My Adventure at Pushawalla Canyon

My cousin, Valerie, had been telling me about Pushawalla Canyon for months. She spends her winters down here in the desert and her summers up in the mountains. She doesn't like the cold up there in the winter or the heat down here in the summer! Anyway, since I was home during spring break (we had to buy new tires for my CRV and thus couldn't drive anywhere until we bought them), she invited me out to the canyon one afternoon. She rides through it constantly and even works on the trails there, moving boulders and getting them marked for hikers! So, I followed her out there one day with the little Toyota RAV 4 wheel drive. She told me where to hike and meet her and off I went. Now, if you have EVER hiked in the desert, you know the one thing hikers don't like is soft sand. We sink into it. It is difficult to walk through. It is much harder to walk through than hard sand or rock. And, of course, WHAT was in this canyon? YUP. Soft sand. But, off I went, trudging along. Valerie, of course, had her horse with her and had to move her truck and trailer down canyon, so I was left alone. ALONE??? ALONE! In an unfamiliar canyon! ACK! Now, the plan was for me to hike into the canyon and wait for Valerie at the picnic table while she would drive further down, unload her horse, and ride on the top of the cliffs and then down into the canyon and meet me. Now, I'm NOT a seasoned hiker. I'm a novice. But, I figured that by the time I got to the picnic table, she and her horse would soon be along...so I was waiting, waiting...waiting...waiting....waiting...and my imagination got going...going...going...hmmm...I wonder if there ARE mountain lions in this canyon? There are warnings about them across the highway at the Coachella Valley Preserve.....

to be contined tomorrow...