The eastern face of San Jacinto is one of the deepest escarpments in the contiguous United States — the mountain rises more than 10,000 feet from the Coachella Valley floor in a near-vertical wall over just a few horizontal miles. To PCT hikers it means something else as well: the midpoint of a 20-mile waterless stretch through exposed desert terrain, one of the longest dry carries on the trail. Coming down off the peak, I found a deer leg lying in the middle of the trail — just the leg, no carcass anywhere. The work of a mountain lion, most likely, and a lion does not usually walk away from that much meat. The alpenglow catches the granite for a few minutes each evening, turns it savage pink, and then the desert reclaims its usual indifference.
