WE DID IT! It has been a while since we hiked to the top of Bald Mountain, in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park……an elevation of 2,730 ft. This photo is taken facing East with a distant view of the snow capped Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Footloose United Stateside - Michele’s 70th and more
After spending this past weekend with old friends I’m inspired to start blogging again about our lives and journeys.
Our older friend, both in age and longevity, has been consistently blogging for probably 25 to 30+ years. Seeing and catching up with him motivated me to blog again. We didn’t talk about blogging I just realized how much I enjoy reading his blog Steve Stern’s Fieldnotes from a Random Walk through Life that I am motivated to actively blog again.
Steve’s wife Michele invited 12 friends to join her and Steve for her birthday weekend in Joshua Tree National Park. We rented 2 VRBO houses and enjoyed each other’s company from Thursday, January 29th through Sunday, February 1st. Beth and I started our drive Wednesday night and spent the night at the Hyatt Place in Bakersfield, it was just about half way (4+ hours) to Joshua Tree. Our driving takes a bit longer because we drive our Tesla and charge every 280 miles or so.
Our VRBO is 61837 Rosemary Lane, Joshua Tre, CA. 92252. It is a 4 bedroom, we shared it with one other couple and a single woman. All of us met each other from doing personal growth workshops 30+ years ago. We have been friends and gone on many adventures together in the years since.
This was the view from our bedroom
The house was about 1 1/2 miles up a dirt road up the hill with only nature behind us.
During the evenings we hung out, cooked dinner together, drank and caught up. There were a number of friends that we had not seen or spoken to for sometime. So it was nice to hear what everyone is doing now a days. My friends were curious about my volunteer Docent work. They loved that I get to take 3rd and 4th grade kids on 3 hours hikes in the private preserve to excite them with nature and science. The preserve is now called All Hands Ecology formerly known as Audubon Canyon Ranch.
Each day, during our time together we went into Joshua Tree National Park and did some hiking. Our first day we hiked the Big Foot/Panorama hike loop
It was so wonderful to get together, enjoy each other and appreciate how fortunate we are. There is so much abundance in this world.
And we even found a damn with water in this desert.
Before we saw The Wizard of Oz, we drove to Valley of Fire State Park
It was a magical place
Oh and I forget we had a cool stop along Highway 66.
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