Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear- the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heart breaking beauty where there are no hearts to break… I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun. -Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire.

Hello world! I am happy to report that I have been living at Panamint Springs in Death Valley, California for the past two months of March and April. It has not been enough time! I was hired to work here for just two months because I was planning to go to Australia in May. I guess I was not ready to stop travelling yet, seeing as how my truck is still in storage, so the time to explore the world is now. It would have been nice to work a job I didn’t love so much for just two months, because now it breaks my heart to leave here. Still, I was so glad I could reaffirm my connection with this place and these great people. This is my favorite part of the country.

But I’ve decided I don’t actually want to go to Australia yet, and I should save more money here in the state’s first. So I’ll do a different dream at this time, one where I need to not have my vehicle tying me down, and that dream is to bike across the country! My bike is packed, ready to go, and I’ll be leaving here May 2nd to ride north- destination Montana where I’ve lined up a job… I’ll be returning to a place which haunts my soul, Glacier National Park, and confront again the wicked mountains in the Many Glacier Valley. But first I have to actually get there.

So I am going to be blogging about the bike ride… but unfortunately so much happened in Central America it took me this entire two months to write about it and still I couldn’t get caught up. My biking posts will hopefully be a lot more concise! Anyway… here’s the rest of the story… After a month of hitchhiking/ taking buses starting at the Panama Canal where I ditched my last sailboat, I arrived in Phoenix, Arizona…

 

2/15

I was asleep in the back of the car with two nice people who picked me up, Raoul and Maria, cruising north through the desert night to Phoenix. Before the city, I woke up and realized it was time for me to get out of this car and setup my camp. I talked to Raoul about it, told him to let me off at any exit or rest stop he saw… He seemed a taken back by this request, or a little confused. This was a middle aged Mexican couple, who made a decent, normal living in the states, and it seemed unordinary for them to just ditch me on the side of the highway. Well, you guys found me on the side of the highway, can’t you just leave me on the side of the highway as well? The thing is, I knew if I was brought all the way into Phoenix, I would find nowhere to camp, however I was not in Mexico anymore, and staying in a hotel was no longer an option. The cheapest hotel you’ll find in the US is gonna be like 40$, I can’t be paying that unless it’s an emergency! Raoul then offered, well, “You can just stay with us for the night.”

I couldn’t deny this offer, what wonderful kindness, and so I went back to Phoenix with them. It’s an enormous city, and deep in the urban spawl they lived in a tiny one story house, in a Mexican neighborhood of all tiny one story houses. I went inside with them, it was a very simple house without much furniture. I liked it, then I met his neice. She was living with them with her daughter, and though she greeted me kindly enough, I could tell she wasn’t happy to see me. I didn’t realize Raoul and Maria had other family living with them, and it did feel a bit awkward. Raoul’s kindness and generosity was very admirable that he would try and take care of me, try and take care of all people who come his way. I forgot to mention it in my last post, but he had bought me an incredible lunch of tacos as well, and wouldn’t accept my money for it. What a wonderful man, and I felt very bad about what transpired.

He set me up on the couch and we were getting ready to turn in for bed, when the niece talked to him and basically said she didn’t want me here. Raoul confronted me about it, and I was like, okay I’m outta here! Quickly packing my things back up. He felt really bad about it, insisting to drive me to a hotel. I didn’t mind either way, I got in the car with him. I felt bad mostly because he kept apologizing, and it’s like… You don’t need to apologize to me! You are a wonderful person, you have helped me SO much! You brought me back from Mexico to my own country, you took care of me and treated me like family. But it was awkward yes, another strange experience for my life, and I said goodbyes to him in front of a hotel. Something like 96$ for a room, hahaha… not going to happen. This is what I was afraid of though, getting stuck in the middle of Phoenix at midnight with nowhere to lay to rest.

Actually I felt pretty refreshed from my nap in the car, and off I walked. Let’s find some space to hide, I was walking down that American, United States sidewalk. I talked to someone, actually he was offering me money as I sat and repacked my bag on the sidewalk. “No, necisito, gracias,” I answered him in Spanish because he spoke to me in Spanish. Then I realized, wait I’m in the USA, we speak English here! It was interesting to forget that. I looked for somewhere I could set up camp and eventually found a big dark field after a while of walking. It was an empty lot and I walked way out into it. In the middle of the lot I found bushes I could hide behind, my view looked out to the back of condominiums to one side, and the road distant on the other three sides, traffic lights, a gas station… I setup and became pretty comfortable, the air was cool. I had come far enough north to find winter here! No bugs, clear skies and I slept great.

---

 

2/16

In the morning I walked to the gas station and filled my water. Talked to the fat guy who seemed to think I was a nut, but ah, I thought he was the nut! Phoenix is a huge city, and I don’t really like it. I was trapped in a sprawling suburbia, a perfect grid, where each block was exactly one mile away. So I had to walk 5 blocks to get to the highway I needed. It was a good long walk in the morning sun, under my heavy pack, but I was enjoying myself. I stopped in a McDonalds where I used the wifi and some punk kid sat with my and plugged his phone into my computer to charge it. He was a nuisance and asked me for money which I didn’t give him or tried to sell me weed. He wanted to buy food, but instead I made him a tortilla with cheese, because that’s what I was eating. It’s cheaper and better, I told him, but he complained it was too plain. Ate it anyway… as I left he was standing with his gang of friends and one of them called to me, “Goodluck in Kansas!” “Thanks” I said back.

