This weekend after a nice hike in 70 degree weather, I came home and turned on the TV to watch the news. Much of the Northeast was digging out of a blizzard, northern California and the Pacific Northwest was dealing with rain and flooding, and other parts of the country were also suffering from crappy weather.
If you live in one of these places and the weather negatively impacted you or you are just feeling down because of weather crapola, here is a small antidote.
This weekend, with our balmy spring weather I decided to go searching for palm trees — or rather palm oases to be exact. And to be more precise, I already knew where they were, since I have hiked the area extensively over the years. I also explored a few side canyons I had not been in before.
The high temperatures were over 100F, which is okay as long as you have plenty of water. When visiting a palm oasis, plan on there being no water available unless you can verify water from a reliable source ahead of time. Palm Trees do not rely on surface water to survive and the water can be dozens of feet below the surface.
In the temperatures I encountered, most people need at least two gallons of water per day, so plan accordingly.
Anyway, it was a fun trip.
Last week I was on the east coast. Fighting the after affects of the flu I never was truly warm for six consecutive days.