Around Palm Desert, March 3 2019

I keep saying it, but my cats are making blogging a whole lot harder. I should upload some pictures so you can see the culprits. Got a pair of toddler-cats. They were somewhere around 3-5 months old when we got them back in November. Of course, all cats like to walk on keyboards, and that makes blogging impossible But these guys were also in the "chew everything" mode, so I've lost several USB plugs to them. They just chew right through the wire. At least two were for my Fitbit. Three or so were USB-C type plug, which would let me connect my phone to my computer to directly download photos from there. My phone has the shots I shoot with it, but also some from my dslr, when I choose to use either Nikon's Wireless Mobile Utility (WMU) or Nikon's Snapbridge. It turns out some Nikon cameras use one, and some the other, and the things you can do with each app varies. That makes it harder to post about those hikes, too.

They've also chewed through the USB cords for my portable hard drives, and almost (but, thankfully, no quite) through the power cord that powers one of my tv streaming devices. BTW, this makes me think that "stick" streaming device inventors must own kittens that chew, a lot!

Also, for some reason, the computer at the car dealer I get my oil changed stopped letting me properly logging on to my blogspot account. Anyway, many stupid barriers, and that's before personal time constraints get in the way.

At any rate, I started blogging this back in June, but, even then, the hike was old: From back in early March, even before the desert superbloom ran its course. I took advantage of the first full weekend of the month to visit The Living Desert Museum/Zoo, in Palm Desert. They have a non-summer trail that loops near Eisenhower Peak, a 1952 foot tall (get it?) mountain, adjacent to the developed zoo area. It's about a five mile hike, which I have done only twice.

I also hiked the 2.5 mile Randall Henderson loop trail, a the visitor center for Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. At this point, I have no good recollection of which shots were where, except that the chuckwalla was definitely on the Eisenhower trail. The notch-leafed phacelia was also on that trail.

I had hiked this trail before, and wrote it up, here. I would have wagered I'd hiked it more than once before but only one turns up in a quick google search.

It's an enjoyable hike, to be sure. Nice views. This time, however, the trail to examine the San Andreas Fault was closed, due to water damage from heavy rains the previous month.

Meanwhile, it was my first visit to Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. The trail they put me on had a fair number of wildflowers, but it was not superbloom-status. Pretty, but not outstanding. Still, it was a change of pace, for me. New trail, never walked, before. The variety of plants was different than what I had seen before. Glad I went, but not likely to take this trail, again.

During this time, there were some serious blooms down along I-10, but I did not know public trails in that area. Other areas suggested they were being overrun so I didn't go there. So I didn't manage the most complete sampling of this year's superbloom. Not nearly as much hiking as I had hoped for, either. Still trying to get back in my hiking groove, even as I type this.