After a trip to the California desert and a day of wandering around Joshua Tree National Park in search of a trout stream, I can report that there are no trout let alone water in the desert. My wife started to sing "Peaceful Easy Feeling" as we ascending into the high desert, giving me that queer feeling that I might just be riding that "Horse with No Name" back! Entering that metropolis of Twenty Nine Palms, I can see why they call it a desert. Nothing was happening, we searched for Roy Rogers ranch were the filmed that TV show of my youth and just like the Ponderosa of North Lake Tahoe just another TV myth of the 60's. My dreams of my youth of cowboys,Indians and gunslingers came to a crashing halt as the reality of sand, rock, sagebrush and Joshua Trees filled my vision. Not a single cowboy in sight, just a bunch of hipsters rock climbing. OK, let me at least see a rattler, scorpion or tarantula? well, tarantula mating season was over and as for the snakes they were too busy laying low. Palm Springs was very nice, but not a fly shop to be found. Opening day is months away, what do to till then?