Soon I made it to the main highway where I tried to ask directions from people but they were blunt and unwilling to help much. I eventually found a bus and convinced the bus driver to explain where it was going. I would need a few city busses to get to the suburb of Sunshine where I would be able to escape Phoenix, and also no busses seemed to run as far as Sunshine. I would need a day pass which cost 5 dollars but I only had a couple 20s left and the bus couldn’t make change. I also had three dollar coins leftover from El Salvador. Someone in the bus heard my dilemma, and stood up to tell me he’d sell me his day pass for 3$ since he was done with it for the day! Success! Just some more magic and the bus took me to where I’d connect with another bus. It was here I saw an AT&T store, walked in and was able to reactivate my phone plan. Then I got on another bus where an old woman told me all about her life here, and told me where to go.

I didn’t make it all the way to Sunshine, but I did get on a highway, 5 lanes which stopped at traffic lights periodically. I went in a ditch first to relax and then went out to the road to hitchhike. Now I’m here in the states… Society is not here to help you. In Mexico/Central America you always can get a hotel, but you can’t do that here. There’s also always a bus to take you anywhere you need to go, here you’re on your own. Still I almost prefer this. I like to live trampy and not be bothered by the temptation of conveniences. To struggle I guess. Something about the US society makes me feel like I’m hiding, and like I’m good at hiding, and I like the feeling. So I stood there hitchhiking. I think I can tell people from other countries, the US does kind of suck but it totally suits me and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Looking out past billboards to the bridge over a dry riverbed, and in the distance I saw the dusty mountains of the west and the free American highway.

Of course no one picked me up. It was extremely hot and I stood there for an exhaustingly long time, over an hour. Finally I started walking and kept hitching while another hour passed. I stopped right after another traffic light, it seemed like a good place to catch a ride. The very first car picked me up after I stopped there. It was a beat up little white Honda, the driver was about my age, he was 25. The car was dirty, and he and his car made me feel happy immediately. He was a Native American guy, kind of fat, with long, dyed red, straightened hair. He was wearing goth clothes. “Where are you going?” I asked him. My plan today was to get as far as Kingman, Arizona, which is halfway to Las Vegas. Tomorrow I was planning to just camp out in the desert outside Kingman and relax, because I had one extra day before I had to meet my brother at the airport. The day after that, rested, I’d hitch into the Vegas area for the night and meet my brother the following day. The guy told me he was going to Vegas.

His name was Ian but I never learned that until I friended him on Facebook later. I told him I was also going to Vegas, but not yet, I only wanted to go as far as Kingman today. We didn’t need to have much conversation before we realized we liked eachother, he didn’t need to hear my whole life story before he was able to understand me. He told me he was going to this death metal concert he had wanted to see for 8 years. The problem was, his friend had bailed on him. Ian had to work in Phoenix at 6AM but the concert doesn’t get out until midnight and it’s about a 5 hour drive. He was planning to have his friend drive back while he sleeps in the car. I thought about it, and said, “Well I could go with you, then drive you back as far as Kingman.” He thought about this idea, he had the extra concert ticket. It was a 300 dollar ticket for the metal band Cradle of Filth playing at the Vegas House of Blues. He’d rather not go alone anyway, “Okay sure let’s do it,” he said.

So, I knew I wanted to relax because I felt pretty worn out from this whole trip and all I needed was one day in the desert where I could hear no noise and just rest. But it looks like I’m not going to get that quite yet. First I need to go to this show and take out some aggression! When this idea came up, I thought, yes, that sounds like something which would be good for me at this time. Drown my tortured thoughts a bit. So I sat there with Ian, he didn’t ask me about my trip. We just turned up the music and drove 100mph across the Arizona desert blasting the screaming death metal and passing a bunch of cars I recognized who hadn’t picked me up hitching. This is exactly the car I want to be in.

At some point we did talk a bit though and turned the music down, we passed a town called ‘Nowhere,’ and we drove through Kingman. Then we hit the straight shot Nevada highway, and soon were among the chopped landscape of the Colorado River and Lake Mead. It was fantastic, grandiose scenery. I told Ian this is more impressive/ beautiful then any of the scenery in Central America, this is more harsh, rocky, desiccated and huge. “This is ugly,” he said. Ian was really hilarious though, he told me about growing up on the Navajo res in a town I’ve been to once called Tuba City. It’s a rundown town and he hates it. He escaped and went to Phoenix, living completely homeless for a while before setting himself up a life and a construction job. He’d been to jail, and also was the lead singer of his own metal band and they were leaving next month to go on tour in Europe. (Supposedly…)

We arrived in Las Vegas at sunset and drove down the strip, what a light show! Oh, I just can’t even believe I’m back in this absurd town. We were both excited though. Hey I made it! Even though I’m going to drive BACK to Arizona and then hitchhike BACK here! We parked and walked around, having some time to kill before the show. We went in the mazelike casinos with the hypnotic carpets and Ian wanted to gamble, he threw 5 dollars at the wheel and spun it away. Then a little frantically, another five dollars, and another five dollars. He lost it all. I also threw five dollars and lost. Now I’m done. We walked around having a great time and making all kinds of social commentary. Ian wanted to eat, and feeling too poor at the food court for Chinese food, we got McDonalds. I got ice cream and fries which is all I usually want. He got a cheeseburger and told me he used to be able to eat 10 or 20 of them, but he has had his stomach stapled or some kind of surgery which he apparently needed because of other health issues. Now he eats less, but it made me think of our US culture. In Mexico the native peoples are not fat and unhealthy, but here they are, (whether they are white natives or Indian doesn’t matter). The problem is the fast food industry exploiting people by feeding drugs instead of food. He pulled his last 20$ out from the bank, and lost it all to the wheel. He was a good person though, I decided I’d buy his gas on the ride home.

