Moments in Dirt and Ink

Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa Point Mugu State Park Click for map. Back not far from where I was hiking last week, I am out to either hike up to Tri Peaks again or take a big loop along the side of Boney Mountain. I probably should have chosen before starting, but I am still pondering. Although I want to go up to Tri Peaks again, I sort of want to do it via a different route than the one I have already done, so most likely this will be the larger loop to new spots. My start is new too. Previously, I started from by the cultural center, which has parking behind a gate that locks at sunset giving an annoying deadline for getting back. This time I am using the trail at the end of Windy Drive that everyone else seemed to be using so that I have no timing worries. Wide trail past informative signs to start off at the end of Windy Drive. The trailhead has a sign about fire inspired by the Springs Fire of 2013. My previous trip was just 3 months after that fire, so this whole ...

Lang Ranch Open Space Oakbrook Regional Park Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Woodridge Open Space The original plan was a shuttle hike along the Albertson Fireroad, but the instigator of that plan decided against hiking today after all. By bending the route around, I could get the peak, so I went for much of that original plan anyway, just removing the need for a shuttle. There is plenty of parking at either trailhead and a packed dirt path connects the two. I choose to start at Oakbrook View Trail, which comes first along the road. The sign is offset from the road, but it is still easy to find at the start of some park areas. An open space across from a park where a line in the grass leads to an information sign. I will start here. The trail starts climbing through oaks up a little hill. Houses built on a few different plans stand in neat curves below, but not for very far. Grassy hills surround the neighborhood. A light mist lingers in the gen...

Malibu The waterfall is a short hike, so I planned to explore Charmlee afterward. It seems to be quite a popular park and is a good place to find wildflowers. Parking is $4 in the lot and although there are numerous places to park outside the lot, most seem to use it. Beside the lot are bathrooms, a nature center, interpretive trail, picnic tables, water, and a map of the many trails that form a mesh over the hills. As sensible as it might be to start there, I do not. Instead, I head up the fire road for the very highest point first. Climbing high. Santa Catalina is still waiting out there. The view from high up in the park on down the coast with Point Dume and Point Vicente sticking out into the ocean. Behind, the Boney Mountain with all its peaks rises much higher.

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Point Mugu State Park There was an offer out to join a group doing a shuttle hike up and over Sandstone Peak and out the bottom of Big Sycamore Canyon. Do I really want to face the maximum downhill that the Santa Monica Mountains are capable of throwing at me, going from the highest point in the range to nearly sea level? Well, they are not all that high and there is nearly 15 miles to lose all that elevation in, so I grabbed my poles to help take on some of the impact and joined up. Making a start on the Sandstone Peak Trail. The Backbone and Mishe Mokwa Trails can be combined for a nice loop. The trail shows signs of erosion from the rains and is set with sandbags to form water bars. Today is a single day window between brief storms. The last one brought over an inch last night, but there is little mud on the trail. It is generally a little rocky and well drained. The mountains come quickly into view as we make the...

Corral Canyon Park Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The whims of a day settled on another peak, but one much closer and lower and probably a bit warmer than the last few. Suspecting Scott, a geocacher, might be happy to go along with that whim, I sent him an email. He sent out another email for two more that might be similarly inclined and we ended up three strong standing at the side of highway 1 ready to climb nearly every foot of Mesa Peak's 1844 foot height. The sign at the trailhead tries to give credit to all the agencies involved. Parking is in a fee lot or one of a few spots beside the highway, but public transportation is convenient. The trail quickly divides, but it just loops around so all trails lead "up". We head left, which is the slightly longer way around. This takes us past some garden variety yucca and then the remains of the home that went with the garden. The foundation is not evident, but the chimney still stands tall. After th...

Malibu Creek State Park Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area After hiking around the lower canyon, it is a good time to head up to the end of the road to hike around the upper canyon. Really, I only want to do a little loop in the canyon itself, then take off along the one trail here that I have not really hiked on, the Backbone to the east. The parking lot is nearly empty today, but there are a couple young women looking for "Jim Morrison's cave" with instructions from Yelp, of all things. My prejudices show as my mind instantly suspects it is a place covered in graffiti and trash. The only help I can offer is that they are on the only trail going southwest from here, so that is probably where they want to start their search. I turn up the motorway instead and climb to the saddle at the top to look out over the valley. Poking up to the view at the top. Catalina Island in the mist.

