Jan 21st
Kathleen contracted Covid before we left home, so we have been isolating. Today, I have come down with it too. We hiked down to the Kern River, but I started feeling really ill when we got back. Kathleen has recovered, but I started going downhill.
P.S. The “bear” tracks turned out to be an extremely large dog that was camped up the road.
Jan 22nd
I was extremely sick last night. My throat hurt so bad that I couldn’t swallow and I had a very high fever. No breathing or lung problems. Mia and Kathy spent a good portion of the day down at the river, and I spent it in bed. Tim and Melinda showed up this evening, and Kathy and Mia spent some time social distancing with them.
Jan 23rd
My fever broke last night and the sore throat has gone away. I am just left with a cough and runny nose. If I had mild symptoms, I would hate to imagine what sever symptoms feel like. Extremely glad we are vaccinated. I was able to get outside today and walk for a short distance, but I was still very weak.
Jan 24th
I am feeling much better today. Tim and Melinda left this morning. We said our goodbyes from 20 feet apart. We drove east into the California desert. We stopped for the night in Last Chance Canyon, on BLM land. We were camped out in the middle of the desert with no one around for miles. The star gazing was absolutely amazing, but it is cold here.
Jan 25th
The wind picked up this morning, so we decided to find a less exposed site. We chose to go south near the Salton Sea. Kathy found dispersed camping on BLM land at Painted Canyon, near the town of Mecca. The drive in is very rough and all sand. Most of the places to pull over are in sand, so we had to use four-wheel-drive. Let’s just hope we can get out later. We are camped inside the canyon, with gorgeous rock view all around us. There are hiking trails going into each branch of the canyon. But from what we have read, the Painted Canyon Trail, at the end of the road is a must-do hike. We will try it tomorrow. Star gazing is not quite as good here, we are a little too close to a city. It was however, much warmer.
Jan 26th
With the temperatures much warmer down here, we opted to hike this morning before it got too hot. We left Oreo at home because there is some climbing involved, and drove the truck to the trail head. It’s a very popular hike, and there were already about 20 cars there. The canyon is fantastic! Around each bend, the colors of the rocks change. There is tan, red, orange, green and white. We arrived at an intersection, and several people said that we should turn left, because it was easier to go up the ladders, than to go down them on the way back. Ladders???? Parts of the canyon are narrow, and require the ladders to get up. Three ladders on the way up the trail, and two on the loop back. The trail is amazing! Some boulder climbing, ladder climbing, narrow canyons (reminded us of Petra), and when it opened up, we were on the ridge of the mountains looking down into the canyons. We hiked along the ridge for another mile, and then the trail dropped back into the canyons and brought us back. It ended up being 5.5 miles and the equivalent of climbing 58 stories. The climbing up and down was hard, but when we were on level ground, we were hiking through sand, which is very difficult. Mia did great, and still had energy left over. Over all, this was one of the greatest hikes I have ever been on. I highly recommend it. We went to bed early tonight, a little sore.
Jan 27th
All of us slept really well after yesterday’s hike. Mia found another trail that she wanted to try, so after some morning school, we set off. This hike, up another arm of the canyon, was more of a climb. I think that’s why Mia picked it. This one was a full body work out, as we climbed more than hiked.
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