[pct-l] PCTA TrailFest Hike

[Hiker97 at aol.com (Hiker97@aol.com)]

For those of you going on the  Saturday hike at TrailFest, the hike starts at 
the PCT and Swarthout Canyon  Road.  Now here is the confusing part.  This 
road is in Lone Pine  Canyon.  It is about 6 miles from Cajon Pass and I-15 by 
trail.  Also,  it is right in the middle of the San Andreas fault zone.  If 
there is an  earthquake while we are hiking, we are toast.  :-)
 
Rattlesnake and I were driving  around in his truck to check out the trail in 
this area one day last fall.   In other words, we were goofing off and having 
fun.  
 
We come up this hill on a dirt road  right next to the train tracks.  The 
train track and road bend at this  point at the top of the hill.  Just at that 
moment a train comes up the  tracks from the other side.  It scared the living 
daylights out of  us.  The optical illusion made it look like we were on the 
tracks facing  the train.  Like the dirt road crossed the tracks at that point 
and we did  not notice it.
 
It was one of those things you  never forget.  That BIG train was going to be 
the winner in this game of  inadvertent chicken.  It passed so close to us 
that I think I could have  stuck my arm out the truck window and touched the 
passing train.  If the  train engineer had blown his horn, we would have had 
heart attacks.
 
We continued on with our PCT truck  exploring, but a little more aware where 
the train tracks and we  were.
 
Cheers, Switchback
Trail Trucker & Trail Town  Diner Champ