Chapter 2 of Norma's Handmade Banana Bar

Camping with Andre - June 6

Today you and Andre are at Joshua Tree National Park Campground, California!!!

Select one of these trails: 10 Best Cave Trails in Joshua Tree

Then tell us how the hike went with Andre.
Did you find anything interesting?
Perhaps you ran into someone famous on the hike.
Maybe you guys found a treasure chest!

Desert Queen Mine and Eagle Cliff Boulder House is the trail I found on that website. Seems easy enough, about 3.4 miles, out and back. Only a 640 ft elevation gain and it says it takes about little more than an hour to complete.

I asked Andre to come along. Seems it was a slow day at the Banana Bar, so he agreed. We start the day with a full camelback each of water. I make sure to wear sun-blocking gear, shirt, pants, hat, and good hiking boots. Andre insists he'll be fine. No hat or boots needed. Plus he shows me how hairy he is, why does he need a shirt or pants? I try to tell him the sun here in this desert is intense. He thinks I'm telling him we'll need to be 'in tents' and he tells me 'No thanks, I'm not camping with you.' Well, this should be an interesting hike.

Off we start. The trail takes us over some rough rocky ground. The sun is hot, the air is dry, typical high desert in the summer. We're headed toward the Desert Queen Mine. It's abandoned according to the research I did on the internet. But it was an active gold mine for 75 years. I hesitate to mention this to Andre, for fear of him wanting to go digging in the abandoned site. I pray he can't read and that the mine is blocked.

After a mile or so, we sit down for a water break. Andre drains his camelback.

"Andre, you aren't even halfway through the hike! What are you thinking? This is a desert. You need to stay hydrated."

That crazy monkey gives me the stinkeye and says, "AMKERE!" Then he pulls out a bottle of beer. Where did that come from?

"There better not be any more of that, mister. I'm NOT carrying you back to the car."

We continued on. I saw the mine but we passed it. Andre wasn't paying attention, and that is fine. As we reached the Eagle Cliff Boulder House, I thought the ruined building quite curious. Relics of someone's past life, forever left behind in the dry desert. Andre scampered around the boulders, had a great time. Until he stepped on a cactus. His bare feet were not as tough as he thought. We had to spend some time pulling out cactus spines. Not our idea of fun. But the bottle of banana-flavored rum he used as painkiller helped.

"And where did you hide that? Never mind, I don't want to know."

So from Boulder House to the car, I have this monkey on my back. Literally. A drunken monkey. What a way to end the hike.

W/C 452