I’m doing a mostly offtrail loop of Guadalupe Mountains National Park next week hitting Frijole Ridge, the Ridge above Dog Canyon, and the 4 Highest. This will be my first offtrail experience so I chose a loop that I can adjust between 40-56 miles to mitigate risk. I will be carrying 8 days of food to give myself the ability to do the loop twice or just extend my time in the backcountry before I exit back to Pine Springs. I plan on carrying between 1.5-2 gallons of water from each water source and averaging about 1mph offtrail.
I am primarily interested in opinions from those with experience in the area, especially off trail and in the winter. I am using this trip as a building block to give me the experience and confidence to do more trips like this and potentially an even longer offtrail trip with packrafting in Big Bend next Winter.
