A cool evening in Swartout Canyon after a 17 mile trek from Silverwood Lake. The El Cajon country is a true scabland wilderness, a place of transit and not of destination. I took few pictures – not because it is ugly, for there are many ugly places that make interesting photographs. It was more that there were simply no features that could be the subject of a photo. No peaks, no rock formations, no sudden canyons. Not even the flatness of the Colorado plains, which are dramatic in their flatness.
Mile 338
Instead there was just a succession of formless misshapen hills, all covered with the same vegetation, converging toward no peak or drainage.
But walking, if nothing else, gives you plenty of time to think. After a while I began to see the hills – which are principally formed of dried mud – not as solid, but as a very viscous liquid. This is earthquake country (I am camped directly on top of the San Andreas Fault). The topography here makes sense if you think of it as a giant bowl of mud being shaken and sloshed by the movements of the continents below. What we see as formless hills and ridges are just waves and spatters of the sloshing. They are permanent looking to us, but really they are in constant chaotic motion.
The other big event today was a stop at McDonalds on I-15, the only one on the trail. I’d like to say the 14 miles I hiked to get there made it awesome and delicious, but that would be a lie. Still it was a nice break from sand, wind and blisters.
Yep. PCT mile 342