13DPIUI#3 & Desert Trip

Unfortunately, I have zero symptoms and my temperatures are doing the slow dance downward, so I'm not going to bother testing this month. I'm really surprised how good that has felt last month and again now. I hate seeing stark white HPTs, and I'd like to never see one again if I can help it!

The desert camping trip was a success. We camped in an area called the A.rroyo Seco del D.iablo, in the Ca.rrizo Badlands of Anza-Borr.ego State Park. It was an area with less cholla (those are the evil cacti that have spikes that "jump" off and HURT you) than many of our previous campsites, so those 2AM stumblings out of the tent to pee were a lot less treacherous than before!

Instead of cholla we were treated to a landscape dotted with the purple blooms of desert verben.a and a few early desert lil.ies and primroses. The ocotillo were just starting to develop their red tips. S is saying that we may need to take another daytrip out there in 2-3 weeks to see the blooms at their peak, and I'm tending to agree. This was a pretty good year in terms of rain, so it should be nice. We also found some petrified wood (I was the one who found it, actually), and saw fossilized castings of cougar prints (a local pointed those out to us).

I wish I could show you some pictures, but my camera's rechargable batteries finally died for good, and S forgot his camera at home. Well, perhaps I will share a few pic from a previous trip (in 11/2005) to give you an idea:

dirt road with ocotillo (the tall, spindly looking plants)


this is what cholla looks like. You don't want to get very close. I cut out the amusing right side of this amusing picture...S was puckering up as if preparing to kiss it!!


These furry guys are out there, but it's pretty rare to actually see one. This is the only time that any of us has seen one out there. He was cruising along in the middle of a dirt road. In any case, I always shake out my shoes/slippers before putting my foot in! On the other hand, I have seen rattlesnakes many, many times here in San Diego (on hiking trails) and in the local mountains, but I have never actually seen one in the desert.