on Friday anyway, so I likely couldn't "wait it out." If he were with me he could have done the research that I wasn't able to do at that point and frankly, I don't know that I was clear headed enough to do anything other than trust my instincts. If I got worse, being alone, I knew I would have that much harder a time completing a "self rescue."

So I left. I know I made the right choice for me at the time.

I also know that I will approach my next trip to an area with "elevation" differently.

My son, when I told him what happened, couldn't believe it as we had lived in, and I backpacked in NH for years. I never really thought about it, but my guess would be that most, if not all, of my campsites over the years were well below whatever my personal "altitude tolerance threshold" is.

Thanks for reading. It was very "enlightening" to me personally. I hope someone learns from my experience.