We went into the show and it was exciting. I felt so funny being there, so spontaneous, so magical! Hitchhiking is a magical way to travel, you never know what adventure you’re getting yourself into, and sometimes you get stuff like a free concert in Vegas. We stood near the front of the venue and Ian puffed huge clouds of purple smelling smoke out of his vaporizer onto all the people, “blessing them with Indian magic.” The first band came on, and I thought they sounded pretty good. It was an Australian metal band, they were screaming but one of the guys had an electric violin which he played skillfully and loud. It was a very artful performance, however the crowd of goth kids were not dancing, seemed to have no energy. They weren’t able to get the crowd going, but the next band definitely did. I can’t remember the name, it was something like Bad Bitches, and there were two lead singers who were girls. They were extremely hot, strapped into bright colored corsets with perfect boobs. They both had long hair, one dyed bright scarlet and the other purple with outfits to match. The mosh pit started and I danced and pushed people and got myself beaten up a little. It was great, so much energy and fun and I was drenched in sweat.

At the end of their performance the red haired girl came down into the sea of people and swinging her hands around in a circle commanded the mosh pit to spin dancing around her like she controlled the crowd. People had been crowd surfing too at her order. Their screaming was awesome! They were some bad bitches! Finally Cradle of Filth came on and that’s when the crowd really went crazy, but I personally liked the second band better. These guys were like the ‘death metal gods’ and the lead had this high pitched scream he kept throwing in there which must have come from Satan himself! It was pretty funny, they played one song called “The Garden of RRRAAAGAAAGA! At some point I got a good bruise on my arm, and decided I had enough moshing, it was getting progressively more violent. But it was fun, and maybe what I needed to get out some of my pent up emotion. The concert finally ended and both Ian and I were completely exhausted. We were beyond exhausted, we were trashed. We wandered through the casinos, Ian convinced easily me to gamble away the last of my one dollar bills and coins real quick, then we got into the car and I was driving.

We made it to the highway where he fell asleep. After a couple hours of driving I was falling asleep too at the wheel, which really sucked. Drove through Henderson, and passed Lake Mead again, past the Hoover Dam and Colorado River, then across the Nevada highway. Before long I was pulling into a gas station at Kingman, Arizona. Unfortunately Ian wasn’t able to sleep the whole time, now it was his turn to drive sleepy and I told him to be careful; falling asleep at the wheel really sucks. It was 3AM. I said goodbye to Ian and gave him a hug, he was a really cool dude.

I thought my life felt a little ridiculous as I walked out into the desert. Most people at the concert were probably in rooms somewhere or at home, having showers, (or asleep) but not me. I was hiking with a full pack, exhausted, out into the Arizona desert at 3AM… I was definitely still enjoying myself though. No shower for me! I setup my camp on top of a small hill looking back at the town, beneath a scratchy bush and some cactuses.

 

---

 

2/17

I woke up in the desert in the morning. It was a nice place to wake up, the day was calm and warm. Today was my day to relax, so get up! Let’s get to that relaxing! I needed to pack up and find a good place to relax because at the moment I was basically in someone’s backyard. I got down from the hill and walked on a quiet road.

At some point I noticed this huge rock mesa to the east of town, it looked like there was a ranch built at its base. But it was a large chunk of landscape and I decided I wanted to climb it and hang out at the top. I left the road abruptly to head cross country over the desert toward it. Nearing the ranch and I found a dirt road which I followed a while away from the ranch and around the base of the mesa. It came to a fence where it entered a private property. I looked into the remote property and saw a couple of shacks, junk laying around. But it looked abandoned and there were no cars there. I cautiously entered.

Among the old rusted metal I saw a canyon leading back into the mesa. Leaving the property, I walked to it. I entered the small canyon and climbed up it on boulders. Eventually I made it to the top of the mesa. The view was excellent looking towards Kingman, and I walked across the plateau at the top. I walked pretty far up there before I came to the perfect spot. It looked down cliffs and below me but distant was the ranch. I was in a sheltered spot out of the wind mostly, among the sparse bushes and cactus. Completely private unless I walked over to the cliff edge where I could gaze down at the ranch, and even then they couldn’t see me way up here.

So I setup camp in this glorious spot. Before long I was laying with no clothes on my sleeping pad in the sun. The sun was very hot, but the wind would blow in cold drafts completely whisking away all the heat when it did. I wrapped myself in my sheet, which effectively shielded me from the hot sun, and also protected me from the cold wind. After a bit of writing I fell asleep like that.

