Brotherly Love

DAY NINETY FIVE

My boys are like any two brothers; they fight constantly. They like different things and have never agreed on anything. Until today.

Nikolas told his brother about our geocache outing and Harrison wanted to do it, too. Harrison doesn't really like hiking. Sports are more of his thing, however, the idea of searching for hidden treasure is kind of a sport, so he was intrigued.

We started at the top of the La Quinta Cove and got our coordinates.

Off we go on our hunt for treasure. We head right toward the cove oasis but don't stop. Our goal lies beyond.

One thing I learned as a camp counselor is that to keep boys interested while hiking, it is important to throw some rocks. Pick a target and let it fly. Nikolas is armed and ready.

We head out across the open desert following the coordinates on our GPS. I show Harrison what to look for and he becomes our navigator.

We find this treasure but the boys don't want to keep it. We set it up on a rock near a well used mountain bike trail and figure someone will be back for it.

Our treasure is somewhere down in this wash area.

After a little hunting around, we have found it!

Let's have a look inside.

Whoa! This one has cold hard cash. Nikolas decides he wants the One Billion Dollars!

And in return, we leave a flash drive. I think it is only about 64MB. But I'm sure it's a treasure someone can use.

Nikolas asks his brother if he wants to go and check out the geocache we went to a few days ago and surprisingly Harrison says yes. We cruise over there and discover no one has been there since our last visit so if you need an iPod cable, you'd better hurry.

Read about that trip here.

Since we're out longer than we figured we'd be, it is starting to get dark but no worries. We've got the moon to bring us back.

On the way to the car, we find a Bandana Bush. Like the water bottle, the boys don't want to take it with them. I'm glad my kids have a respect for nature.

For the first time in their lives, my boys did not fight for well over an hour. There was no bickering, name calling, taunting or ridicule. At one point I had to check to see if they were still breathing. It seems like a dream.

It looks like we've found a new hobby. I probably won't go out and do it by myself but if I can get these guys to live in peace AND go hiking with me, I'll be the happiest dad on the planet. The boys loved our little adventure and I was witness to the greatest treasure any man can find: brotherly love.

Palm Desert Hiking Park and beyond!

Day Forty Three

After hiking up the green hills near Snow Creek,  I thought I'd go to the Palm Desert Hiking Park and see how green the hills above Palm Desert are.  Unfortunately, the answer is: not very.

I head up the Gabby Hayes trail and this time decide not to take the offshoot trail but to remain on the main trail.  I still don't really know who Gabby Hayes is and why this trail is named for him but that's OK.  They can name any number of trails for obscure Western movie actors as long as they keep building them.

Someone has decided to create this trail art by piling up rocks on other rocks.

Not wanting to hike to the cross today, I head to the right and take a trail by the fence near Stone Eagle Golf Club.

There's a trail that climbs the side of the mountain above Bump and Grind.  I've heard a ton of names for this mountain but I call it COD Mountain because when I first moved here someone had painted the letters COD on the face of it.

There is some green along the hillsides but nothing to compare to the hills near Palm Springs.  The golf course doesn't count.

I climb high on the mountain on a pretty good trail.  Someone had obviously put some work into it.

The view of the golf course from the top.

Someone put some art at the top of the mountain.

Instead of going down the same trail I decide to go straight down the mountain face to the top of Bump and Grind.  That way if it gets dark on me I'll be able to follow the herd trail down.

This hill is steep and rocky and I keep thinking I would not want to do this in the dark.  Coming down this was fast but it wasn't fun.  My teeth are still clinched.

The lights are coming on in the city.

I got down just a bit after dark but my night vision must be improving with all my after sunset adventures.  I didn't even have to reach in my pocket and get out a light.  Although it was much longer than I anticipated, I'm glad I did this hike.  I'll sleep well tonight.

Goodnight Moon

Day Thirty Eight

Today's hike was not meant to be a moonlight hike, that's just how it turned out.  I headed south toward the Salton Sea looking for an old Indian Trail with some great rock art that I'd been on about fifteen years ago.  Do I remember where it is?  Sorta.

I drive through some vineyards and park the Jeep here.  As an afterthought, I grabbed the Jeep's GPS, marked the location and put it in my pocket.  It's a good thing I did.

I wander up the alluvial fan, going cross country, hoping I run into something interesting.

I don't have to hike more than ten minutes until I hit a trail.  It's not THE trail but it'll do.

There are a few petroglyphs along the trail, not THE petroglyphs I'm looking for but...

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out this represents.

I lose the trail when it drops into a little wash and go back to wandering cross country until I hit.....

A road.

From the road I am able to locate THE trail I'm really looking for.  It's getting dark but I know I'm not too far from THE petroglyphs so I keep going.

Here they are.  This is a nice little section of rock art located in the middle of nowhere.  I have tried to figure out why here, but cannot conceive the reason someone decided to create a museum in the middle of this alluvial plain.  There are tons of pictures and I know I'll have to come back during the day sometime.

I don't have a flashlight, only the light of my cellphone but I don't need it.  The moon is bright enough that I can follow the trail until I hit the road.  I play it safe and decide to follow it rather than going cross country in the pale moonlight.  The Jeep is about two miles away.  Good thing I brought that GPS.  I am within two hundred feet of the Jeep before I see it there shining in the moonlight.  It never looked better.  I fire it up and negotiate my way back to a real road  but not before I say thanks to the moon for its light and telling it goodnight.

I have posted more pictures on my Flikr account.  Find them here.

The Way You Look Tonight

Day Twenty Five

Today I had a choice.  I could wake up early and get a hike in before work or I could sleep in and wait until after work and hike in the dark.  Well, night time is the right time so I enjoyed my extra slumber this morning and took a little hike after dark.  

I've hiked at night many times but it usually was not be choice. Either environmental conditions called for it, i.e, climbing a mountain early in the morning when snow is consolidated, or I just finished later than hoped for.  This time it was purely by choice.

There are a few things I learned on this night hike that I'll use when I do more.

 

Oh good, the park is still open!

And the trail is open, too.  Sweet!

I learned you should do a hike you've done before when going night hiking.   I wander around a bit wondering if I'm off track.

I hit this sign and think I'm lost but I'm not.  It's just some more names of people I've never heard of.

I finally hit the actual trailhead and get on a real trail.

You've seen those beautiful night shots of city lights.  This is not one of them.  Another lesson learned.  When doing night photography, bring a tripod.  Maybe it would also help if I knew what I was doing.

This one is a little better.  Very little.

It might help if I had a destination in mind but I come to a fork in the trail and take it.

I've seen this before and maybe it'll be my next night destination.

The night hike was actually kinda fun and I look forward to doing another soon.  Maybe in two weeks when there's a FULL moon.  That's the last lesson I'll take from tonight.  If you're not hiking during a full moon, bring a BIG flashlight.