Beginning of Nowhere

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY FIVE

The Coachella Valley Nature Preserve was open all summer but with limited hours and limitations on where you could hike due to various projects. With August over they are going back to regular hours although the work at the McCallum Grove continues until the end of the month.

I always feel welcome here for some reason.

Maybe it's the old palm tree log cabin.

Or the fact that it's air conditioned

But I think the coolness is also intrinsic to the place itself. There's just something cool about an oasis in the desert. It greets the traveler in a harsh and dry landscape and says to him, "Relax, refresh yourself and let go of your worries. They are not welcome here but you are". At least that's what it says to me.

Now there are still some projects that need to be worked on and I feel bad that I didn't bring any tools to help today.

Because things did tend to get just a big overgrown during the summer months.

But the McCallum Grove Pond is coming along quite nicely. It'll be ready for visitors at the end of the month.

Now after I left the pond I hiked out toward Moon Country and saw this little trail so I decided to take it. I think I'll head out to that little dirt hill in the distance.

I wander out here and soon see that this is a very unforgiving section of desert. Either that or this was an old chop shop.

I get to the hill and it's got some interesting designs from the erosion. It's not really quite in the middle of nowhere, it's more at the beginning.

The middle of nowhere is out there somewhere beyond the old truck skeleton. I think that's where I'll go explore next time I come out here, when it's cooler.