I woke up many hours later and the sun had changed position casting all the surroundings in a different light. The weather felt really good and I stood and walked around a little, naked in flip flops wrapped just in my sheet. The wind blew through it. I had to feel kind of mystical in that place, enjoying the wind blowing around me and looking at the cars travelling tiny down the distant highway, into the distant town. If someone could see me walking up here, they’d catch just a glimpse. See that some mysterious figure was up on that mountain like a hermit prophet, or a ghost. I actually had a phone interview up there for working at Taos, New Mexico, and they said they would hire me. But I told them I might not take the job, not yet anyway. I was pretty sure I’d rather go to Panamint Springs. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and doing whatever I felt like which was perfect.

The weather in the desert, especially the high desert, can be freezing and hot at the same time, (freezing-hot). But as the sun gets lower, the heat mysteriously starts to vanish. I watched the sunset happen gradually, staying mostly oblivious of the time all day. The sun passed below the distant mesas and mountains behind the highway, and soon it was dark. I retreated to my bivvy sack and after doing stuff for a while, I fell asleep.

In the middle of the night it rained on me. I had seen the clouds moving in earlier in the night until the sky was darkened. I didn’t expect rain, and was angry about it. I closed up my bivvy sack, but realized I was staying dry and warm even though my bivvy sack was slick with rain. It rained on me all night, but I fell asleep like a baby anyway. Before dawn I woke up. The rain had stopped and my bivvy sack and all my surrounding were completely, 100% dry. The desert just sucked it up. I was so happy and fell back asleep. The last time I had felt rain, aside from some mist and wetness in Costa Rica, was over a month before in in the Caribbean Islands. It was amazing that it rained every day there, but when I left and came to mainland America there wasn’t one single drop of rain until this storm.

 

---

 

2/18

The sun didn’t shine this morning, grey skies. Due to that, it stayed frigid. I packed up my things and soon was hiking down the mesa. I went back through the abandoned property and thought it looked like a great place to live. As I walked along the road I was talking to my brother on the phone and I stepped on some tumbleweed type of plant, and it was so painful. The plant snared me in its gnarled branches, hooking my pants and my legs with barbed thorns, when I’d pull one thorn out another one would hook its way in. I had to rip my clothes and was on the ground yelling about it to my brother as I tried to free myself from this thing! Jimmy would show up in Vegas tomorrow, so I’d head there now.

I went to the roadside to hitchhike after buying some snacks at a gas station and wandering around a bit. It was cold and windy today. I was picked up before too long by some lawless type, gun swingin’, Trump supporting, Nevada hillbilly man. He was scrawny and hateful, but he did pick me up. He took me down the straight shot Nevada highway and back to the Hoover Dam and Colorado River. He had said he was going to Boulder City, which is the town at Lake Mead. But then when we got to the casino sitting on a cliff above Lake Mead, he stopped and said he wanted to go here, so he’d have to let me off. The casino was a pull off on the highway, I was kind of stranded here now.

It was a gorgeous view from the casino, but I don’t like Lake Mead, it stands for all the evil of the world destroying the canyon of the Colorado River to build Vegas. I enjoyed the view for a while before hitching again, but no one picked me up for about an hour. Unfortunately I knew hitchhiking is actually illegal in Nevada. So as I stuck my thumb out I was constantly looking back and forth for cop cars, put that thumb down! Then, that same hillbilly who dropped me off in this lousy spot picked me up again on his way out of the casino! After losing all his money. He drove me the rest of the way to Boulder City.

Boulder City is getting closer to Vegas, but it’s still on the other side of a mountain range, in a different valley than Vegas. I could have taken a bus, but instead I tried to hitch, was picked up quickly by the kindest old man. He talked all about how he loves to pick up hitchhikers, even when they’re in real bad shape, even though his wife doesn’t like it. Even though it’s illegal here, even in the company van… He only drove me as far as Henderson, which is a suburb of Vegas. But he got me over the mountains and into the same valley as Vegas.

I went to the roadside where I’d keep trying to hitchhike on a highway onramp… Then decided I didn’t really feel like it. It was only 8 miles to the airport from here, I realized, I’d just walk! Henderson was gorgeous and I felt victorious to be there. The scenery in this area, this Death Valley type scenery, seems to be my favorite. I realized yeah, of all the world, I think I want to come to this area to live someday. I love it here. I passed a nice mural of old western Henderson, walked through the quaint downtown, and bought some superb pastries at a bakery. After I left the town for a long road to Vegas, I decided it was time to setup camp and do the rest of the walk in the morning.

I found a large area of dirt in the middle of the urban landscape. It was a vast plain chopped up by ditches, an empty lot just itching to have a casino built on it. I walked way out into it, found a great place to hide, and setup camp. That evening I watched the sunset from the top of a mound of dirt, and looked to the colorful lights of the Las Vegas skyline against the mountain backdrop.

---

 

2/19

Today, I’d meet my brother. I walked the rest of the way to the airport but I took a really lazy long time doing it. I bought a bag of candied peanuts, the same exact ones I bought in El Salvador, Spanish writing on the package and everything. Only there they cost literally 10 cents and here it was 1$ 86 cents or something stupid like that. In the US things always cost 1.37$… The tax makes the cents into some crazy and annoying number, it makes no sense, in all other countries things are just 1$ or 5$… EVEN!

