Joshua Tree National Park is located in Southern California and is 789,745 acres (nearly the size of Rhode Island!) of rocks, cactus, and Joshua trees.
These organisms are pretty cool: They can grow up to 300 years old, are some of the fastest growing desert plants (up to 3" of growth per year in their first ten years), and are endemic to the Mojave Desert of the Southwestern US.
Their root systems can also spread up to 35 feet away from the trunk. That would be like humans having feet as long as their height. Big shoes...
I arrived in the town of Palm Springs with a HUGE backpack and a second-hand kids bike trailer ($20 at Ski Fanatics in Campton, NH!) and went to WalMart to buy a bike.
The plan was as such: I would throw the pack in the trailer, hook it up to my new set of wheels, and pedal away to the campground in Joshua Tree, a healthy 50 miles. I figured if I really had to, I could do it in 2 days.
After the El Cheap-O™ bike purchase, I biked away from store along the local highway. It only took me 40 minutes to realize I was not going to make it by bicycle. I can tell you from experience now that towing over a 100lbs of trailer is hard, hard work. Hard enough work that I stopped on the side of the highway, ditched the trailer, and gave the bike to a passerby. Her name was Michelle. She was from Canada.
So I walked to the hotel I had made a reservation. That occupied me for the next 3 hours or so. I can also now tell you from experience that walking with a 100+ lb pack, even on flat ground, is hard work. Not recommended, if you can avoid it. Unless you are a mule. I've heard they're pretty good at that stuff.
Next morning, armed with a cardboard sign that read "JOSHUA TREE" and a large thumb I stood on a street corner in downtown Palm Springs. It was only twenty minutes before a massive red pickup truck pulled into the restaurant driveway behind me and a voice called out. A man dressed in blue scrubs stepped out and introduced himself as Tom.
Tom lived in Yucca Valley, north of Palm Springs but still another 10 miles from the town of Joshua Tree. He was very gracious and drove me all the way there anyway, where I was able to pick up the package I sent myself general delivery at the post office (shipped my big cams so that I didn't have to check them in my baggage) and also bought some supplies and white gas at Nomad Ventures. Another 40 minute wait on the side of the road snagged me a ride from David and Rems, who introduced themselves by saying, "You looked harmless enough, so we figured we could give you a ride into the park."
Nice fist jab, Rems!
I got a pretty sweet site, relatively sheltered from the wind (and it was worth it, the next few days we saw gusts of up to 50mph) and a great view of the formations as the sun came up...
It was amazingly easy to meet people. Nine out of ten times, walking into someone's campsite with a friendly disposition and a "hello" was enough to start a good conversation. At some point in the conversation it would become apparent that they climbed (or did not) and then whether they currently had a partner or not. I never found myself without climbing partners while I was there.
