Eaton Wash

Altadena front country

Haven't been hiking in, um, a while. It must be a month. I could check that here, but that would surely be cheating.

Since the moon is fullish and the moonrise calculator said the moon would be up not too late and I know it's an easy trail to take in the dark, I headed up the way to Henninger Flat around 9PM. Mother Nature seems to have taken into account the actual landscape of the area in calculating when the moon will really rise, so it wasn't actually up until after I'd got to where I was going and had sat for a while.  I had some possible companions, but they decided not to. For one, this was probably for the best since her knee isn't good and the trail at the bottom is steep enough to cause problems with that.

I made rather good time, for me, going up. I parked along Altadena Dr. and got up the trail to the toll road plus a little to where there is a park bench for folks, which is something like a mile up, by 20 to 10. I pondered sketching or not while I nibbled of some snacks. I finally decided I might as well.



Sketching in the dark is a bit different from the light. It's all bold brush strokes as it's almost as much done by feel as sight. Of course, the lights are all bright pinpricks in the varying levels of black, but I don't have any confidence in getting that done. It's funny that the near lights are always distinct points, the far lights are sometimes large shapes.