Day 1: Red Rock Canyon
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."
White eroded cliffs in Red Rock Canyon, California