Then I wound up sitting in a Starbucks for the entire day… Wow and I kept buying pastries, it was stupidly expensive. I probably spent 15$ in Starbucks on only 3 things, and was still hungry of course. I used the internet all day and sent out emails/ job applications and starting applying for an Australian visa… did a lot of stuff. When I left Starbucks it was dark, and as I walked away I noticed next door there was a make-your-own burrito place… I was hungry and felt pretty stupid I hadn’t come here earlier. It might have been a Chipotle I can’t remember, but I walked in. I explained myself to the people, saying I felt stupid because this place looked awesome and I spent all that money on straight crap at Starbucks. Then after they made my burrito, the girl handed it to me and said, “Your burrito is on us today!”

I was overwhelmed. So nice!!! Oh my god, it was so much food and so good, and I cried. When a vendor gave me free food in Mexico, my mother said that would never happen in the USA… Well it does! People are good everywhere. I went up and profusely thanked the workers there, I explained what this meant to me right now. “Welcome home,” the girl said to me.

That night I met my brother at the airport. When he finally showed up walking down those stairs it was so excellent to see him. We were reminded of last year, when we met this same way at this same airport. We had a few good laughs as we wandered around the parking lot, I don’t have a car this time so we’re on a real adventure! His friend came and picked us up, a really spunky and happy girl named Katie who goes to college at University of Las Vegas. She took us to her college and we ate fast food together and hung out all evening. She had said we could stay with her but I didn’t realize it was at the college dorms! Jimmy and I setup camp on her porch, it was a good evening.

---

 

2/20

In the morning Katie drove us an hour away from Vegas to the town of Pahrump. That was extremely kind of her, she was a great person who helped make our trip possible. We went to Wal-mart and bought groceries. It was awesome for me to be back here, because Pahrump is the town on the eastern edge of Death Valley. I know this town. It’s like I’m home. Jimmy and I got loaded with food to spend the next week in the wilderness, and then we walked a long way through the cool, sunny, clear morning. We walked along the highway for a few miles until we found Bel Vista road, the turn to go to Death Valley.

We caught our first ride with the first car that drove by, Jimmy said he’d pick us up right as he did. It was a crazy old man, Vietnam vet, who had spent most of his life living in Japan and had all sorts of crazy stories for us. He only drove as far as the Amargosa Opera House which is a tiny, bizarre, and extremely tiny resort in the middle of nowhere. California, baby! We made it! Then he turned around and went back to Pahrump, he apparently only drove there just for the sake of picking us up and driving us a little ways! That got us really optimistic for our hitchhiking quest, doesn’t seem so hard. We explored the strange little opera house and then got back to the road. Two silly ladies picked us up next, going the Death Valley to see the wildflowers. They drove us as far as Furnace Creek.

Death Valley was experiencing the super-bloom, which was pretty nice, but definitely overhyped. There’s always flowers this time of the year I don’t see what’s so special! But it brought everybody and their mothers from all over the world to see it, and the park was extremely busy. One of the reasons I was happily welcomed to come work at Panamint Springs, they needed help for this extremely busy season. Jimmy and I stood out in front of the gas station at Furnace Creek for over an hour now, no one picking us up, in the super-hot heat of the desert. But the scenery was grand. Finally two girls picked us up who lived in Ridgecrest, they were about our age and pretty cool. They dropped us off at Stovepipe Wells village, the western edge of the Death Valley, now I’m near home, the next closest “town” is Panamint Springs. It was the first car pulling out of Stovepipe, a pickup truck, and I said out loud, “Oh can we ride in the back!” Sure! They pulled over and let us hop in the bed! Then we had the best ride of all, climbing up 4,900 feet of elevation to cross the mountains at Towne Pass.

It grew colder and colder as we climbed the mountains, then warmer again as we descended them. We watched the serene view from the truck bed having a marvelous time, the memories of this place I had lived for two separate 7 month seasons came flooding back to me. Before I knew it I was gazing down to the Panamint Valley, the valley in the Shadow of Death. I was home. When we got to the resort, hopping out of the truck bed my friends saw us. What a classic entrance! I went and sat with Sarah, I gave Alexis and Victoria huge hugs who were serving at the restaurant. They gave us a free pizza. It was awesome to be back.

We spent the rest of the day visiting with people and then went to the desert where we setup camp outside the campground. I got a shower. That night just coincidently was the Panamint bookclub and I was able to attend! (Even though I didn’t read the book.) I sat around the campfire with my old co-workers and some new people. My boss and his wife, Ben and Desiree were there and it was so good to see them. Their conversations at the book club are also extremely insightful, it was the best time. I drank with them, and they welcomed me back. Ben said he would be more than happy to have me come back, even for just two months. They coincidently needed to fill one of the spots of the cook who was leaving on the same day I would be arriving. It was some kind of magically perfect.

But before I could start work they knew I had to hike the PCT with Jimmy for 5 days. We had a great ending to an unbelievably fun day and spent the night in the desert.

---

 

2/21….

We left Panamint the next day with our friends Sarah and Cordero, and spent most of the day with them, exploring the mountains near Ridgecrest. Eventually they dropped us off on the road and we went back to hitchhiking. A lady picked us up, I don’t think she even meant to, she just accidently pulled over next to us to adjust her gps. But she was happy to take us further and dropped us off at the road junction.

We waited there for a few minutes before the same lady picked us up again. She was going to take a different route, but decided to change her mind and take the scenic route. So she picked us up again and drove us the rest of the way up Walker Pass, to where the PCT crosses the Great Western Divide in the Southern Sierra Mountains. I think it was the first time she ever picked up hitchhikers before, and it was kind of amazing she changed her route like that… I think she was going to get cancer treatment in Fresno, and maybe thought something about taking us was good karma, it definitely was. She was a great person.

