I’m finally here, deep in the heart of Joshua Tree 
National Park! The desolation is complete, the silence is deafening, and I couldn’t be more content. The juxtaposition of Big Sur and Joshua Tree is dramatic – I’ve traded fog and water for sand and stone. The desert air feels good in my lungs, and has dried out my wet gear in a matter of minutes. It’s dusk, and I’m perched in my tent, near a ridge line between two sentinels of red sandstone. The ‘Joshua Trees’ lurk quietly about me, their shadowy silhouettes looking like zombies with their arms outstretched. Even with these seemingly upsetting surroundings, the desert has a calming characteristic that puts me completely at ease. I can see why people like to live out here.
Unfortunately I have to open this entry with an admission – I am no longer entirely under my own power on this trip. I pedaled all the way from SF to LA, and I’m happy about that! However due to my knee rapidly decreasing in capacity, I’m going to have to augment my daily riding with public transit and hitchhiking. :-( I’m not thrilled about it, but I think it’s a better choice than injuring myself further on down the road. On the plus side, I can cover and AMAZING amount of ground in a day!
Last night Beth and Margo let me spend a second night at their dorms, which was nice. I had a little time in the morning to research my decision about a destination, and ultimately chose Joshua Tree. From what everyone tells me, Tijuana is a scummy little border town with not much to redeem it.
I started my ride at UCLA, cruising through the endless streets of Los Angeles. I saw the rich and famous in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and eventually made my way over to downtown. That trip was barely 15 miles, and my knees were already screaming! I looked up some train routes, and found the Metro Red North which heads out to San Bernadino. If any of you have ever taken Cal-Train in the Bay Area, its almost exactly like that. It made for a great way to get through the outer suburbs of L.A., which are not that fun to cycle in. San Bernadino is nothing to write home about – sort of a dusty, hot, run down bedroom community. I hopped on my bike and beat a hasty retreat out of there, and up the valley. The San Bernadino valley has such intense Eastwardly winds, that it has been FILLED with power generating wind turbines. I’m used to seeing them on my way out to the Central Valley in the Bay Area, but there are WAY more here, and the wind is literally gale force. I barely pedaled all the way from the train until just outside of Palm Springs.
As soon as you escape the valley, the smog dissipates and reveals a series of dramatic desert mountains that ring the whole of L.A. Just out of Palm Springs I threw my thumb out, and almost instantly got picked up by a couple of rushed guys in a huge red semi tractor (with no trailer). They hurriedly threw my gear in the cab and dragged me up the four steps into the passenger seats. I’ve never ridden in an 18 wheeler, and I have to say – the view is damn nice! The guys were cool – a couple of hefty Hispanic dudes. Apparently they were new to the trucking business and had just picked up this rig about two weeks before. The driver spent most of the ride complaining about the CHP and how they had cited him for some “connector hose,” and had made him drive all the way back to L.A. to get a new one. Oh well.
The truck guys dropped me at the corner of 
HWY 10 and HWY 62, which heads out to Joshua Tree. I rode for about 100 yards before wincing with pain. I put up my thumb again, and had a ride in less than 5 minutes. A delightful woman named Paula picked me up in her Tacoma 4x4, and it turned out to be one of the nicest thumb-rides I’ve ever had! She had been down in Palm Springs tending to some newly born puppies, and was on her way back to Yucca Valley when she saw me. I got the usual line “Usually I don’t pick people up, but you’re a bicyclist, and I figured ‘what’s the worst that can happen.’” Everybody loves the bicyclists! :-) We got to talking about dessert life, UFO sightings, and all the other fun things that happen out here. She was nice enough to take me WAY past her house, and all the way up to the entrance to the National Park! WOW! It certainly made my day, and I will go out of my way to pay it forward in the future. Thanks Paula!
I rode about 5 miles into the park, and here I am; typing the day’s adventure under a sliver of a moon, in the stillness of the desert.
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