[pct-l] Cajon to Swathout Canyon

[Gary Schenk]

Sunday we took a short jaunt from Cajon Pass to Swarthout Canyon. There's a homeless encampment now at the south end of the tunnel under I-15. The trail is again well marked in the area just north of the 15. The area is starting to recover nicely from the fire. The trail crews have been busy. There's a new bridge over a small gully. They built a nice little bench at a particularly good overlook. More on that later. The tread is in good shape, a couple of washouts were repaired.  Considering the recent fire there was not a lot of poodlebrush encroaching the trail. Despite the recent rains, there's no water until Swarthout Canyon. It's stocked with about 10 gallons.It was a beautiful day and hiking around the Mormon Rocks is quite pretty. On the way back to Cajon Pass, after crossing a jeep road we saw new mountain bike tracks. They hadn't been there on the way out. The tracks went to the little overlook bench. The bench had been dismantled so the bikers could have some fun. It kind of ruined my day.

Gary