[pct-l] Antelope Valley

[Marion Davison]

Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com wrote:
> 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.

I'm in Apple Valley, about a ten minute drive from the trailhead at 
C-13(Mojave Forks Dam).  The desert is getting covered with a flower 
called Goldfield.  The rest of the desert wildflowers, including the 
poppies, in my yard haven't bloomed yet.  The daffodils and iris and 
hyacinth are full on.  We are still having frost in the mornings, but it 
was really warm in the afternoons all this week. Right now it is 
raining, almost sleeting, with a strong south wind, and it is really cold.
I'm planning a multi-day hike in section C in a couple of weeks so I 
hope it warms up a lot.