day two of our excellent adventure dawned clear and bright and a little on the chilly side. it was a wonderful thing to wake up on june 4th in a thermal shirt. we decided to take a hike after breakfast, which was wonderful. derkirita made breakfast tacos, and after several burned fingers trying to tighten up the french press, we had some cowboy coffee, too. we lazed around the campsite and took care of our morning stuff in a very leisurely fashion, so we didn't get started on our hike until 11.
we lubed ourselves up with spf 15, packed up our day pack with dried fruit, extra water, and a train map, and headed off to where we started "the hike that never ended". oh it was a glorious hike through the davis mountains, on a poorly marked trail, uphill, downhill, across the hill, you name it, we hiked it. and just when we thought we had a) reached the prettiest view yet, or b) finally reached the end of the trail, we were proved wrong. we saw about 10 different kinds of yucca plant--flowering, non-flowering, fruit-bearing, non-fruit-bearing, etc. we saw birds and lizards, lots of mesquite trees, about 10 million ocotillo cacti (i'll post a picture of those with my picture post) with beautiful purple flowers. derkirita loves the ocotillo. i mostly think she just likes the way it sounds when you say it.
we hiked for a while, and stopped to rest and snack on the dried fruit and reapply sunblock. we hiked up the mountain some more. we figured we'd be home soon. wrong. we figured the shack with the antenna on top would have water faucets, since it was on the road and was by the park look out. so not the case, friends and neighbors, so not the case. it was about this time that i started to get a little panicky, since we had used up the extra water and were down to what was left in our bottles. luckily, and thank the baby jesus, we started down the mountain. after several sets of wickedly sharp switchbacks, we ended up at the interpretive center, scene of last night's lecture on medical practices in the 1890's. we were very happy. we drank a lot of water. we slept in the tent (for a little while), saved the mr. dungeon master's (more on him in a second..) lunch from getting washed away in the brief afternoon shower, and talked about how we so almost just died. we also contemplated writing a sharply worded letter to the park service regarding their trail markers and how much they suck.
that night, we made the camp dinner to end all camp dinners, because the sweet baby jesus knows the three of us could have eaten a horse each and still had room left for dessert. now, i need to preface this part of the story with a couple of facts. kk and derkirita are two of the finest cooks i know, hands down. talk about making silk purses out of sow's ears..those two could make dinner from just about anything, and make it taste so good you'd want to slap someone. seriously. you should also know that kk is a peeps fiend. you know peeps-- the marshmallow sugar coated bunnies and chicks that you get at easter? kk loves them--i mean loves them in a deep and profound way that she can't explain. it's almost spiritual. but i digress...
so we make hobo dinners that night. they were glorious. little foil packets of goodness, including ground beef, carrots, potatoes, onions, spices, and a splash or two of red wine from our secret stash. they were wonderful. derkirita knows how to plan a menu. and kk knows how to order up a wonderful dessert. i have to admit that i was skeptical of what is now being called "peeps brulee" since i have been a life-long staunch peep hater. i was wrong. peeps brulee, the brain child of kk, was amazing. thank the lord derkirita saved a package of chicks and a package of bunnies from easter. ( kk said they were just the right amount of stale) we roasted the peeps over the coals left from making our hobo dinners. they tasted almost exactly like creme brulee, and the three of us managed to get burns on at least one finger a piece in our excitement and readiness to cram that gooey marshmallowy sugary goodness down our throats. glorious. and we cleaned up and went to bed, where we slept peacefully until about 4 am.
let me back up to mr. dungeon master's picnic basket. dungeon master and his family set up camp next to us sometime while we were on "the hike that never ended". it was a very nice tent, and when kk dropped the picnic basket in there, she noted that instead of the hot camping guys i was hoping had camped next to us, a family was in residence. they came tramping back sometime during the dinner hour, and seemed like a happy little fam. dungeon master was very nice to his wife and his kid. we decided they were "good people".
ok, so sometime around 4am, we three were awakened by a string of obscenities the likes of which i had only read about. and there was a lot of snorting. and it smelled really bad. and there was a lot more swearing. a lot more. the dungeon master and his family had left their dry box and cooler out on their picnic table like a bunch of dumb rookies. a whole band of javelinas had smelled the goodies from their den on the creek bed, and decided that it was dinner time. so dungeon master is awakened by their snorting and rooting around and squeals of delight as they tip the cooler off the picnic table. those javelinas are smart critters. so dungeon master comes out of his tent with his mag-light, and in the shadows of our own mag-light and the derkirita's head lamp, it looks like all he came out with was his mag-light. and by that, i mean the man looked naked as a jay-bird. and it was kind of scary. we figured out that he was indeed clothed, but in the smallest pair of whitey-tighties G-d ever made. so dungeon master is swearing and screaming and waving his arms trying to chase the javelinas off, and finally he succeeds. we giggled for a while, until we realized that being awake for so long has made us need to water the trees. we then remember that javelinas aren't' particularly nice animals, and a smell outside seems to indicate that kk's skunk friend is in the area and isn't a javelina fan, either. we went to the bathroom anyway. the rest of the night was quite peaceful, if not smelly.
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