Desert Spring Break - Wednesday
Wednesday morning was our last morning in Joshua Tree. Although the weather had finally turned nice and the Joshua Trees had grown on me, I was ready to stop sleeping on the ground and looking forward to staying in a motel later that night. But there are a lot of miles we had to cover before we got to that point. Here's our backcountry campsite:
After eating breakfast we struck camp, filled up our packs and hiked back to the trail head. Back at the cars we sorted out our stuff, repacked the cars and said departed from Mel and Briony for Andy, Ginger and I were off to Flagstaff, AZ. We drove back north through the park, fill up the gas tank, and headed east on highway 29, again passing by the random, one-room abodes made of cinder blocks whose existence again creeped me out.
Highway 29 renormalized my definition of "middle-of-no where". Here's a photo taken through the windshield:
That is until we ran across a random biker off on the side of the road. We decided to pull off to make sure that he was ok. He was. Except for the part where he had only brought one standard bike water bottle full of water for the 30-something mile trip through the middle of no where in the desert, where there is, of course, no water. Californians are nice people but a bit crazy.
Eventually we reached the Arizona border and stopped at a diner in Palmer, AZ (Population maybe 200). The place embodied all that is lacking from chain restaurants: character. They also served iced tea in the *biggest* cups I've ever seen, which at that point, was exactly what I wanted.
Continuing on from Palmer we headed up north along the AZ-CA border until around sunset when we met I-40. Then it was straight east and up (we climbed several thousand feet). This brought us back into cold and snow, but that's how it goes.
Finally we reached Flagstaff and checked into a hotel with Wifi and a shower. It was my first shower in about six days, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even more though, I enjoyed sleeping in a bed inside where there's heat and no wind.
After eating breakfast we struck camp, filled up our packs and hiked back to the trail head. Back at the cars we sorted out our stuff, repacked the cars and said departed from Mel and Briony for Andy, Ginger and I were off to Flagstaff, AZ. We drove back north through the park, fill up the gas tank, and headed east on highway 29, again passing by the random, one-room abodes made of cinder blocks whose existence again creeped me out.
Highway 29 renormalized my definition of "middle-of-no where". Here's a photo taken through the windshield:
That is until we ran across a random biker off on the side of the road. We decided to pull off to make sure that he was ok. He was. Except for the part where he had only brought one standard bike water bottle full of water for the 30-something mile trip through the middle of no where in the desert, where there is, of course, no water. Californians are nice people but a bit crazy.
Eventually we reached the Arizona border and stopped at a diner in Palmer, AZ (Population maybe 200). The place embodied all that is lacking from chain restaurants: character. They also served iced tea in the *biggest* cups I've ever seen, which at that point, was exactly what I wanted.
Continuing on from Palmer we headed up north along the AZ-CA border until around sunset when we met I-40. Then it was straight east and up (we climbed several thousand feet). This brought us back into cold and snow, but that's how it goes.
Finally we reached Flagstaff and checked into a hotel with Wifi and a shower. It was my first shower in about six days, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even more though, I enjoyed sleeping in a bed inside where there's heat and no wind.
posted by laura s at 6:20 PM
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