May 16:Silverwood Lake

We walked away from our campsite and traversed long an old aquaduct-made-trail and headed toward a dam. Apparently this dam was built as a safety net in case the one a little ways away fails and the lake it's holding gets emptied. The skeptical guidebook says it's there in case a Biblical flood comes someday. We got a kick out of that.

We took a long rest next to some trees (the days are staying HOT) in the afternoon, walked 30 minutes and came over a crest to find Silverwood Lake, and decided we needed to take a side trail down to a beach to get our feet wet and wash a few things off since we've been in poison oak areas again. The first thing I saw on the beach was a snake. He was small, but when I pointed him out to Mark, he noticed it was a rattler. Luckily his mission was to climb up the steep embankment and ours was to be near the water. His mission, however, did manage to take him across both our packs and Mark's hat, but alas, our camera was there as well, so no pics until after he was passed.

Despite all our breaks we somehow managed to do our highest mileage yet and camped atop a little knoll with another guy; in the distance was Cajon Pass, with the interstate and railroad tracks in view and planes flying periodically overhead. Tomorrow we would walk to the Interstate and, yes, McDonalds.

Total Miles:333.1
Miles Today: 24.5
Camp 19:Planes,Trains,& Automobiles

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