Desert climates with low humidity ... El Cajon is not desert !
The environment is close to Texas hill-country in late summer. I've spent many years in both places (and 6 years in Connecticut, BTW).
Your "desert" is from books and magazines.
I'll check in the attic for "record-wash" --it might un-stick your needle. Maybe.
Who cares about the distance to the golf course. There is water across the road.
"The body was found in the trees about 100 yards north of the Sweetwater River, across the road from a sand-mining operation in the riverbed.
Dan Marshall, the security guard for nearby Singing Hills Country Club, said the cluster of oaks where the body was found is a common spot to dump trash.
"There's like a little access road in there and people go up there just on the side of Dehesa Road and dump garbage," Marshall said.
Longtime resident Gloria Chadwick described it as a heavily traveled road.
"This is a main thoroughfare," she said. "Transient traffic, not familiar cars, go back and forth. It's not familiar old-timer cars, where you say, 'There goes our neighbor.' We don't know anybody anymore."
She said people using the area as a dump cannot be seen from the road because there is so much brush. Also, the speed limit on the road is 50 mph, so drivers are moving too fast to notice any roadside activity. It is not unusual to see a lost motorist pulled over to the side of the road."
Here is a link to aerial photo of location described above:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?zoom=9&mapdata=jZ2g%2b%2fXW8V826c%2f%2b6TQcGGwNdJGTcNd6yqWXJa9yeBGm0Zxh%2brNR6P3pqvQQ1wBNx5jSQv6YmUsUHZFqdkj%2f3kfo%2fC3EiFh8%2bKeRfb1miaxw7jpp1bcS1H8wEowoYBMy%2bY9embUB%2bSMtLuss%2bD4OVftoBLIFZOzlrMFwRsl4QVH%2bAUC4DNrBtbF0fKhXQdkpFDwwk%2bedpQzOH5%2fWjJleX5OAoRedMScppaJagNJelKgx4SRdBeDsZKPAQszy6NWsGrdD6yIVJmTNdCAIUhpmRjaqEINpCDqgaNq9bTDOOJg%3d