We left Chapel around 7 in the morning and climbed up from Anza on our journey towards Palm Desert. Brian and several of the other locals from Calvary had warned us that we would be descending a very dangerous stretch of road in which our brakes could over heat and our wheels fall off. It turns out that this Highway 74 is one of the most dangerous roads in America so we were told upon reaching the bottom, it was full of swithbacks, great views, and fast riding never turned out to be quite as dangerous as we had imagined. After desecending 4,000 feet into the desert we soon realized that Palm Desert was a huge place. If there is a Gucci and Apple store in town we could be sure that a bike shop existed somewhere and Lyle immediatly sought it out to buy a new camelback bladder because his had been slowly leaking for the first three days. We took a lunch break at Burger King and then proceeded out into the ever increasing heat. We were headed for a small town called Mecca a few miles away from the base of Joshua Tree National park when it seemed that we may have been heading in the wrong direction in a massive city. We pulled off the road and cooled off in some lawn sprinklers when a man named John pulled over to offer us some help. He warned us that Mecca was not a safe place, and offered us guns if we were set on getting there. Since John was driving a truck Lyle was quick to ask if he could offer us a ride back in the right direction as we were quite tired of wondering around in the heat. He was glad to oblige he ended driving us nearly 30 miles to the base of Joshua Tree National Park. We were so thankful for his generosity and the gatorades that he gave us before we headed out. The road through Joshua tree began with a huge climb up into the park that was quite overwhelming, upon reaching the top we hit up one of the campgrounds and refilled our water. Joshua tree indeed proved to be a beautiful place as we wound down through some breathtaking views of moutains, rock formations, and cacti. Although beautiful we again realized how huge everything is in the west coast, and the second camp ground we had aimed at arriving at never seemed to arrive. And so we rode into the night up a long climb where we were stopped by a ranger who had told us the regular campsites were all full. Finally we reached the top and found the backcountry campsite area that the ranger had told us we could use if we hiked a mile off the road, we instead walked twenty feet into the blackness of desert and made camp in the sand. Jeff one of the guys from Calvary Chapel had given us MREs which we feasted on before crashing in our small tent around 10:30. So at the end of the day we could see God providing for us in many ways by providing rides when our luck had run out and food when their otherwise would have been none, Day three was a long but great day
80 Miles, Plus 100 degrees
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