Nowhere Man

THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN

I have a big hike planned for next week so my hikes until then will tend to be short and easy so I can rest up . I went out north of the Indio Hills to go and explore a bit and see if I could find anything interesting. Unfortunately, you don't always find something interesting when you go out exploring. That's part of the challenge.

I drove up some canyon until I couldn't drive up any further. It has a barricade due to the fact that this is the boundary of Joshua Tree National Park.

I don't think those targets were part of the original National Park sign.

I think I might hike up to these radio towers and see what the view looks like from there.

Then I read this sign that, through the bullet holes, urges caution because the radio energy may be unsafe. I don't know enough about radio waves to know what it could do to you but I wonder if maybe it could cause cancer or turn your mind into a gob of gelatinous goo and render you incapable of reasonable cognitive function. It's possible. Look at Glenn Beck, he started in radio.

So I start hiking up the wash and I'm surprised to find footprints and that someone else has been up here hiking in the middle of nowhere.

I walk up a series of washes hoping to find something interesting but each turn looks much like the last although where the canyon narrows it starts getting a bit more intriguing.

As I pass through the canyon I spot this little arch up high on a hill. It's not big or made of stone but it's something I've never seen before.

I get to a place where the canyon splits and I'm not sure which way to go.

So I choose neither and climb up the side on the left. I figure I can see more up top than down in the canyon anyway.

There's a nice view from the middle of nowhere up to San Gorgonio and I wonder how the view up by the radio towers is. Just not enough to risk cancer or dementia.