Moments in Dirt and Ink

Sketches for the month. Tight canyon turns up by the cabin foundation in Bailey Canyon . Tiny waterfall a little way up Bailey Canyon . A flavor of the trees in Las Virgenes Canyon . Civilization stretching across the top of the ridge between Las Virgenes and Cheeseboro Canyons . An oak by a good picnic site in Cheeseboro Canyon . A tree surviving the onslaught of water , barely.

Escondido Canyon Park, Malibu Locate the trailhead. Good rains recently, so time to go see some falls. I found that there's supposed to be some impressive ones down in Malibu. It doesn't seem to me like a place to find impressive waterfalls, but the hike is short and variably beautiful or ugly depending on the reviewer. It is also quite crowded on days like this when the water should be flowing well. There is a lot to park in next to the highway and still a mile or so to walk to get up to the trail head. This part was okay. There are views of the ocean along the road before plunging into the relative backcountry. The trail was still wet from rain the night before and the remaining clouds were keeping it nice and cool. The trail initially slopped down somewhat steeply and the mud was made of very fine stuff and nice and slick. The trail promptly came to a stream crossing. I'd already caught up with a few people and a few more were crossing the other way. T...

Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Locate the trailhead. I was thinking to go up to Fish Canyon and see the waterfall again and had decided on doing it the easy way with the shuttle running, but at the last minute decided to do an easy hike somewhere I'd never been. Since I hadn't printed out the rudimentary map found on the Calabasa city site, I ended up having to do it by memory. There are none available and wasn't even one posted on the information board at the start. The day was heavily overcast and the weatherman was threatening rain, so I tossed in the rain gear. Although this is a canyon, the surrounding area is so flat, it is not a flash flood danger. In fact, Cheeseboro is more of a fold between rolling hills and doesn't even have anything flowing down it. I parked at the end of Las Virgenes and at the edge of Los Angeles county, then walked into Ventura county and wild spaces. I took t...

Sierra Madre front country Locate the trailhead. Somehow I have never quite gotten to Bailey Canyon although it's quite close by. I always would look at it and think it was just another trail out of Chantry Flats. In fact, I'm sure there's a trail about halfway down the road from the parking to the cabins that says something like that on it. In fact, this is somewhat west of the flats. The trail goes up from the back side of the city and connects to a second trail that goes up to the top of Mt. Wilson. I have once taken this other trail for a one-way, uphill trek to the top. The trail starts in a city park below the debris dam for the canyon with hours "sunrise to sunset". It heads out the west side through a turnstile and onto the road that services the debris dam. Past the basin, there's a bit of tough road and, for no good reason, a handicapped parking spot, then it quickly narrows into trail. I thought I would head up to some cabin ruins...

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...

 Rubio Canyon , Altadena front country: Feb 20  Sunset Ridge , Angeles National Forest: Feb 27  Bailey Canyon , Sierra Madre front country: Mar 6