Joshua Tree: Part 4

After breaking camp and bidding Tim a fond farewell, Michael, Corey, and I neatly packed ourselves and all our things into Michael’s two-door Honda and made for the highway, checking out a breathtaking “key view” from which I could actually see the Salton Sea. After a brief interlude in 29 Palms to retrieve my next host’s number from my battery-dead phone, we continued south and west around the Little San Bernardino Mountains and east toward Indio and the Salton Sea.

End of the line for me was Clark's health food store in Rancho Mirage where Gordon, my next host, had arranged to meet with me. There I bid adeu to Michael and Corey and after a breif food shopping interlude rode with Gordon for about an hour to his small lot on a hillside overlooking the Salton Sea.

Joshua Tree: Part 3

I awoke early the next morning with an abiding urge to split wood. The neighbors who had taken our extra spot the night before were able to provide a hatchet, much to my sleeping companions’ chagrin. As we soon learned, we had fallen victim to a common camper conundrum known as “too much meat”. The only solution to was to spend the day filling our bellies with hamburgers, hamburger helper, bacon, and a delicious delicacy known as bacon-grease toast.

From left to right: Tim, Michael, Corey

Between bouts of culinary indulgence (which also included raw vegetables and rice loaf), we mounted little expeditions into the deliciously climbable rock masses that give Jumbo Rocks its name. It’s hard to describe the giddy feeling I got from enjoying the natural beauty of the views at every turn on the unusually accessible nooks and crannies of rock that seemed to dare us to climb them. Tim in particular was transformed into an agile negotiator of rock surfaces and divides, crawling into and around crevices.

Michael and Tim are kings of all they survey

We enjoyed the sunset from the hill next to our campsite and after dark we made a tour of a loop within the Jumbo Rocks campground taking in the campy atmosphere. In the time since I had arrived, it was full to capacity and very much alive with the sights and sounds of jovial southern Californians. Exhausted and bemused, I was first to go to bed.

Joshua Tree: Part 2

The next morning, Lev and I had the unique experience of waking up in surroundings we had only seen the night before by moonlight. Despite the allure of the dramatic and remarkably verdant landscape we now saw, Lev saw fit to take his leave of me and head north to check out Cal Earth and return to Aquarius Ranch. I fear I may have proven a less-than-worthy travel companion the night before.

After a short hike down an interpretive trail to take in some of the park and register our site and the one next to it, I came back and buckled down. What remained was an austere day of waiting for my companions, and trying to avoid getting two much sun—I couldn’t find my sunscreen—while somehow maintaining a presence in both spots as a single person without a car.

After turning several parties away from the spot next to the one with my tent, I finally took pity on a couple of kindly climbers one of whom, it turns out out, has a son who works at the Ugly Mug in Sellwood with my friend, Brie. Tim arrived before dark having begun the five-hour drive from Phoenix quite early when he learned I had been left in the park with no means of transport and limited supplies. After a nice visit with Tim, we were joined at 11:00 pm by Michael and Corey. Revelry ensued until late in the night.

I resorted to covering my tent in safety blankets for added insulation

Joshua Tree: Part 1

A snug fit

As much as I was enjoying myself at Aquarius Ranch, the time had come for me to make my way to Joshua Tree National Park for a trip I had planned with my friends Michael and Tim. The only obstacle to my arriving was the drive from the nearest Greyhound station, so I was delighted when Lev volunteered to take me for the three-hour drive.

After a quick stop at an event to mark the beginning of renovations at the Desert Discovery Center in Barstow, Lev and I hit the road. While we careened through the desert afternoon, indulging in phone calls to girls and freestyle rapping, a breathtaking panorama unfolded before us; the lights of Yucca Valley punctuating our way with pin pricks of light like little Mexican villas on the purple and blue mountainsides as the setting sun carved them ever more distinctly against the yellow of the desert’s stone scrabble and arid soil.

Once within the Jumbo Rocks camping location at the park, we perused the campsites, selected one that looked promising in the dark, and made camp.

Bryan watches from atop the dome as Bodhi mugs for the camera