Thursday April 24, 7.0mi/11.3km

Inner Valley of Coxcomb Mtns (207.0/2950ft) to Hwy 62 (214.0/1680ft) (CA)

I started off with a leisurely stroll downhill in the wide gravelly wash.

It was such a great campsite last night. I was surrounded by mountains up here in this alpine desert valley, and the sky was so black I could see heaps of stars. My elevated mood didn’t lessen when I turned into a wash that went slightly uphill, or even when the wash turned rocky.

After an hour I went over a mild pass, and then started descending once again, this time out of the mountains and towards the road. As usual it was rocky at first, and then smoothed out.

I arrived at highway 62, quickly unburied my cache, and then stepped over to the roadside to start hitching into town.

I even made a sign that said “hiker to town”, and tried to look presentable. There were just so few cars driving this absolutely desolate stretch of highway. Eventually at 11:30am I got a ride from a guy moving from Dallas to Palm Springs in his pickup.

So it only took me an hour and a half to get a ride, which was better than I expected but still a long time. Connor had so much stuff in his truck that I had to sit in the back, which was fine. His cute dog kept trying to lick me through the window though, I think he could sense how salty I was, ha! He dropped me off in downtown 29 Palms at the main intersection, which has a McDonald’s/ Starbucks/ Chevron. I got a quick meal at McDonald’s, picked up a package at the post office (thanks Tarptent!), and then walked over to my motel. It was a cute and very walkable little town.

The motel was very colorful…as was the motel’s owner. Very interesting guy, practicing Hindu and he insisted on explaining to me about the seven chakras. I got the key to my room, and started to sort and organize all my stuff for resupply and doing laundry.

After a shower and catching part of the movie Airplane on the TV, I walked the half mile back into dawn and did some laundry. I noticed the local newspaper has the same name as the trail that I’m hiking!

I got dinner at a Pho place, which was surprisingly good and then grabbed my finished laundry and went across the street to have a beer.

By now it was almost 8pm and starting to feel like bedtime, so I walked back to the motel, ate a pint of Ben& Jerry’s and then passed out.