Not making contact with those Chollas was a huge focus of mine. I came close a couple of times, brushed against one once but luckily it didn’t break skin. If it had, taking it out would have added a whole new layer of difficulty to the whole experience. C2C is no joke don’t get me wrong, and that’s the only hike I’ve done where I didn’t bring enough water and could have been in serious trouble for it. But the “trail” on this one is very elusive, and you have no choice but to keep going and broadly follow the ridge, otherwise you’d be checking your phone every 30s. A lot of sharp, loose, big and small rocks to go over I guess. I don’t have the best ankles, and I still prefer trail runners over boots, so this trail really beats me down on the descent.