Feeling full
Riverside County vaccination sites start taking walk-ins, Park officials closed some popular climbing areas, and MBUSD aims for summer in-person learning
Hello from California’s high desert. We are looking at a gloriously sunny weekend with highs in the 80s and light winds. I am going to take advantage before things get way too hot, and hopefully spend some time at the grill this weekend. Joshua Tree National Park has been the busiest I’ve ever seen it over the last few weekends, so I will be avoiding Quail Springs Road with everything I’ve got.
I am wrapping up this week’s newsletter a few minutes after receiving my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Copper Mountain College. I was more emotional than I’d expected, but after a year of isolation and uncertainty, it is hard to predict much at all.
I was also lucky enough to show some friends around town this past week, another reminder that things could be slowly turning back to normal.
I love watching people I care about learn about this place that means so much to me. There’s something about watching adult men scramble over the rocks at Jumbo Rocks and seeing their faces light up like a kid with wonder when they gaze across our weird little world that fills my heart with pure joy. It’s been in short supply these days, and I was more than ready to replenish my cup this week.
I’ve been missing these shared experiences, and I’ve been thinking about that since my last newsletter. There is so much still to see and experience in the world, and that journey means so much more when we get to share it with people we care about. I didn’t even realize how much information I’d learned about our corner of the desert until I spent an entire 3-mile hike gabbing away about plants, animals, and the history of tribal relations to my audience who, unfortunately for them, had nowhere to escape to. Luckily for me, they were kind enough to humor me and went along with my impromptu ranger talk (that is also a fantastic example of why they are among my closest friends).
Here’s to asking more questions, getting a lifetime’s worth of Vitamin D, and sharing our love of life with our loved ones this summer. Don’t forget how this moment feels, with its hope and optimism feeling so fresh, and keep your cups full.
And now, on to this week’s news:
After a rocky rollout, Riverside County’s vaccination program has more available doses than eligible residents or workers, The Desert Sun reported.
There were more than 1,000 appointments available at the Indio Fairgrounds this week and more than 100 at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Tuesday.
The excess is largely attributed to an increase in vaccine supply, Dr. Geoffrey Leung, Riverside University Health System-Medical Center chief of family medicine, said during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
County officials said they are still accepting appointments for all residents and people who work in Riverside County according to the state’s tiered guidelines, which opens up eligibility to people over 50 on Thursday.
About a quarter of Riverside County residents over the age of 16 have been partially vaccinated, according to county Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari, and roughly 14% of residents over 16 have been fully vaccinated.
The National Park Service issued a closure notice last week alerting climbers that raptors were nesting in several popular climbing and bouldering areas within park boundaries.
As always, climbers should practice Leave No Trace principles when recreating in the park. That includes packing out waste and limiting any potential disturbance to wildlife.
The closed areas include:
The Shade Structure
Little Hunk at Southwest Face Right, East Corner, and Northeast Face Left
The North Face of Snickers
The East and West Faces of Patagonia Pile
Towers of Uncertainty
Tidal Wave
Wall of Biblical Fallacies
The Heap
Labor Dome
Iron Door Cave
Tilt-O-Meter
Dino's Egg
Chuckwalla Boulders
Spokeswoman Laura Hall told the Hi-Desert Star that the District had concerns about its ability to provide students with consistent access to their current teachers and schedules if it reopened so near the end of the school year.
Hall also said the District would not be able to acquire enough buses to provide reliable transportation to students that rely on it to get to campus.
The summer school program will run June 21 through July 30 and students will be able to choose which weeks they attend. The program will run four days per week, Monday through Thursday, with a day off on July 5. Start times at each site will be the school’s regular year pre-COVID start time.
The program is for students in all grade levels. Students in transitional kindergarten through sixth grade will get four hours of instructional time per day and students in seventh through 12 grade will get five hours.
Parents with questions or who wish to enroll their children can call the District office at (760) 367-9191.
Pupdate of the week: Alice got her third round of boosters last week and weighed in at a healthy 23 pounds. She’s almost as big as Oliver, who doesn’t quite know what to make of his rowdy younger sister.
Trail of the week: It is peak season, so any trail I recommend this week is bound to be extremely busy. Arrive early to get parking, and make sure to have a mask handy and give other hikers at least 6 feet of space when passing on the trail.
Trail safety tip: It is officially warm in the park, so plan to pack in at least 1 liter of water per person per hour to avoid dehydration. I tell friends to take a sip every 15 minutes, at a minimum, to stay on track when we’re outside. Also, load up on sunscreen, and be sure to pack a hat!
Book of the week: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is the perfect book for sitting outside in the sun with a lemonade. It’s a great mystery novel that follows a young woman living along in marshes of the East Coast, and has a great twist at the end!
Show of the week: Netflix has an extremely interesting and well-made documentary out that explores the college admissions scandal that broke in 2019. It looks at the ways universities have profited off well-to-do families that want to buy college as a status symbol for their children.
Local business spotlight
A friend of mine visited this week and the only place on her “must-see” list was Joshua Tree Coffee Company, so it was an easy choice for this week’s spotlight!
Joshua Tree Coffee Company roasts its own organic, sustainably harvested coffee in a tiny space off Route 62 in Joshua Tree. During COVID, it has expanded its outdoor patio into a lovely little oasis for enjoying a Nitro Cold Brew or specialty drink.
Almost every café and restaurant in the Basin offers JT Coffee, and you can purchase its whole bean roasts by the bag for $12 online or at its store in Joshua Tree. I personally love the Breakfast Bliss, but my friend got a bag of its latest Bali specialty roast and it might be my new go-to brew in the mornings.
That’s all for this week. I hope you have a great weekend!
- Megan