Desert dessert...

“Friendship is a single soul

dwelling in two bodies.”

- Aristotle

“The sausage is really good,” Dave said. “They’re kind of like ‘Slim Jims,’ but not as oily.”   It was one of those upside down days that turned completely and memorably upside right.

We had planned this day for several months.  As soon as it was clear Stacey would be coming for the conference, I decided it would be great to go to the desert.  She would be coming from Syracuse, NY – a frightfully cold and snowy place this time of year.  Southern California would be just what the doctor ordered in the middle of a Northeastern winter!  Even better, January is right in the middle of the desert tourist season – moderate temperatures (in the high 60s F – 16+C) and low humidity.

Well, that was before the weather turned cloudy and rainy…who would have guessed!

The West is different…

Having never been near the desert in my life, the idea of cactus, big horn sheep, rabbits and an amazing assortment of other vibrant life forms living in such a harsh environment, has captured my imagination since coming to Southern California.  One can go from the ocean to the desert in just a couple of hours.  For an Eastern fellow, it is almost surrealistic!

Winters in San Diego, at sea level, are pretty moderate.  The days are a bit cooler than summer…the nights can be chilly.  Chilly, for those who experience ‘real winter,’ is a relative statement, with temperatures seldom ever getting below 32 degrees (0C), and even getting into the 40s is not the usual fare. The snow-covered mountains here, of course, are a different story…but that’s at elevation…not sea level of the city, and certainly not the case on the desert floor.

The adventure…

The beginning of the week had been lovely, but as the week began to approach its end, the weather turned cloudy with rain.  We like that when it happens here, because it reminds us a little more of spring or fall in the East.  But when friends are visiting from out town and we have an outdoor day planned, well, it is not quite so good.

Saturday morning I picked up Stacey and Kathy and we headed for Borrego Springs, a couple of hours from the city.  At a different time, the three of us had occasion to be together as part of a professional society.  Those days had formed and cemented our friendship.  It would be good to spend some quality time.

The Anza Borrego Desert sits in a ‘bowl’ surrounded by mountains and is on the southwestern edge of the Colorado and Mojave Deserts.  To get there from the west, one climbs 2400ft (730m) over the Laguna Mountains and drops 2000ft (610m) to the desert floor.  Both entrances to the area are scenic and offer wonderful views of the desert on the way in.

Coming in the Northeastern route offers the best views, and was responsible for our first adventure of the day.  As one climbs in altitude, the surrounding landscape changes dramatically.  It begins with the chaparral  (thorny bushes and scrub brush) of western San Diego County.  Next it looks like the gods took handfuls of very large boulders and densely sprinkled them all over the scenery along the highway.  Finally, the land turns to large grassy fields, scattered with trees, before it begins its descent to the desert.

Dropping in...

From this point forward, the last 6 miles or so are like riding the back of a snake hugging the sides of the mountain as it winds its way back and forth until it reaches the desert floor.  If one is smart, they drive slowly and carefully around one blind turn after another. 

There is a great pullout spot where one can get a breath-taking view of the desert floor, and while it was raining a little, it seemed like it might be a good place to make a quick dash out of the car so the girls could take in the view.  This is where we met Dave, who had been fixing a flat tire on his truck when his car jack had broken. 

What had been intended to be a 30 second, “let’s jump out of the car to take a quick look at the view over the desert floor,” turned into twenty minutes or so helping Dave fix his tire.  We slipped my jack under the front of his truck and were able to get the new tire on.  It turns out Dave was a salesman for the owner of a meat processing company, and as a reward, gave us the sausage.

On our way once again, we headed for the Desert Visitor’s Center.  It is a lovely facility buried in the side of a hill, so that when one parks their car, all that can be seen is desert landscape.  Walking around to the front reveals the entrance to a modern and well-kept structure manned by park guides.

An Oasis in the rain – hmm…

After a brief visit it was off to the trailhead and a three-mile round trip hike up the Palm Canyon trail.  The reward is an oasis surrounded by a clustered grouping of 20 or so palms trees.  I have made this hike several times, but never in the drizzle of rain.  In the dry heat of the summer, everything in the surrounding canyon is in earth tones of browns and rust colors.  

Under these conditions, the water stained earth and surrounding canyon walls took on a much darker and shiny hue.  Because of the rain, cloud cover blanketed parts of the low peaks giving the valley, in places, it gives one the feeling of otherworldliness. 

We had been told a small herd of big horn sheep had been spotted the day before in the canyon, so we were in hopes we might come across them.  Sadly, we didn’t see them, but had a wonderful time during the hike, returning to the car a little damp, but refreshed and appreciative of the opportunity to make this hike.

We left the desert on a more southern route and as before, climbed out of the desert floor on serpentine roads, this time to Julian, California at 4,200ft (1.2km) where the temperature was 20 degrees (6.6C) colder than in Borrego Springs.  Julian is a small tourist ‘period town,’ meaning during the season, people of the community dress in period costumes from the 1800s.  Other than this, Julian is best known all over California for its apple pies.  Our reward for the drive into the desert, the hike and drive out to Julian on what had become a chilly day? Lunch!...consisting of hot drinks, hot soup, sandwich and a piece of warm apple rhubarb pie.  The early morning and afternoon could not have ended better as far as I was concerned!

The drive home had three contented friends with a little California desert under our belts, a great lunch and the satisfaction of having found some all too infrequent, but precious time together.

Later that evening at dinner the three of us regaled Molly and Ann C., with the intimate details of having shared the day.

The drive, the flat tire, the hike, the hot lunch…those will be the stories we will all tell.  What we will hold in our hearts, however, will be the enjoyment the three of us had spending time together in the comfort of well worn friendships…reminding ourselves once again how meaningful our lives had been to one another.

Oh yeah, I opened that sausage up when I got home…It was really good!!

- ted