Moments in Dirt and Ink

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead. Fish Creek was once very accessible but now has a quarry operating at the end of the canyon. Now it can be got at by way of a much longer trail that climbs the ridge and drops into the canyon surrounded by a truly amazing amount of poison oak. This trail seems to be the domain of stringy old hikers who can manage to make it to the trail by 7AM. However, on cerain Saturdays, the quarry runs a shuttle through their operations so that if you can start by noon and be out by 3PM, the average 5-year-old can make it up to the falls. The vans were running today, and I saw a lot of young kids, some of them even walking it themselves. The trail heads out over a bridge and into the canyon, turning a few sharp corners quickly hiding the quarry from view. The canyon itself is rather narrow and steep with water leaking out the left side here and there. The trail stays fairly high up on the left side most of the way until that side becomes ...

Sketches done "in situ" for the month. A tree on a ledge by the creek, walking upstream out of Nira . Eaton Canyon , the first of the day. Rubio Canyon , the second of the day. Millard Canyon , the final fall of the day.

Angeles National Forest accessible from Altadena and Altadena front country The rains had been fairly steady over the week before including the previous weekend.  The weekend before that was well rained on by an earlier storm.  It was high time to get out for a hike and the rains suggested going to see the waterfalls.  Altadena has at least three waterfalls that can be hiked to in less than a mile.  I've been to two of them , but only looked down the canyon toward the third before.  I decided to try to see all three starting somewhat late in the morning.  I started with the one I had not seen before because it should have the best light in the morning. Eaton Canyon Locate the trailhead. Eaton Canyon has a large parking lot somewhere for everyone to park in so long as they don't want to be there before sunrise or after sunset.  In two tries, I couldn't manage to make the correct turn so I went along Altadena Drive to the smaller parking ar...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. NIRA is a campground at the end of Happy Canyon road, which you can get to from highway 154 via Armour Ranch road. It is also a main entry point into the backcountry and a very common hike for us when I was young. It was also my first backpacking trip. We didn't get very far then, I think it was only about four miles in. It can be tough to go backpacking with an ill-equipped 9-year-old, you end up carrying her rather heavy slumber bag. This time, the area had been closed the previous two years due to fire damage. I was hiking again with my mom. A tree tested by fire. This one is still standing tall and strong even though the base has been well blackened by the passing of the flames. The trail starts off at the far end of the campground and crosses the river. I remember it being bigger. I remember many boots off crossings. The water was usually slow and not too far up the shins. I remember many crossings ...

Just one bit of hiking with sketches for the month, but they weren't presented in the post for that hike so I'll put them here. Echo phone on Echo Mountain . Sighting tubes at Inspiration Point , drawn in the dark without a lamp.

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead. Echo Mountain is the most popular local trek. Easy to find at the top of Lake, the other main street after Colorado in Pasadena. Even on weekdays, it can be a little bit crowded so on this gorgeous and warm, but not too warm, winter Sunday saw a veritable highway of people going up and down. The trail heads up 2.7 miles to the mountain and then three trails split off from there to go further up. I took the third one that you come to in the space of 50 yards just before getting to the location of the ruins of the old hotel and trains. The trail itself is mostly out in the open on a southerly slope with some amount of westerly slope visits. It can be quite hot in the summer, especially in the afternoon. Of course, on a clear day this affords rather grand views of the city. On a very clear day, there's even ocean out there to be seen. This was a very very clear day. A clear day in Los Angeles. The shinny thing is ...

 Echo Mountain and Inspiration Point , Angeles National Forest: Jan 11  Nira , Los Padres National Forest: Feb 1  Waterfalls of Altadena , la petit tour, Altadena front country and Angeles National Forest: Feb 14

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trail head. We drove to the end of Paradise Road to stop by Red Rock for a little hiking. It turned out to be very short, indeed. We only went a little way up the river before returning. I stopped by the rock that attracts many people and sketched before we left again. The top of the large red rock in the river. Red layers of rock with a bit of salt or lime. Green mountain sides surround the red rocks. A sketch of the big, red rocks of the river. Afterward, we stopped by Nojoqui Falls since it had rained recently, but were disappointed with the flow that didn't seem to have improved with the rain. ©2008,2012 Valerie Norton Posted 16 September 2012