Good morning Joshua Tree!
Remember that boulder mound I mentioned yesterday, well, here is a panoramic from the top. I'm not sure how to embed it on the blog, a link will have to suffice.
Panoramic Photo of Joshua Tree
While hiking out from the backcountry, back to the road, I met David & Anishka (please correct me if I spelled your name wrong!) from Belgium. Anishka was taking some photos, which I can only imagine are incredible. My little phone camera does a good job, but a professional DSLR, that is a whole new level.
David and Anishka
Needing coffee (David would have shared, but he just finished his - thanks though!), I headed into the town of Joshua Tree.
I found two coffee shops, the first a bit standoff-ish, so I setup at the second. They had free wifi anyways.
First, I ran into Cloud, tying together bird feathers and sipping tea. He fell in love with Joshua Tree and decided to live here. I didn't notice until I left, but he tied a vibrant blue & green bird feather to my bike. Paired with my magic rock, I'm feeling good.
Cloud
The second interesting event of the morning is that I ran into Albert and Dingo. Albert is Brian's neighbor in North Hollywood - Dingo his trusty sidekick and Dahlia's friend. I met them briefly several days ago while Albert was taking Dingo and Dahlia (Brian's dog) for a walk. The world is a small place.
I cycled into Twentynine Palms, stocked up on provisions at the local Stater Bros and left civilization.
This sign was a bit daunting. 8 liters of water, check. Food, check. Sanity, ...
The afternoon ride consisted of a single massive climb, and a single massive descent.
Miles and miles of coasting
Getting dark, with absolutely nothing in sight, I pulled off the side of the road, hiked about 100m into the desert and setup camp.
Dinner was a little less exciting than last night, cleaning up the remnants of my deli wraps. It still tasted great - all I cared about was getting some sleep.
Joe.