Moments in Dirt and Ink

Although already posted separately, here are the walking about sketches of the month. Along the slopes just above the houses of Altadena. Large bunches of flowers on a tree along the Toll Road .

Angeles National Forest I decided to head on up to Henninger Flats along the toll road this evening. I need to walk more, after all. Just past the two mile marker, I saw a nice tree full of flowers and sketched it. A flowering tree along the road. From there, I continued up to Henninger and a little bit further. There were three deer in the campground and another one just outside it. I went on up to where a road heads off to the west, quickly splitting into a numbered route and a road to a helicopter pad. By then the sun was set. I'd driven up to the start, hiked about three miles uphill, and got a sketch done in just a little more than two hours. I took a good look around because it was still time for colors in the sky and I'd not been up that far and the road had just reached the edge of a ridge with the far side having a little different character from the side I'd been up. Then I hiked back down. It was shortly after 9PM when I got back...

Angeles National Forest This afternoon I stopped by Jo-ann to find that if I ever want sock yarn in a solid color, I need to order it online or get some good stuff from Skein. But that was on my way to go hiking: there is a trail that heads up into the foothills from about halfway down to the bridge along Mt. Wilson Toll Rd. I had seen a bit of it down below me when I was hiking much higher up from Rubio Canyon some weeks back. It calls itself Altadena Crest trail and I decided to see what it's like. The trail climbed steeply out of the canyon and then kept going steeply to get above the house level as it goes along the little canyons above Altadena. A few of the canyons seemed like death traps should there be a flash flood. A little way past a canyon I recognized as the one I'd been in, but far above on the trail from Rubio which ended in a rock slide here, the trail suddenly took a twisting and turning path downward with no apparent trail on the other si...

Sketches done out in the open for the month. Foolishly heading up the canyon in the rain. Bits of cabin foundation remaining along the burned creek . The creek coming over the debris dam . New growth in the nearby maples.

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead. The desire to see how Arroyo Seco has fared after the fire got the better of me and I had to go see. I think this is the first time back since that first hike with sketchbook in hand. Most of the trail is not, strictly speaking, open to the public. Much earlier along than the actual closure, the city had put up a road block to be annoying. Perhaps the city has closed the park between the city and the forest as well, but they didn't actually put up any informative signs about that. Usually they remember to try reason with you about how it's such a bad idea and threaten fines. These signs were just shouting "No! Not allowed!" which doesn't convince anyone who's already decided to go into the forbidden zone. Many other people were also ignoring the signs. Maybe not as many as would usually be found there without the signs, but plenty of people. Dog walkers and joggers as well as hikers. I even saw a...

Altadena front country Locate the trailhead. I haven't been hiking in a few weeks and even though it wanted to rain again today, I went out. Even out into a canyon. Because I can now, I parked up at the top of Mt. Wilson Toll Rd. and passed through the long closed gate to the bridge, reducing my rock hopping crossings by one. In spite of the threatening rain which had even materialized once earlier, many people were out on the trail. I circled down from the bridge to the trail that passes under it to the falls. Almost at the mouth of the canyon, there is a funny concrete thing like the one the fishermen in Fish Creek said was for measuring the flow of the river.

Altadena front country Locate the trailhead. Last week, I noticed this trail heading along the back of the water facility at the end of Rubio. The trail heading out behind the water facility, photographed the week before. This trail looks to me like it gets a fair bit of use. I looked at the satellite photos to see where it might go, but couldn't be very sure from them. They did show that there is likely a mile or two of trail heading off around in the Eaton Canyon direction. It also showed a rather clear route down from the Rubio trail. I started as normal for Rubio, with the turning off Lake at Palm, then turning down everything that says Rubio on it and parking in the corner. I started down the trail as usual, watching for the trail down. There was a large dirt spot to the side of the trail as though people liked to stand out on that bit for the view, which so often is a good way to hide a trail junction. It turns out it was the junction I was looki...

Quite a few sketches done of the wilds this month. Although this bit of wild was actually after the fact, from a recent Wilcox Property photo. Some oaks that looked like parts weren't that healthy hiking in a state park . A small waterfall in the state park . A more elaborate fall just below the previous . Another from the same recent photo set of the Wilcox Property, so not really wild. Up a little tributary in Monrovia Canyon . Ripply little waterfall in Fish Canyon . The bottom of the big falls in Fish Canyon . A willow in a crack by the waterfall edge in Rubio . One of the tall falls in Rubio .