Little Bicycle Trip 2011 ‐ Joshua Tree National Park kicked my butt

2011-02-17

tl;dr: Joshua Tree National Park kicked my butt, but I got to see a lot of rocks and plants.

I never did get a haircut. Combat Cuts caters to the to the world's largest Marine base, and, apparently, that means it opens at hours at odds with me. Although in unrelated news I was told that I looked English. That's a first.

I left 29 Palms around 11 AM to head into Joshua Tree National Park. I passed the Catholic lady again. She crossed herself.

The map had told me I would be in for a little hill climbing. I had no idea. The first 10 miles were a solid steady climb of 2000 feet. Only half of that is actually inside the park. The road then dropped over 2100 feet over the next 10 miles, chilling me to the point of shivers, before crossing Fried Liver Wash and forcing another climb. The next 10 miles only gained me about 1400 feet, but it was steeper at times. Finally I was presented with another downhill, and I drifted along until I found a place to set up camp. I guess those numbers don't sound impressive, but I am thoroughly whipped. My legs are weak. My back hurts. I'm winded. And I suspect I didn't put on enough sun block.

Along the way I was passed by some other touring cyclists who were obviously in better shape then me. They promised to see me at Cottonwood, which I figured out was a campground. Sorry, I'm way too anti-social to stay at a public campground when given a choice. And say what you will about the desert, but there are a lot of choices for camping.

I passed a crew who were spraying weeds. They didn't seem very pleased with their lot in life.

So I headed south until I found a cell signal (in a minor miracle I missed no important emails). I then chased a hummingbird away from a bush and set up my tent just out of sight of the road. I can barely hear the hum of the interstate way down in the valley. I'd prefer silence, but that's the price of a cell connection.

I ate a dinner of summer sausage and sharp cheddar as the setting sun was replaced by a full moon rising over the mountains. I think I can hear coyotes yipping.