Devil’s Punchbowl Loop Trail, facing southeast. A fantastic hike today in the Mojave Desert-Transverse Ranges ecotone, with piñon/juniper, joshua tree, manzanita and oak, flannelbush, scrub jays and juncos, Ambassadors from the Owl Nation, and my favorite hiking partner.
This was a quick 1-mile, leisurely loop through a sublime and rugged landscape, with water running off the snow 1,000 feet above, which was melting as it fell. My old hiking boots, not worn in a year or more, felt familiar and welcoming.
I’ve decided to keep track of hiking stats again this year the way I did in 2006, if only as a spur to continued movement. So far in 2010, I’ve hiked 22.67 miles which involved 3,666 feet of elevation gain. My hikingest year ever was 2006, in which year I hiked 410 miles with more than a hundred thousand feet of elevation gain. By January 18 of that year I’d covered two and a half miles and 500 feet up. I think this bodes well for the new decade.
Looks like a great day. Devil’s Punchbowl and the Antelope Valley were some of my first experiences in the desert, back in ‘82, ‘83, ‘84. Thanks for continuing to fuel my wave of nostalgia for that time.
I’m glad you got back through the storm all right!
And what a cute couple you make. Silly thing to say, but it’s true! (And Diane agrees with my assessment.) Or maybe a better way to say it is, I could feel the love there, thanks for sharing.
Cool place indeed. Excellent for Sceloporus in the Spring…magister, occidentalis and graciosus all three IIRC.
Nice Nipton cap.
...but the Devil’s Porringer and the Devil’s Lavabo are also nice…