Morning Has Broken

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY

Work required me to get out and hike early in the morning today which I really did not want to do. I went hiking late yesterday afternoon and wanted to rest a bit and I wanted to sleep in and rest a bit. Oh well.

Since my time is limited I had to go near my home in La Quinta today. With the insanely hot temperatures we've been having I'd prefer to head to the mountains whenever possible but on days like today that's not feasible. So I'm off half asleep trying to beat the sun.

As I get ready to leave the house Kahlua knows something is up. She's got her nose up against the glass wondering what's up and why on earth I am out of bed at this time of morning. I am planning on going beyond the No Dog signs this morning so I'm not going to take her. I make sure I don't bring any hiking gear into the open so she doesn't know what I'm really doing.

I get to the top of the cove and find it still shrouded in shadow. The temperature is in the 80s but that's not bad considering the highs were in the 120 range yesterday.

As I head up to my hiking destination the sun starts to cover the earth in front of me. I run through this section for fear that I'll melt if the sun hits me.

I get to this hill at the top of the Cove area and climb whatever hills that await me.

The trails back here are substantial and are in existence completely from use. No one built this trail. It is here solely from people hiking this way.

The best thing about hiking in this area is that whether in the morning or the evening you can find an area with the shade needed to hike without fear of dying from the heat.

I come to the end of the line, which is a line where the sun crosses my path.

As I head back to the parking area I come to a place where the sun has overtaken the trail and I am forced to actually walk in the sun for almost 30 or 40 seconds. Thankfully, I have enough water and sunscreen to survive. I don't know how I'll be able to make it through the rest of the hot weather but at least for this morning I made it out alive. Now I'm going back to bed.

Sleepwalking

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FOUR

This morning my lovely wife, aka Early Bird, woke me up at six a.m. so I could go out and hike. At 6:30 she came back in a said, "Alright lardass, get your lazy butt out of bed and get moving". OK, she didn't actually say that but her tone did. Or maybe I was just dreaming. Anyway, I got up. The wonderful angel that my wife is, she made coffee but I turned it down. Even though I was going hiking I wasn't quite ready to get up.

I brought Kahlua and headed over to the hills near our house in the La Quinta cove. We were going to head up this steep little trail when a lady was coming down. Instead of hiking away she turned around to head back up. Good exercise for the gluts, I thought. Not that I looked or anything.

As I head across the hill, you will notice from the picture the shadow of the mountain. That is going to be a major requisite for hikes in the desert for the next few months: shade.

I'm going to head down to that little crease where you can see that shade. There's a trail there. Of course to get there I'll have to venture out into the sun. Ugh.

Some people think I'm a bit crazy to go hiking every day and they may have a point but do you know what I think is crazy? Getting up before the sun to go out and play golf. Those people should go see a shrink.

We get to the canyon and go up just a ways. I hear someone calling me and realize it's my pillow so we turn around before reaching the top.

There are lots of ducks along this trail for me to knock over but I don't have the energy. I've been out for an hour and still haven't woken up yet.

The clouds offer some respite from the direct sunlight during the walk back.

Someone built this rock circle and I'm tempted to lay down here and take a little rest but the sun reappears. I'll just have to settle for my own bed instead. Good night!