Coyote Company in Joshua Tree N.P., CA

DECEMBER 6, 2012

“I think everybody has a landscape that they are designed for, and if you’re lucky you find it…”   

- Bill McKibben, autor (quoted in Oustide Magazine, October 2012)

At first thought, it is an irony that I find a meditative comfort both at sea and in the desert.  Really, it isn't such a stretch.  Both landscapes offer nothing visually stimulating.  Looking out over a mountain pass or hiking through rain forest provide the senses with so much stimuli, it’s hard not to be in awe.  Looking out over open water or barren desert, there is nothing external of the mind to provide distraction and entertainment. 

Leaving L.A. I was delusional that I would spend time in Pasadena.  After my desert high with Rebecca there was no real question as to whether or not I would return to the desert.  But how quickly could I pull it off?

They're so fancy in Palm Springs your tea comes with a timer.

A full work day was spent at coffee shops in Sierra Madre, Palm Spings and Coachella.  I like to coffee shop hop when possible so I’m not one of those self-employed Couch Vultures who pays $1.75 for a cup of tea then takes up seat space and bandwith for 8 hours a day instead of renting an actual office.  Around 9 p.m. I entered Joshua Tree National Park.

Like everywhere else this time of year, the campsites were empty and I began to set up my tent. 

Let me back up a week.  It’s Friday night at Emily’s ranch in Los Olivos.  From outside we heard the yelping calls of lots of coyotes.  I asked if we could step outside and fire up the high beams and see them.  She basically said that I could go right ahead, though she was smart enough not to join.  It seemed like a great idea after drinking a bottle of wine.  I mean, who doesn’t want to see coyotes from a nice safe distance, right?  Okay, lets Tarantino this thing back to present day at Joshua Tree. 

I swear I didn't PhotoShop that UFO in there.

I’m putting the poles in my tent and get one of those There’s Something Right Behind Me feelings.  I reach into my pocket and pull out the torch and spin around.  A coyote about 15 meters behind me was in my camp licking water from the leaky tap at the back of my site.  When the light hit her, she stopped drinking but failed to demonstrate the, “Oh $#it! Human!” reaction I was hoping for.  She just stood there staring at me for a second as I clumsily used my left had to pull my blade out of right pocket while my right hand held the light fix on my potentially hostile roommate.  As if a the little P.O.S. blade I bought off of a Kosovar street vendor for two euros was some life-saving bayonet if she actually were to charge.  In a couple seconds she slowly sauntered on and I stuffed a small arsenal of baseball-sized rocks in my jacket pockets and retreated to the impenetrable nylon walls of my tent fortress.