Day 19, middle of nowhere

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.