All Better Now

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN

Last night I slept like a baby and today I am much less grumpy. It's funny how that works.

Some days I don't really have any idea where to hike so I just go and wander around. I like those hikes because sometimes they lead to fun discoveries but other times it's just fun to be outside for a couple of hours.

I started by going to find a geocache. I thought maybe I could get my kids to go but they were too busy playing with their friends to hike with the old man. Besides, with the world going to be getting swine flu any second they want to play with their friends while they can.

The geocache is somewhere up here.

There it is!

I dig it out from under the rocks and check inside.

I decide this little billy goat might be fun for the kids to play with. Believe it or not, this is the best thing in here.

I put in a Hartmann luggage lock. If you need one, you'd better hurry.

Here are the coordinates.

I start hiking around to see what I can find and come upon this cairn. There's no trail or anything so I keep walking.

There's another cairn. It again doesn't designate anything so I knock it down.

I decide that while I'm up here I'm going to climb to the top of this little peak.

The view from the top is great. When I look down I notice that someone put a bolt into the rock up here.

Here's a closer look at the bolt. I have no idea why someone would climb up here with a bolt in their pocket or why they'd wedge it into this rock but they did. Probably the same people who build the cairns that lead you nowhere.

This area west of La Quinta is the most untrammeled area out here. It's rough, rocky and leads nowhere. It's a perfect get away minutes from home.