Camping with friends

Todd, Sarah, and their kids joined us for the first couple of nights camping.  Lots of fun.

We spent part of one day bouldering, which was particularly entertaining since once upon a time, Todd climbed a lot.

Scott, aka BeetleMan, carrying two crash pads.

Everyone else was amused.

We found some good boulders to play on at a picnic area.

Nim claimed her own section of the rock and wouldn't let Chad share,

but she did happily share another rock with Cat.

Kids had fun climbing,

as did adults.  I went up the flake in the center of the wide part of the boulder pile, and then climbed the crack to the right of that too.  And then the backside, and the side side and ...

Chad found fun problems to work on too,

and proved that even the adults were goofy at the top!

Chilling on the crash pad.  There's not much shade at high noon.

Sarah managed to find the one patch of shade from a Joshua tree.

After a picnic lunch huddled in the shade of that Joshua tree, we headed over to another part of the park, ostensibly to hike to the Lost Horse Mine.

Unfortunately, I inadvertently led us astray onto the Big Trees Trail instead (there was a trail on the ground that wasn't on my map, and we went down the wrong fork).

There were lots of good Joshua Trees,

 and the yucca and cactus were blooming,

but poor Scott was sad to miss the mine.

 

Nim would have you think she hiked 18 miles, but reality was about 1/5 of that.

Unfortunately, Todd sprained his ankle in the sand on the trail and had to hobble out.  While they went to get it looked at, Chad, Nimue, and I went to the store to get more firewood, and concocted a plan to feed all the kids back at the campsite while Todd was getting checked out.

I suppose there also was a coffee stop for us at a place one of Sarah's friends had recommended.   Mmmm....nitrogen-infused cold brew is a wonderful thing on a hot afternoon.

We were lucky to enjoy a nice full moon that evening.

and Chad dutifully cooked hot dogs, quesadillas, and made a fire

as we watched the sunset colors slowly dim through the crazy plants.

Mountain Biking near Joshua Tree

You may have noticed our mountain bikes in some of the Joshua Tree pictures.

While bikes are only allowed on the roads in the park, I scoped out some entertaining-looking riding just off the edges, using the useful MTB Project app.

Sector 6 was the first area to explore.  Also known as the Desert View Conservation Area, this is a small patch of land nestled adjacent to the park only a couple of miles from the Black Rock Campground where we stayed the first couple of nights.  It is covered in a maze of delightful singletrack and dirt roads, which we naturally had to explor the first day we were there to shake off the experience of all the crowds at the poppy reserve.

Doesn't Chad look happy?

Nim's definitely skilled and strong enough to ride a reasonable length with me,

although she did decide that she didn't like sand pits, leading the grimace on her face toward the end of the ride.  That might have also had something to do with the minor route mishap that led to contemplation of rough hike-a-bike over big boulders too...

We rode there pretty late in the afternoon, leading to nice late afternoon light, a rising full moon (above) and long bike shadows (below).

A few days later, we decided to circumnavigate Bartlett Mountain on the north end of town.  This loop was mostly dirt roads, which led me to argue to Nim that there might be less sand.

Lack of sand was not fully the case, which led to some dirty looks even on the non-sandy parts.

But it was pretty, and there were flowers!

Mt San Gorgonio still had snow on it, which seemed so very unlikely in the warm sunshine.

A desert mariposa lily, which are pretty rare according to the local hikers we ran into.  One section of the mountain was covered with them.

After a well-deserved reward of icy-cold popsicles, my peoples passed out at the campground.  Riding sand in the heat is hard work!

Wildflowers on the Way Down

To break the drive up, we planned to stop and maybe camp at the Carrizo Plain National Monument on the way down to Joshua Tree.  The Carrizo Plain is usually an out-of-the-way backwater, not near anything, and makes a quiet escape away from civilization.  This year, it looked like we were going to hit the wildflower peak as well, which was an added bonus.

I did not fully take into account all the newspaper accounts hyping up the "2017 California Wildflower SuperBloom".

Argh.

Normally, we see maybe one or two other cars going through this area.  It became clear that this year is different even on the approach road in.  Infested with traffic.  Infested with people.  Cars scattered willy-nilly on the side of the road (or in the road!) wherever people thought there was something to see and they could shoehorn themselves in.

I should mention, infested with flowers too :)

We stopped for lunch at the Soda Lake overlook, and were lucky enough to find an empty bench.

The view in the other direction was unusually good, given the large fields of yellow flowers and the fact that there was actually water in Soda Lake (normally dry).

Same view without the scruffy peoples.

Eventually, we found an obscure dirt road on which to escape the crowds and enjoy the views.

Nim and the Temblor Range.

Small Monster snuck in at the last moment; camera chose the most important element in the picture.

Without the interloper.

It was quite windy.  Or maybe this is just teen showing annnoyance at the lack of wi-fi.

Needless to say, there weren't any sites at the first-come-first-serve campgrounds, and while we did find a nice empty spot down a dirt road in the dispersed camping (no services) area, the wind was howling and rain was forecast for the evening, so we kept heading south and found a cheap motel room in Lebec.

Due to this alteration in route, I realized we were going to go right by the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve on our way to Joshua Tree, so we stopped to see the poppies.  Word on the web was that the flowers here were a little past their prime, and it was now a weekday, so I figured it wouldn't be as busy as Carrizo was.

Wrong!  This park isn't that far from the LA Basin, and it also was a zoo.  On the plus side, there were masses of blazing orange poppies on the hills, and the people watching was pretty entertaining too.

I find it funny that normal rules like "No parking here" and "Don't climb the barbed wire fence that marks the edge of the park" just completely broke down in the face of masses of wildflowers.  All ages, all races, all levels of fitness, all people with their bizarre LA clothing choices -- everyone was just blithely hopping the barbed wire to get in to the park from the side because the parking lot was full.  Most amusing.

Even the ground on the way into Joshua Tree was covered in a blanket of little yellow flowers in between the taller plants.  Most scenic.

This shot sums it up

This one might be my favorite picture from the trip.

Feral child.

Bikes.

Crazy wildflower bloom in the desert.

Adventure ho!

The Truckster on Spring Break

I'm sorting through all the pictures from our spring break trip to Joshua Tree this morning while waiting for the guy from AT&T to come fix the droopy phone line in our back yard.  As usual, the pictures will come in batches.

First up:  The Truckster.

It looks ridiculous sitting in a suburban driveway when it's all loaded up for adventure.  Yet one more way to convince the neighbors we are insane. (Just wait until we get the winch...)

It fits in somewhat better by the little market outside of Joshua Tree. (Said market, by the way, has cold popsicles, an excellent beer selection, lots of ice, camping fuel, and salt with which to make a saltwater bath for your toe after you stab it on a yucca plant and it tries to get infected.)

It definitely looks happy off of the paved road (Carrizo Plain, in this case)

and at our campsite at Indian Cove.

This didn't stop Chad from checking out the alternative transport options we found near the Wall Street Mill.

Why the big frown?

Either it was his best geezer impression, or he noticed a problem with the tire.

Nim, learning to drive.  (You actually could move the gear shift mechanism on this one!)