North of the Tracks

I had to spend a full day in bed in Palm Springs recovering from a cold.  I’m pretty sure I caught it from my sister in Idyllwild.  Since she tested negative for covid, we weren’t particularly worried.  But I sure slept a lot.  Dad thinks all the altitude change might not have helped me either. Even though I wasn’t feeling well when we were in Palm Springs, we met such friendly people. The driver that picked us up, Dave, drove us through what seemed to me to be a sand storm and warned us that sleeping under I-10 was not a good idea. I couldn’t believe how calm he was driving through a wall of sand. I couldn’t see much! Thanks for getting us into Palm Springs safely, Dave!

We ate at a neat Mexican restaurant, near the turnoff to the Palm Springs aerial railway. We had a really friendly waiter, called José, who gave us a ride to a motel for the night after we ate. He had worked a long shift, and so it was really generous of him to give us, as dirty and unwashed as we were, a lift in his car to a motel. Thank you, José!

The whole next day was a zero day. Dad did some ‘good enough’ repair work on my torn rain jacket while I slept. I pretty much only woke up to eat. I must have needed it because the next morning I felt much better. We got a ride back to Tamarack early, and got dropped off right where the trail crosses the train tracks. It was hot and dry and wiiiiindy, but it still felt good to be back out heading north. We had to go under I-10 again, and up through some industrial type area. There were lots of suitcases discarded by the trail, with clothes strewn around. I have no idea why there were so many in this area but it was a little bit creepy.

Coming into the foothills the trail started an easy climb among big clumps of desert shrubs. I looked back a few times at Mt. San Jacinto across the valley, and felt a little sad. I had liked being up in those mountains, and it seemed an awful long way before I was going to see my Mum and sister again.

Good bye, Section B!

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