Day #89 – 90. September 15 - 16.

Woke up to a Wednesday morning with clear blue skies, not so hot today. Surrounded by desert mountains and a remarkable array of desert plants; creosote bush, barrel, prickly pear, chollas and organ pipe cacti and Joshua tree, soaptree and banana yuccas. Still looking for the peyote. 

Barrel Cactus with Baby

Cholla (sp)

Organ Pipe Cactus

We see black tail jack rabbits, cottontails, coyotes and red-tailed hawks during our stay.

Camping at Hole in the Wall. Our Own, Personal Honeypot. The Marl Mountains in the Background.

In the morning Master Sergeant Wan Mata (seventeen years in an Army Special Operations Unit) made a visit to our campsite and informed us that his unit was training in the area for deployment to Russia, Syria or Iraq.  He told us that several incognito agents would be circulating around doing whatever incognito agents do. He told us we would not recognize them as such. Since there isn’t anybody else around I suspect it’s a good bet that anybody we see will be an incognito agent.

We are the only people in the campsite and the immediate area, besides a bunch of twenty-year-old, testosterone-filled young men and possibly a few-estrogen filled young women; armed with pistols, M16A4’s, grenades and grenade launchers, machine guns, knives, shotguns, bayonets, claymore mines, anti-tank weapons and swords (just to be on the safe side). What could go wrong?

Master Sergeant Mata is an impressive man, a perfect gentleman and we enjoyed talking to him.

Later we meet the vivacious Sylvia Schreiber from Wickenburg, AZ who recently retired from a government job in Southern California, sold everything, bought a recreational vehicle, got herself a rescue dog, named it Lucky, moved to Wickenburg, bought herself five acres, parked the RV and now travels around in a little truck by herself, except of course for Lucky. She enjoys visiting the most remote areas she can find. She had just come into Hole in the Wall that morning. I think she is an incognito member of Master Sgt. Meta’s team!

Here we are, 2,700 miles from home, talking to a perfect stranger. We tell here where we are from. She says, “Is that anywhere near Polyface Farm?” “Absolutely, Joel Salatin is a friend", I reply. Sylvia claps her hands, does a little dance and shouts out her allegiance to Joel and the local food movement.  She thought we were celebrities. I didn’t say anything to disavow her from that notion. She told us that many people in Southern California and Arizona follow Polyface and Joel Salatin.

Another one of those small world experiences.

We decide to stay in this magnificent place for two days.

The Mojave National Preserve is a 1.6-million-acre unit of the National Park System, the third largest such system in the contiguous United States. All desert of course. Bone dry most of the time.

The Marl Mountains. See the Lava Bands.

It is filled with archeologic, natural and cultural wonders. Migrating sand dunes, cinder cones, lava beds and cliffs, volcanic plugs or domes, prominent mountain ridges and ghost towns. Summer temperatures go up to 105 degrees F. Annual precipitation varies from 3.37 inches to 9 inches. That is not a lot of water.

Volcanic Dome From Our Campsite

Preserve rangers strongly recommend four-wheel-drive on most of the roads, which limits us in visiting many of the wonders the Mojave has to offer. Lucky for us we can get to the campsite. But there’s enough easy road for us to get a feel. The Mojave warrants a future visit with a stouter vehicle.

Now that I'm old and retired I have decided to become a professional scatologist. I was very excited to examine my first exotic 'donation', but disappointed to learn from an amused park ranger that, "in these parts we call that good old western cow shit." Maybe I'll take up another hobby.

After a day's exploration we return to our campsite and enjoy a most delightful evening and night under a brilliant, starlit sky. Still no peyote. But I have some Evan Williams Black Label to see me through.

Good night friends.