Excuse me...Would you quit
talking and pose for a picture?
Well, don't look so pleased
about it!
Here's another great picture
of the two of us.
Looking down from the shoulder
of Mt. Jenkins at the town of
Ridgecrest.
You see messages in the registers along the trail that say things like, "Save me from chaparral hell!" and "Kennedy Meadows-where are you?"
When Glenn and Mary dropped us back off at the trail the next morning, we had Kennedy Meadows on our minds. After all, we should reach this paradise in just a little over 2 days. Surely now, we would hike in cool forests on our way there.
With these foolish thoughts in mind, we set off. First, we hiked up onto the slope of a cool mountain. Then, we were dropped back into the hot lowlands. Then we switchbacked up another hot slope, hoping that there would be relief at the end and were forced back down into another dry canyon. My mind would start to ponder, "Do you think there is such a place as Kennedy Meadows? Come to think of it, I've never seen it...I've only heard it spoken of reverently by other hikers, heard it mentioned in their songs...what if they had gone mad and there was no such place?"
I tried to dismiss these thoughts and think positively. We stopped at a spring for water. It was called "Joshua Tree." We should have known we weren't out of the desert yet when the spring is called Joshua Tree, but it could've just sounded like a neat name to someone. The spring was labeled "not safe to drink" because of trace levels of uranium in the water. Well, we needed the water and to tell you the truth-we preferred the uranium to cow potty. We also figured we could get rid of our flashlights as maybe we would glow in the dark.
(For those of you who are wondering if we compromised our health, (this entire trip has compromised our health) when CA passed the CA Clean Water Act, many little springs and streams now can't pass as safe because of traces of things like uranium found in them. However, if you go someplace with less strict regulations, you are probably drinking something similar.
After that refreshing break, we hiked on. Near dusk, we began to climb up the side of a steep mountain without realizing how tall it was or how long the ascent. What sorts of fools don't check their guidebook before embarking on such a climb? The kind of fools who are forced to continue hiking in the dark, stumbling all the way-that's who. Even the headlamp wasn't much use. We were finally rewarded for our efforts when we reached a saddle where we could camp and were surrounded by millions of stars on the moonless night. It felt like we were on top of the world and maybe, just maybe, out of the desert.
When it's dark, you can make yourself believe just about anything.