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area I wanted to poke along in the Malibu area again and decided to put together a hike with Hike the Geek . The LA group have not gotten together in a while, so I did not expect much. The planned day rolls around with only two sign ups as "I'll try", so expectations are fulfilled. After a suitable wait, neither has shown up. The day is hot as promised, so I start off in the canyon. The weather man promised heat today and it is already quite hot enough, but the canyon is cool. A glimpse down at a clear spot shows a very little bit of water making its way along the creek bed. Trees provide frequent shade along the old road that serves as a trail up Solstice Canyon. Arriving at the house ruins at the end of the road. A little bit of the creek is diverted across the road.

Malibu Creek State Park Map link. After the morning hike, I decide to go up to Upper Solstice Canyon where I can finish off the last bit of a loop I started in 2009 . Going past the entrance to Lower Solstice Canyon, I am reminded that it is actually a part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area by the locked gate across it. Some of the users of the overflow parking don't seem to realize the road does go somewhere and present minor obstacles to passage. Up at the end of the road, there is plenty of parking, so a grab a spot and start up Castro Motorway, the continuation of the road. At first the views are quite tame, but once up to the top and the north side opens up, they become excellent, if a little difficult to see. The Backbone Trail passes through the parking lot heading over these rocks to the southeast and should head along the motorway, but it has to reroute down into the valley instead. Looking into the valley to the north. Lovely r...

Topanga State Park Map link. Although not officially a hike of the group, a number of the LA chapter of HIKE the GEEK collect themselves on a street corner in Pacific Palisades to hike into Rustic Canyon from the Sullivan Fire Road with a few extras who were actually organizing the hike. Coming in from the fire road gives a little easier route than the usual from Will Rogers State Historic Park. When we're all good and ready, we start down the fire road past a gate and dodging a few cars on their way to the boy scout camp. The area up Rustic Canyon from near the start of the hike. Sullivan Fire Road curves its way along the upper right of the canyon. After a short while climbing slowly along the fire road, there's a whole in a fence where there might have once been a gate. Turning, there is a short bit of trail, and then a long flight of steps. The steps are short and shallow and, of course, without handrails as they drop very nearly to the bottom of the cany...

Topanga State Park Locate the trail head. After neglecting the trail for about a year, the LA section of Hike the Geek decided to hike Los Liones Canyon up to Parker Mesa. The marine layer over the ocean continues, so the start isn't too bad as we make the wiggles up through the canyon on the narrow trail. The chaparral is looking pretty brown and grey under the cover of low clouds.

Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa, Santa Monica Mountains NRA Boney Mountain State Wilderness, Point Mugu SP Locate the trail head. The predicted temperatures inland range right up to 100°F, but on the coast there are still areas expecting a nice 70°F. Being somewhat suspicious of the predictions, I pack enough water for hiking in over 80°F temperatures and decided to climb Boney Mountain from the Thousand Oaks side. The area has been recently burned and the weatherman isn't predicting for the mountain top, so I wasn't going to take any chances with the precious liquid. Normally, a recent burn would put an area off limits, but the relevant agencies have decided that all may continue to use the land as long as they stay on established trails and keep to the hours of sunrise to sunset. There is danger from fire smoldering inside trees, but this can be carefully checked for along the trails and there are a few reasons to invite the public back onto the land. Setting off ...

Circle X Ranch A map link. Once again, the variable crew of HIKE the GEEK people gathered together to make a circuit of the Mishe Mokwa and Backbone trails. We managed to collect almost entirely at the same trail head of the two options and started off with a pretty big group. Up at the first junction, we made a right to leave Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica range, for last. This put us parallel to the road for a short stretch and able to see the other lot. It looked quite full, as did the one we were coming from. The trail would be crowded. The marine layer hanging over the beaches wasn't quite getting to us, so the day was warm. Looking down over the smaller, and quite full, parking lot. Why is there a bus? I blame rock climbers without any evidence.

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Map link. I would be in a stone's throw of a bit of trail I had located, but found no information online about. I would have sufficient time to investigate it, so I headed out to Rivas Canyon Park. This is a tiny bit of land sandwiched between Temescal Gateway Park and Will Rogers State Historic Park. People seem to consider this park simply as a holder for a trail to travel between the other two, but I had found a very distinct looping route around the ridge edges that define the watershed that is Rivas Canyon. In fixating on finding the road and making the left into it safely, I managed to miss that it is private. That and that there is virtually no parking at the end force me to recommend against starting in the same spot. Temescal offers a much superior starting point with plenty of parking, including free space along the roads near the entrance, and bathrooms at the start. Will Rogers is also an excellent starting po...

