California High Desert

I followed the road into the Mojave, this time at noon with the sun beating down and that rare smell of kelp and sea salt that meant the air would be fresh all the way to Mojave.

I enjoyed this small town for its old neon signs, and the freight trains, and all the military airplanes in the distance. I ended up in Red Rock Canyon, and went for the main trail, which wound through scrub and yucca between red and beige spires and cliffs. Near the trailhead, a young girl yelled at me, "Any rattlesnakes out here?" I introduced myself.

"I'm Leroy," her older brother said. "This is Te'esha", and put his hand over her head.

I said that there were plenty of rattlesnakes out here, but that they wouldn't bother them "What about bears?" "Bears?" I said, "where do you get that idea?" "I saw a sign with a bear." "Oh, that's Smokey the Bear, haven't you heard of Smokey the Bear?" She looked at me, squinting in the sun. "What else is out there?" she said. "Well, there are Bobcats. But they probably don't get any bigger than so big," and I gestured the size of a tom cat. "'Probably' you said. 'Probably!'"

"Really, you are completely safe. You can go anywhere out here. Just watch for cactus thorns and you'll be fine."

"What else is out there?" Te'esha said again.

She was unrelenting in her quest to believe a quick walk off the paved road was dangerous. "Scorpions!" I said. "Where?" "They hide under bark.and rocks like the one you are sitting on." She squirmed and stood up.

"You are much safer here than on the highway. Scorpions this far north are just bee-stings." We talked for some time before I headed on.

I immediately liked the two of them, for their openness with a stranger, and their eagerness to listen. I followed the trail until a narrow wash tempted me. An hour route through sand, grass reeds and red boulders, and the color of the rock changed to white - sun-parched lime.

For what it was worth, I hadn't ever seen photographs of this location. Nor was it marked on maps. I did a quick-take with the compass and figured I had left the boundary of the park, so I continued on into an almost lunar punchbowl canyon of stone shaped like wrinkled textiles. I jumped ridges, followed the wrinkles up the face, and down again. Then I slipped, slid the length of the grade and landed on the palm of my hand - a healthy gash which I took for a scrape until I noticed my shirt was stained red.

It was a sissy cut, but I hadn't water in my pack, nor a bandage, so I headed back for the truck and applied antiseptic.

Leroy and Te'esha were walking to their truck. "Look at his hand!" Te'esha said. I showed them my venom extraction kit, and how it was completely useless.
"Why do you carry it then?" she said.

"Because I'm just as afraid of snakes as you are. It's a comfort."

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