Moments in Dirt and Ink

Sketches for the month, which were all posted already, but for completeness... Light playing on the city, seen from Mount Wilson Toll Road . Watching the sunset from above Henninger Flat .

Monrovia Canyon Park Locate the trailhead. I was looking for an overnight backpacking trip with plenty of sights and settled upon a plan heading out of Monrovia Canyon Park up Sawpit Canyon. We would go up to Stone Cabin Flat, probably about 9 miles. In the morning, hike back via Mt. Bliss, about 1 mile off the trail, and stop in Deer Park for a while including dinner, then hike back along the road in the evening. This way we'd get to see quite a bit and really have 2.5 days, sort of, since there's a nice long rest in the second day before the evening hike out, which should be quite safe along the road. Of course if, say, we'd not been backpacking for too long and hadn't quite got everything together so needed to go about getting a few things in the morning and had overestimated our ability to carry extra pounds, etc, there was still the option of only going to Deer Park and being a touch on the lazy side the second day. So a bit after lunch we parked on th...

Angeles National Forest This is a hike that looks like it would be a nice add-on to a Henninger Flats excursion.  It should be mostly easy, as it's along an old road, with plenty of views to the south.  It has been used by Christopher Brennen for one of his adventure canyoneering hikes to then proceed down the glen .  That has some 9-12 rappels of up to 80 feet, so the whole loop isn't a good choice for a hike.  However, he says the road only has a couple of bad spots and a lot of brush (as of 1999). The road starts above Henninger Flats, just above some water tanks.  The purple line here starts at the main campground and museum, where most people taking exercise on the road seem to turn around.  It's a little further up, past the other two camping areas, to get to the old fire road marked on the USGS maps. Brennen provides a good description for finding the road as well as other useful bits of information, like a use trail down into a lower part of ...

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead. I was hoping to be going backpacking soonish, so needed to have a few hikes in the last little while.  Having frittered away Saturday, there was still Sunday.  But I'd already said I'd go to a lunch party and so the day began with baking bread to have something to take.  The day didn't start all that early, I admit.  Then there was the eating and talking and eventually the heading out.  I grabbed the water and trimmed down sketching tools and something warm and headed out to the end of Mt. Wilson Toll Rd., finally starting up it at nearly 5:30 PM.  I headed out by the gate that would be closed by the time I got back. The clouds were thick overhead, but not continuous over the whole sky.  As I rounded one curve shortly after the bridge, I noticed a bright form, mostly of buildings, off in the distance.  A fair bit later when the lay of the land was better visible, I sketched the oasis ...

Los Padres National Forest Locate the trailhead. I found a hike to a big waterfall that I thought my mom could do even though she hasn't been able to hike for quite some time. On the localtrails site, it said it would be 1 mile round trip and 300 feet of elevation change. I grabbed a camp chair and a few hiking essentials and we drove down past Ojai and up to Rose Valley. There was a sign for the turn off 33, but no sign for the turn from there, so although I was sure that was the right turn, I went on and had to come back. There's not very far to go on from there, anyway. On the way in, we spotted a huge waterfall high up the canyon wall. We seemed to be headed in that direction, so figured it was the waterfall we were going to see. Driving into Rose Valley and seeing the falls coming down the cliff like wall in the distance. Also coming down are the clouds we were escaping. Once there, the parking seemed to be full unless we wanted to block a gate...

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...