Escondido Canyon Park Santa Monica National Recreation Area Locate the trail head. I went out to see the waterfall in Escondido Canyon in Malibu again, joining a very large group of HIKEtheGEEK folks. The clouds over Malibu were looking very threatening, and thickened up as the group gathered, but weren't expected to deliver any water. Underneath them was feeling very cold for the middle of the day in southern California. I got a little history on the trail. The parking lot has only been there about six years and was put in to decrease the crazy amount of parking on PCH and a government agency had a little square of land there. No parking signs keep the cars off the side of the roads and the lot fills fairly quickly, so there is still plenty of parking out on the highway and it still gets a little crazy. Thick clouds building over Malibu and the no parking signs along the roads.

Topanga State Park Map link. The Santa Monica Mountains are dotted with little tiny parks that tend to feed into the trail systems of the Santa Monica National Recreation Area and Topanga State Park. The HIKEtheGEEK crew decided to take a loop trail out of Temescal Gateway Park which promises ocean views and a little waterfall and to make it an animal themed thing. I quite like the Rustic Canyon hike that starts just a little way down the road, separated only by Rivas Canyon Park from this one, so decided to join up. There is a $7 fee for the lot at the trail, but there is a lot of parking on Temescal and Sunset as well as a number of entry points from other, smaller streets in the area. Running stop signs in the area comes with a $50 ticket from photo enforcement, which seems to be a common problem because someone took the time to mention it to me as I took a paper map from a kiosk. We gathered and started up along the paths next to the roadway, then turned left at the fi...

Circle X Ranch Map link. At (just) 3111 feet high, Sandstone Peak is the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains. There are two nearby trails and connectors allow a very nice loop hike through the rocks that are actually volcanic rather than sandstone. The folks at Hike the Geek decided to head around it. There was some difficulty getting everyone to the same trailhead since the words said Mishe Mokwa while the coordinates used were for the Sandstone Peak trailhead. Cell signal meant that everyone could be collected and we headed off counterclockwise. I hear that is the unlucky direction, but it seemed a good direction for this hike putting the peak near the end. We climbed up to join the Backbone Trail, then turned right at the intersection. Left at the next intersection had us following Mishe Mokwa up through picturesque canyon. Coming around into the canyon Mishe Mokwa follows. The start of the Echo Cliffs. The trail passes above some rocks that are called...

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Map link. From the time we hiked the upper canyon area, I'd wanted to hike the lower canyon. I didn't then know what was there. The folks at Hike the Geek planned to go there and at first I'd remembered wanting to go. After reading a little bit about it, I remembered that I had actually got up there one afternoon and done a couple sketches although I didn't have the camera that previous time. I decided I would go again anyway. Trails make a number of loops of different sizes and further trails hike up the canyon after the loop. The largest loop is about 3 miles with a high road and a low road. The high road gives views of the ocean and odd houses in the neighboring canyon and an overview of the canyon. The low road passes by old ruined cabins with more just off it. Little waterfalls tumble down the canyon near the largest ruins of an elaborate estate. A couple signs give a little history for the most subst...

Circle X Ranch Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority Locate the trailhead. I had read about a trail to a place that was full of funkyness and a good place to go on those hot days as the destination is shady and has pools of water and water flowing around, at least after the rains. The general plan for hot days seemed to be hike down and wait until it is cool while playing on the boulders then hike back up. This was a hot day and I really wanted a hike, but it wouldn't be expected to be flowing very well. I decided to try it out anyway. I had errands to do before hiking, so didn't get started until the middle of the afternoon. I had a bit of an extra drive getting there because the directions missed a turn. Even the gooogle maps directions missed a turn. Something about being on two roads that are actually the same, then a third joins and one of the original roads continues while the other two turn... Anyway, my directions said to be on the one that continu...

Will Rogers State Historic Park Map the trailhead. It seems it is about time for another Rustic Canyon hike for Hike the Geek. Apparently some people hike down from the road into the canyon and call that the Rustic Canyon hike, but the geeks, or particularly the leader, like the hike I've done before for its variation in terrain type. The hike starts off at the tended green of polo fields, then climbs up to the Backbone trail for a little way before dropping down into the canyon. The canyon starts off wide and lush and narrows into a stony V, but is still rather lush. I got there very early, so sat down by the polo fields where they were actually playing polo. Horses running up and down the field and then at the half, the folks in their summer dresses and wedge heels came out onto the green, champagne in hand, to stomp divots. There was also a contest to find a cork hidden beneath a divot. Someone won and the folks meandered back to the side for the entertainment to ...