Then we were on the Pacific Crest Trail…

Not too much exciting happened in the next five days that we hiked…

We hiked, setup camp that night in a high elevation where we were extremely cold camped around snow. But it was gorgeous and got started at sunrise the next morning. We hiked through pine forests, it was quiet and sublime. I was happy to be back here in the wilderness.

It was special because when Maggie and I had hiked the PCT we had planned to go as far as Tehatchapi Pass, 80 miles south of Walker Pass. However, due to giardia and low water sources, we decided to end our hike early, at Walker Pass. Now Jimmy and I were back here, hiking the section, Walker Pass to Tehatchapi Pass. Finishing the hike after all. This area had a spell over me, and we hiked south for four or five days. We camped in the warm desert one night around Joshua trees, we camped in gorgeous spots. We caught up on each others lives and I told him about everything that happened in Central America. We didn’t see another soul for the entire time we were out there, not ONE single person.

We spent a lot of time just sitting and gazing out to views of the hypnotic mirage of the Mohave Desert. Or sometimes the trail looked west towards the San Joaquin Valley and greener places. The desert had flowers and was surprisingly green. Water was flowing in a lot of places it doesn’t usually flow. February was a fantastic time to be up there, just very cold at night. We didn’t fight much, only a little.

One part of the trail went high into the mountains and through gorgeous forests of red ponderosa pines, Jeffery pines, whatever those tall, Californian, Sierra pines are called. Where ARE we, I wondered. What is the nearest town to here? California City maybe? That’s nowhere! I guess these are the mountains behind California City. It was a very peaceful place. I thought about my plans for the future, I had so many options. Jimmy didn’t think I should go to Australia, he said he would rather just stay at Panamint Springs forever, or otherwise go to Montana. One option was to hitchhike to Alaska for the summer season there. I took his advice to heart, but also thought I still planned to go to Australia.

We ran out of food towards the end of the hike and were rationing what was left. We starved!!! Finally we were spit out on the highway at Tehatchapi Pass. The last bit of the hike was fantastically beautiful, watching the sunset on the town of Mohave. The city was a sprawling lightshow on the ever-changing sunset colors of the desert. They have a massive windfarm there and the wind turbines were blinking to the coming night as we descended the last set of mountains. We setup camp that night on the side of the highway.

---

 

……

In the morning we hitchhiked again. We found our favorite granola bars in the trail register we signed, as though they were put there just for us. We were hungry. A nice young dude picked us up and drove us to Mohave, then from there we were picked up instantly and driven by a kind Mexican woman to California City. In California City we got copious amount of ice cream and snacks, eating them as we walked back to the highway. It was pretty soon we were picked up by two methhead type guys who were really nice, they drove us all the way back to Ridgecrest. One of them was inspired by my stories of Mexico, deciding when he was done with his probation he’d go there. It’s a good place to live cheap and enjoy great food.

Jimmy and I then hiked across Ridgecrest which is an enormous town. We went to Walmart where I bought shoes and clothes to start my job in the kitchen, as well as a pillow. My backpack was really loaded up now! Then we ate a gargantuan meal of Mexican food. It was ridiculous how much we ate, and then we STILL got ice cream.

I had a phone interview with Australia and it didn’t go so great. She said I was her first choice to hire, but there were others, and I she said I had to get the Australian visa BEFORE she’d hire me. It cost 500 dollars, but it seems like if I pay for it, I’ll definitely get it. All the same, I was feeling poor, I think I decided on the phone there it would not be the right choice for my life currently. Jimmy was right. She said she would hire me next year if not now… It took quite a few hours to successfully make that phone call though and the day was getting late. We got stressed out because it looked like we wouldn’t be able to make it back to Panamint tonight.

We went back to hitchhiking and got picked up by the most hilarious man, best hitch of the whole trip! He was a janitor at Wal mart and told us a story about cleaning up after someone who pooped in front of the dairy coolers… and he had just waxed the floor ten minutes before! It’s like, the bathroom is right there! You couldn’t make it and pooped on the floor? Who does that! This guy was great and had other funny stories, he drove us to the most frightful town in the world, Trona, California.

Trona is a town built into an enormous, byzantine old factory which mines the dry lake bed for minerals. Trona is the name of the mineral they mine, it’s used to make soda ash for glass production. It a strange and dilapidated town, a chemical town producing much of the meth to supply California. Trona is as far away from Los Angeles as you can get, if you go to that cities suburbs, and outskirts, and the outskirts-suburbs and the outskirts-suburbs-outskirts and finally you make it out to Ridgecrest and if you keep continuing, Trona is the last vestiges of civilization. Then its 50 miles of empty, beauty-filled desert, and at the very end of the line… is Panamint Springs. But it was getting dark on us as we walked out of Trona. Someone stopped as we hitched but wasn’t going our direction, and he gave us each a beer!

Finally it was total darkness and we were still hitchhiking on the edge of Trona. Some young guy eventually picked us up and drove us 15 miles down the road, to a junction where he lived in a cabin out there. Then we decided to give up and we setup camp in the pleasantly warm desert valley.

---

 

….

