I recount a trip that failed to the Smuggler's Cave, but on that trip ran into some friends who had the coordinates. This led to a subsequent trip. After the trip, I thanked my friends via text, and they texted me back a photo of a dead body in the vicinity of where I had camped on the previous failed attempt.

This trip highlights a trip to Death Valley after a hurricane filled Lake Manly in Badwater Basin. Until this time it had not filled for 50 years. I took my son. The reason I took him was so that he could see one of two things in his future, the beginning of the refilling of Lake Manly, or never again to see water in this spot. It filled again two years later, so maybe it is the beginning of the filling of Lake Manly!

The Smuggler's Cave is an eroded rock feature in San Diego County at an area known as the Valley of the Moon. A few years prior I asked a Border Patrol agent if there were issues in the area. He said there were none in the 10 years he had been in the area. So, naturally, I decided to sleep there.

This episode covers Black Canyon National Water Trail and Fern Meadow, along with a lot of tea.....