The Painted Desert

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN

Work and family left me little time to hike today and tomorrow will be a similar day. I need to find a new job. Where can I apply as a professional hiker?

I headed up to the Kahlua Trail later than I'd hoped. Except for this little portion at the beginning of our hike, the shade was gone. We'd be walking in the sun.

For all the graffiti abatement programs the city has this area never seems to get cleaned up. I'm thinking that maybe I should call the graffiti hotline.

Not only do these taggers leave their marks, they also leave their cans. I'm definitely contacting the city TODAY. Since it's out of view I bet they don't even know and most hikers probably forget about it once they get back to their cars. I wonder how long it'll take the city to clean up this mess.

Kahlua fancies herself as a hunter but there is no way she can catch one of these Antelope Ground Squirrels. They are too quick and too smart and as much as Kahlua loves the outdoors she's not much of a hunter. Just don't tell her I said that.

Only the start of the Kahlua Trail is really much of a trail. I think anytime we come up here we go a different way and never leave much to follow the next time. Starting next year we're going to have to make this a real project. Dog people need more area to hike around here.

I wonder what this wash basin thing is doing here. Hiking around I see so much interesting stuff and always wonder the story behind it.

We head up into the sun and it is starting to really warm up.

Kahlua is looking for some place to lay in the shade. She has NEVER done this before. Of course, I usually don't bring her into the direct sunlight. That black coat isn't made for sun.

I let her lay down for a while and get her some water. She doesn't need much time to rest and we're on our way again. Cooler weather can't come soon enough for either of us.

We get to the base of the hill and I give her another moment to rest. There's a perfect little den for her to kick back before our return home so I can shower and head to work. We'll get this trail done one of these days; I just have to remember to work in some shade along the way.

North of The Kahlua Trail

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE

This morning when I woke up the temperature here was actually cooler than the weather in San Diego.

That didn't last too long.

By the time I got ready, took my son to school and came home to get my hiking gear the temperature had gone up over twenty degrees and was now eighteen degrees warmer than the 71º of San Diego. I'd hoped to get out early enough to hike in the shade on the not yet created Kahlua Trail but no luck; I got there too late.

I went to the top of the La Quinta Cove where I've been so many times this year and headed toward the hill to go to the Kahlua Trail.

But as I head toward the mountain I get a crazy idea: why not turn left at the base of the hill instead of right? So that's what I do.

We don't have to go very far and we find a trail that climbs up the hill so we decide to check it out. It's so much easier to walk on these rocky hills around here with a trail.

Besides the trail, there are a couple of rock piles that make it evident that we're not the first ones to come up this way.

The trail climbs across this rocky hillside and diminishes into nothing. I think there might be a trail here but it's not much. I figure it might just be a game trail.

At least there's a nice view from up here.

If there is a trail it really doesn't lead anywhere. We've got to drop down into this wash and it doesn't look like fun. Steep, loose, rocky slopes scare me. I slipped on one yesterday and got a little bruise on my thigh that I didn't discover until this morning.

We get down safely and Kahlua is ready to go home. Every time we go by some shade she stops to lay down. It's now 25º warmer than it is in San Diego. I'm ready for summer to end.