Idlehour (day 3)

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Angeles National Forest

26th | 27th | 28th

The new day started again with a gentle brightening of the clear blue sky and an eruption of birdsong at 5 AM. Someone's got to eat all those bugs.

I decided not to be so lazy getting up, so I could enjoy the most time going uphill in the shade. No one had stolen my cashews in the night. I didn't manage to finish off my dried fruit even though it looked like such a small stash the day before. Camp was struck fairly quickly and the pack stuffed to the top. I got some water pumped from the stream and a little dirt scrubbed off. Then splashed on some bug attracting sunscreen and followed it up with some mostly DEET to get rid of them again. About 6:15, I started up the trail. Okay, I wasn't in that much of a hurry.

I met a little sunshine in the bottom of the canyon the trail had come down, but the day was still cool. There was very little on most of the trail as it wound up the north side and around the west side of things.

clouds around the foothills
The city below has no sunshine as the morning fog keeps it cool.

mostly black caterpilar with flecks of blue and orange on a yellow monkey flower
All those butterflies have to come from somewhere.


Once the roadway could be seen, the trail was mostly in the sun. It was still early enough to be very comfortable, especially for the gentle ups and mostly downs of that section. Once to the road, a small bit was still in shadow. I found a butterfly that had been caught in the cold and couldn't move quickly but would soon have the sun hit it. Their lives are so short.

wilting flowers
The lives of flowers are very short too. These are odd because some of them seem to bleach as they wilt and some darken.

trees planted
Up above the tree nursery, there's a few of the odder trees for this spot.

As I got to Henninger, so did the fog. Wisps of it kept floating along northward.

fog drifting into Henninger Flats
Wisps of fog floating into Henninger.

the fire lookout
The edge of the fog.

The rest of the hike was kept cool with the cloud cover. Walking down, I quickly got below the clouds so that some of the city could be seen although visibility was not so high. I got home about the same time I left two days before.




©2010 Valerie Norton
Posted 4 July 2010
location: 2277 Pinecrest Dr, Altadena, CA 91001, USA

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