4/28 and 4/29 - Into Cali, Colorado River, Joshua Tree

Tuesday, April 28– Thanking Matt again, we headed out of the Giant city of Phoenix into the desert. It went from super Urban to desolate in just a few miles. There was nothing for 100 miles. We stopped outside an Indian reservation to hunt for "ghost town." No town, but we found the remanants of an old buildings and lots of quartz along up the wash nearby. On the way back to the highway, 99 cent beer and 99 cent burger tempted us to walk into a dusty little bar. The beer was small and the burger not all too great, but a wonderful lunch it made for us.

 We crossed the Colorado River and into California just after the town of Quartsite. Instead of going west and out of the desert, we turned north and drove along the Colorado river. Along the road, we could see a maze of dirt bike trails. We turned down one and carefully drove down to the river. We found a spot 200 feet from the road; very close but out of sight. We cooked dinner and picnicked with a nice view of the river. I used my shovel to dig up more sweet rocks. As it got dark, we played cards and had a sip of rum. I slept in car with Dazey, Tyne slept in her tent.

Wednesday, April 29– Up at crack of dawn, along river for 20 more miles then west towards 29 Palms. Through some very desolate landscape, then into scattered and tattered summer homes. Most in ruins. Into 29 Palms, filled up water in McDonalds and had a couple $1 items for lunch. Gased up at over $2/gallon (Welcome to Cali) and headed into Joshua Tree. Into park, no ranger at station. 10 miles in and we needed a map so we turned around. After driving around a bit and scoping out some exhibites, we picked a place to try to camp for the night, Queen's Mine!

5 miles down a dirt road led us to a three way trailhead. Registering for the backcountry, we picked the one destination with no pre-designated camping spots – we were going to do this the old fashioned way. Only a ¼ mile backpack in the trail came to a sign and an overlook. Queens mine was on the other side of the ravine and there was no more trail.

We bushwhacked down the hill and towards a covered mine entrance. If the bars weren't there, we would be in. We wondered up the hill, inspecting the site for an possible way into the mine. There was one spot where you could get around the outer metal gates, but they had installed another mesh blockade. Exploring the desert hillside another 15 minutes, we finally discovered an entrance where you could contort yourself enough to slip around the metal gate. We walked in a few feet and looked into the darkness. "We'll come back and explore," we promised.

Trucking up to the top of the hill, we look ahead to a maze of boulders. We took off our packs and start climbing and checking out the great spots. Tyne shouts out, "check this one out!" She had found a huge rock that had fallen against another, leaving a space under it 4 feet high and 20 feet wide. There was an entrance leading out to the side we had hiked from – west; and another backdoor leading to a stone "patio." We found our camping spot for the night!

We went on a little hike after establishing our camping spot. Up the wash a little ways, but it was hot and we only had about 3 liters of water left, so we headed back to camp to hang out. Tyne laid out in the sun on a high rock, and I did some wood burning with my magnifying glass and read. I found some amber on a pine tree and we grabbed some nice pieces. As the sun started to sink, we collected firewood and set up her small tent in our protected area.

We ate dinner of a peanut butter and tuna fish wrap, then used a can of Minestrone soup as the chaser to a flash of rum. Casillo rum is pretty nasty, but try to drink it with soup broth! Not very tasty, but we managed to get it down and drank all the soup as well as to not waste any of our precious liquid.

Feeling tipsy and good, we settled onto our "back porch" and burned some yucca blossoms. We didn't want to have a large fire at all, and within 30 minutes, all our small sticks were toast. We turned in for lack of better things to do. I'm not complaining though, this was one of the sickest places ive been to yet.

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