Moments in Dirt and Ink

Sketches for the month. Another look up Rubio Canyon . The sun setting over the ocean. (From a photo.) Birds go tidepooling, too, but they generally don't practice catch-and-release with their finds. (From a photo.) A stark difference in vegetation when the fire road works as a fire break at the edge of the Station Fire.

Angeles National Forest Locate the trail head. I noticed that Millard Canyon was open in the latest map of the forest closure due to the Station Fire, and since I think that falls is the best of the little falls you can get to easily in the very local backcountry, I decided to go see it. It's been raining even more since last weekend and so sunny this weekend. The canyon was very frosty and there's still snow on the high reaches. When I got to the trail, it had a fence across it, the creek, the back of the campground host, and up the other side of the creek. There are signs saying it's closed and one implying they're video taping for good measure. Guess I should have squinted more closely at the map because just the campground is open. I stopped at the top of the canyon where Sunset Ridge hits the road and walked out along it instead. This has been the boundary of the closed area from the beginning, so I was not worried it wouldn't be open. I sketched o...

Altadena front country Locate the trailhead. Decided I would go up and see if the falls up Rubio Canyon were any larger than seen before. Didn't really expect it, but it could be, there's been a fair amount of rain. I think it was a little bit more than seen before, but not by much. The last few days have started off sunny, but then clouded over and started with a very solid bit of raining. It's also quite cold, which must be why the snow was so very low down. It was quite noticeable while driving up that the burned bits had a new layer of white. I thought about going up the other trail, but it didn't look like it would go high enough to poke at the snow. The trail ahead and the snow looming in the higher reaches where the trail does not go. There's a few tough spots as the trail winds up the creek bed after the ruins of the pavilion, but it's starting to look like there really is a trail up there in most places. It also looks like som...