When You Want Something Done....

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND SEVEN

It has often been said that when you want something done, you have to do it yourself. That point was driven (or hiked) home today. I went out toward the top of the La Quinta cove trails for a short hike because I had to work this morning and saw a few things that did not make me happy.

The parking lot is much busier now than at any time in the past six months.

After my last hike up here a couple of months ago I called the city and told them about this graffiti and gave them directions on where to come a paint over it. It's obviously still there. I guess that'll be a little project for me like this one.

Hiking along I get to a place where the vegetation has overtaken the best route. In addition to bringing paint out here I'll have to bring some loppers as well.

Add bird seed to the list. There aren't a lot of seeds in the wild right now and having some here might keep the birds from eating me grass seed.

In areas of historical significance this might be known as historical litter. Here, however, it is known by a different name: junk.

I wonder how many trash bags this will take. If these were recyclable for 5¢ each I wouldn't have to worry about coming here again and cleaning it up.

Then on the way back I came upon this bad trail erosion. I don't mind mountain bikes riding the trails up here but they tear them up and don't ever do anything to rectify that. Some time with a shovel would do wonders here.

Not everything about this hike was negative. There's nothing that needs to be done with these views except to enjoy them.

Community Clean Up

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT

Graffiti is an annoying form of vandalism that costs hundreds of millions of dollars each year in the US to irradiate. It is annoying enough to see it on walls and buildings when one drives around town but it is doubly irritating to see it when out hiking. Why someone would pack a couple of cans or aerosol paint in lieu of water bottles in their backpack is beyond any rationale. There are a few places I've been hiking to this year where someone has done just that and each time I've thought that I've got to come back and paint over that. Well, today I finally got around to doing it.

I was going to go down to the local hardware store but the wife pointed out that we had some leftover paint from a home repair that matched the local rocks pretty well so I decided to take that. The only problem was that I couldn't find a brush or roller. The wife came to the rescue again with a little brush out of her art supplies and off I went.

The most egregious example of graffiti on the hikes I've done this year is right here in La Quinta. It's on a hike I've done many times so it's bothered me all year .

That's not the rock we're looking for, Kahlua.

THAT'S the rock we want to paint over.

Uh oh, when we get to the rock I discover that the paint brush the wife gave me lost the spongy part. What to do?

I look around and think that maybe this creosote bush might make a good brush.

It seems to be working OK--for about a minute. Then the creosote just falls apart.

I always did love finger painting when I was a kid.

The coverage is actually pretty good considering I don't have the proper tools to do the job. Maybe I'll come back with some brushes for some touch up work.

I think once the paint dries the color will be OK. It's certainly better than white.

The power of the palm! I wonder how a palm frond would do as a brush? Better than a creosote, that's for sure.

Can you tell which rock it was that got a paint job? No? Good.

On Restriction

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT

Fifteen years ago I used to hike with my dog everywhere. OK, not everywhere because dogs are not allowed in State or National Parks but almost everywhere. Now it's almost impossible to find a place to hike with your dog. Here in La Quinta most of the trails are closed to dogs due to the bighorn sheep. Personally, I think the closures are stupid but I won't go into it too much today.

There are still a few places I can take my dog without restrictions but I have to be creative and stay off the known trails. That's what I did today.

From the top of the La Quinta Cove I went east to the concrete slab near the mountain. On the slab was a hawk and I managed to get a quick picture just before he took off.

We headed out toward the trails but took a right turn and went up the ridge of this alluvial fan that you can see in the middle part of the picture. There is not a trail there (yet) but if enough people start walking there we can create a trail in the way people have done for thousands of years, by walking the earth.

This is what it looks like when you start heading up. There is no trail (yet) but the terrain is not very difficult. There are a few sections with some decent size rocks but they are easily gone around or over.

As you get near the base of the mountain, you get a nice view of the top of the cove and Coyote Mountain.

We looked around for a while to find the best route for a trail and on the way back we found a geocache.

Which we cleaned up a bit.

Kahlua likes the idea of creating a new trail and suggested the name the Kahlua Trail. She also thinks our next project should be to clean up some of the graffiti around town. I'll put it on our list.