Much of today’s scenery was agricultural or industrial rather than wilderness. The Mojave Siphon Station was alongside our route, and it’s maintenance equipment was impressive in scale.
Since the water supply at camp was so bad, I’d carried as little water from it as possible. When the next water supply turned out to be unusable, I once again found myself dreaming of lakes and drinking fountains.
This time, though, in a grove next to the trail, I found a cooler. It said it was for PCT hikers, and contained cool bottles of water, and fresh fruit.
After climbing above the siphon station, we found Silverwood Lake, a reservoir with numerous recreational facilities on the shore, for swimming, boating, picnicking, and so forth. We ate on the beach, and enjoyed the access to water spigots with an unlimited supply of potable water. Elizabeth took a quick swim, and reported it frigidly cold – surprising in the desert heat.
After the lake, the trail led up, up, and up. We turned a corner, and were suddenly greeted with an enormous panorama of Cajon Pass – rugged desert hills with a backdrop of layers upon layers of mountains, with long freight trains slithering their way through the landscape.
Unfortunately, I did a poor job taking pictures of it, but here’s what I’ve got. It was my favorite view so far.
Descending from the vista, the trail entered a pleasant, shady valley, just a few dozen feet from a busy highway. The drivers probably have no idea it’s there
Cajon Pass itself is just a freeway junction town, with a McDonald’s, Best Western, and gas stations.
I went to McDonald’s for the first time in years, and was frustrated to find that their menus change while you’re reading them. It took me a long time to figure out an order, and when I did, the only thing that was good was the soda. It wasn’t even very cheap – I really wonder why McDonald’s is still around.
A PCT guidebook recommended the milkshakes at the Chevron station, so of course we tried them. The texture was good, but they tasted like nothing – they’re 2-star milkshakes in a place you’d expect a 1-star milkshake.
We checked into the Best Western, which was known for being friendly to hikers. In fact, the place was almost full, even though there were only a few cars in the parking lot.
Doing laundry, I met a man who was not a hiker, but was spending a 10-day vacation here. He was in Cajon Pass to take pictures of the trains.
I took a hot shower. My left foot turned a much brighter red/purple than my right. They looked like they belonged to different bodies.
With the comforts of civilization at hand, (what’s available at a highway junction, at least), Elizabeth and I watched a terrible horror movie (“As Above, So Below”), drank beer, and went to sleep.
The next morning, I caught a glance of myself in the bathroom mirror – something I haven’t seen a lot of lately. I noticed that the beard I’d been growing on this trip had a lot of grey in it. It occurred to me, making progress on the PCT is a lot like aging. You don’t notice it happening, but if you keep doing what you always do every day, you’ll notice once in a while that it’s happened.
Too bad you didn’t take picture of you feet… some of us would like have seen your feet.
Looks like a good day. We hosted a game night at my place tonight – many of your regs were in attendance – Paul, Izzy, Alex, Andy, Andy, Tiffany and Hahns! We had veggie and salmon burgers in your honor!
Oh come on Richard, you know i wouldn’t serve veggie burgers. If I did burgers at board game night, I’d serve the least-vegetarian-looking meat in Costco. (And then hide in the kitchen and eat a veggie burger).
Anyhow, that sounds like a great crowd. What games did you play?