In the morning we were picked up immediately by a nice guy, and driven directly to Panamint Springs. We got Jimmy’s dream pizza and spent the day relaxing like he wanted to. The next day, one of my coworkers offered to drive us back to Pahrump. I was luckily on my first work weekend right away, so I was able to accompany Jimmy to town, knowing I’d have to hitchhike back.

We made it to Pahrump. We went in subway and got one last meal together. Then I walked him out of town. I had a brief struggle seeing there was an electric bicycle for sale in Pahrump, 175 dollars. I pondered the idea with Jimmy… buy this electric bicycle… I could ride it back to Death Valley, in the spring I could ride it north to somewhere like Montana, or even Alaska! Jimmy liked the idea so I called the guy and tried to buy it. It turned out to be basically junk I think, it wasn’t working 100%, also the guy lived across town and wouldn’t pick me up to come and see it, so I had no way to get over there… Okay, back to my real dream. Bike across America. I decided it with Jimmy. He said he’d mail me my bike. In May, I think I’ll ride it to Montana.

I walked pretty far with Jimmy down the highway. At some point he was ready to start hitchhiking, on his own this time… He was flying out of Las Vegas tomorrow. I stood there with him for a while, but he seemed to think me standing there not hitchhiking was weird and making it harder for him. Okay, if you say so… so we finally said goodbye. We hugged, and I walked away. He stood there thumb raised high to the passing traffic. I walked down the highway back towards Pahrump, turning my head, looking back, watching him get smaller and smaller. Goodbye!!….

After he was nearly out of sight a cop car drove past me and I thought, aw damn Jimmy, put that thumb down, hitchhiking is illegal in Nevada remember! Nothing I could do about it or know what happened. But I texted him about it a little later and he told me the story. The cop did stop at him! Checked him out, didn’t mention anything about hitchhiking being illegal. The cop left and immediately after a Mexican lady picked him up and drove him right to Vegas! What an adventure.

As for me, I killed the rest of the day doing errands in town. I tried to use the internet sitting on benches and using wifi from all kinds of random places. Got myself frustrated. Some homeless people kept bothering me. Then the craziest homeless guy I’ve ever met sat next to me… god he was crazy. His face was one big tattoo and his hair was long, matted, snarly. He had no teeth, and he smiled up at me asking what time it was, but he couldn’t talk. Just blerherherh, pointing at his wrist like a watch. I don’t know it’s almost 4 o’clock. So then he takes out his clock to show me. It was two pieces of metal inside a ripped in half styrofoam cup, one of them might have been like a sundial looking piece of junk… a piece of a clock. I don’t know okay, some dark wizardry, with beads rolling around, and he said, “ITSH SEVEN THIRTY!” Fine. Then he sat there next to me and started pulling a large amount of broken glass out of his pockets and arranging it around him on the sidewalk. Damnit I’m trying to write, I can’t take it! Bye. I had to pack up and get the out of there.

I had to do more errands in the AT&T store, I walked in right before they closed, but I couldn’t be helped for like a half hour because of another crazy lunatic. He was so belligerent, not understanding why they couldn’t get him a new phone because he smashed it. Drool was just slobbering out of his mouth and onto the counter, he kept turning around and giving me the most hateful glares. At some point I had to get out of town, crazy Pahrump, and I went at sunset down the highway towards Death Valley where I setup camp in the desert. It was a great spot and I really enjoyed it.

---

 

….

In the morning I went to hitching. I caught a ride with a nice older couple from South Dakota who brought me to Furnace Creek. Then I was privileged to visit my cousin Carissa who works there. So glad I was able to see her! She left for a break from work with me, and showed me where she was living, we sat outside and caught up on each other’s lives. She introduced me to her 4 month old baby Gabriel. It was awesome to see her and to meet him. It’s a huge coincidence that her and I are both living and working 60 miles away from each other, in California, when we grew up thousands of miles away from each other, (me in New England and her in the Caribbean).

As I walked away from Furnace Creek, I turned and a truck was coming and I spontaneously hitchhiked it. Good move! It stopped. A girl, probably about 27, was driving. She clearly had her life in her vehicle, and a bed in the back to sleep. She asked where I was going, I told her, I asked where she was going, she said she didn’t know! Okay well I’ll come!

Her name was Britany and she started talking A LOT! She was blonde, young, and full of energy more so than most people. She was living at Furnace Creek, had just got there a couple weeks ago. It was her day off and she didn’t know what she was doing today, just driving along where God led her. Then she went into the whole crazy Christian spiel, professing away about Jesus and I am very agreeable. But I let her know I am deeply spiritual, even religious. Britany was from Tennessee and was working here at the horse ranch in Furnace Creek. She’s a cowboy, and has worked some really cool ranch jobs in places like Nebraska and Wyoming. She had been living out of her truck or at ranches for 7 years, so really that makes her a “gypsy cowgirl.”

I liked Britany a lot, she wouldn’t stop talking like she was insane, and I can match that energy! I thought, you know what, this girl keep talking about God, I want to give her a real religious experience like only Death Valley can. Show her the intense, true beauty of God. So I suggested we go climb Corkscrew Peak together. She had nothing to do today, I didn’t either. She said yes let’s do it! I asked if she would still drive me back to Panamint Springs after and she said yes so I was all set. We changed course and drove off into the desert! We realized we had no water and stopped in a parking lot where we asked some people for water and they filled our bottles.

