[pct-l] Antelope Valley

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

I was out around the Antelope Valley area this weekend. Made a drive- 
by at Hikertown, stopped at Gil's Country Store for ice and beer.  
There were lots of golden flowers carpeting the desert there and in  
the distance where the trail goes. Around Hikertown we saw some  
fields of poppies in someone's obviously once-mowed acreage. We  
didn't go by the poppy preserve but it's probably not the right week  
yet for wild poppies. The hills were green and pretty. I wish the  
normal thru-hiking season could see how beautiful it is here. It's  
not all desert. It's a grassland plain, like the Carrizo plain, which  
probably once held antelopes and other interesting creatures.

It was surprisingly hot already. It seemed hotter than it was in June  
last year when I walked through. That's the trouble with Southern  
California. You can't always go by the months of the year.

We visited Lake Piru which was flowing nicely. Not that it matters to  
thru-hikers since you don't go near Lake Piru. There was no snow  
visible in the Liebres where the trail runs, but there was still snow  
in the higher mountains to the west of the Liebres. It probably  
snowed last night, too, but it's probably melting right now.