Then we went and hit the trail! Corkscrew Peak is an amazing trail, it’s very difficult. The trail is hard to find and takes some local knowledge or research. The trail is fairly short, but straight up! The view is among the most spectacular I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s still a half day affair, and so Britany and I hiked it together and got to know each other. She was a really cool girl. The climb was very difficult for her, but she was determined to do it, stopping often. But she wouldn’t stop talking and at some point I told her, you don’t have to talk if it’s killing you! She said she felt like passing out, talking a storm while going up the mountain. I shared all my food with her and made her feel better. It was only the second mountain she had every climbed in her life, and the view was so impressive… she was just completely blown away. Said she wanted to spend the night at the top like I had done the last time I climbed this peak. We both were overjoyed up there, especially happy because we thought we might not make it. I heard all her stories from her life and she heard mine.

On the way down she mentioned she never had a hitchhiking experience like this before, and this was probably the best hitchhiking experience ever, the kind that restores your faith in humanity. I personally felt like God was working through me to reward her for being a good person. She picked up a hitchhiker and got to have the sublime experience she was looking for on her day off, more than she ever could have expected. She wasn’t prepared to hike a mountain, but I, a total stranger, happened to be prepared enough for both of us and had the local knowledge of the very best spot.

She was pretty destroyed as the sun went low and we got back into the truck. She had some blisters and was very fatigued. But she was happy and said it was something she’d never forget. I drove her truck for her, she had suggested it earlier and I was more than happy to do it. I drove back to Panamint Springs in her nice truck, with her chillin in the passenger’s seat, feeling the warm dry air and the sunset.

At Panamint I bought her a salad for her ride home, feeling bad that she was so tired and had to drive all the way back to Furnace Creek… oh, sorry! Oops. It was good to make a friend.

---

 

…..

The next day I went back to work at Panamint Springs…

The month went by, it was one of the most serene times of my life. Finally I could rest. I could eat all I wanted at work. I got paid. I had a shower, I had a comfortable bed. My trailer was dry, sunlight, breezy as ever… warm. The nights were cool. The desert was beautiful like no planet I’ve ever been to. The scenery is always the same, but it never looks the same way twice. It is ever-changing with the clouds and weather, the different types of clouds and weather, the different angles and strength of the sun. Huge windstorms flung up huricanes of dust at times, obscuring all the mountains. I saw rainbows and sand tornadoes and the Sierra Nevada Mountains once flashing continuously with lightning. This place is somewhere which will always be sacred to me.

I socialized more with old co-workers who I got to know even better, Seth and Alexis, Victoria, Noah, Anastasyia, Jimmy… It was really good to see all these people again and this time really talk and spend time with them. I seemed to make it to town every single weekend even though I didn’t have a car, Seth would bring me. I went hiking a lot, and Aaron lent me his bicycle to ride. Soon my brother came through, and my bicycle arrived in the mail. I reassembled it and started training. I was only hired for two months and everyone knew that, I’d be leaving in May, or who knows maybe I wouldn’t. But I was riding my bicycle to Montana. I’ll never forget the day I was hired for the Sous Chef position at Swiftcurrent Inn, it is definitely a triumph to get my first management type job. I was given 5 weeks for the bike ride, perfect amount of time I think.

I rode to Lone Pine and back once, 100 miles. I did a few other long rides on my weekends, but usually didn’t spend the night. I’d return to my comfortable bed and appreciate it as long as I could. By the time two months had passed I had been showered with gifts, Brad gave me the biking outfit, Alexis gave me the helmet, Desiree gave me the shoes. Will also gave me a pair of kitchen shoes, Noah let me use his internet… The kindnesses I received here were just unbelievable really, and they kept telling me how great of a person I was… No, really, it is YOU GUYS who are great people. This family took me in off the streets for two months and fed me and let me rest and gave me more than I needed. All I had to do was my job, and I loved the job… they gave me a job. By the time I’m writing this now I have saved a ton of money, and I have recovered completely from Central America. And the only way I’m repaying them is by leaving. I can’t honestly say I feel good about it. It kind of breaks my heart.

But the wheels are in motion. The only answer is to come back here! I will come back here! I’m getting on that bicycle in about 5 hours from when I write this, gonna get breakfast at the restaurant in the morning. Then I’ll hit the road and bike to Lone Pine, maybe a little farther, to Independence tomorrow. Gotta take it one step at a time.

It rained today, it always rains on the day before I leave here. Three years in a row, I’ve left here the first week of May. May is going to be a stormy month for a bike ride, I know this. The feelings I’ve been feeling are very mixed. I don’t know if happiness is one of them. I’m anxious, intimidated, and scared. I’m overwhelmed and confused. I don’t know if this will be very hard, it might just be, I’m as ready as possible. But I know I’ll love it, I’ll love the battle with the elements, I’ll love the storms. Camping in wretched and cold conditions will be fine, biking when the weather is beautiful in the middle of the Nevada desert will be awesome. So little sparks of excitement for it come to me, but I feel a lot of crushing sorrow as well. I guess it’s something I have to do, something I want to do. I am happy about the tough choices I’ve made to bring me here, but I’m not really happy. Not yet. It’s coming. Right now I have a challenge ahead.

5/1/2016

I’ll be keeping the blog going talking about the bike ride next… Thanks for reading!!!