Moments in Dirt and Ink

No hiking, except down to the park for the concert, which including one sketch. A moment of joy.

Wild sketches done during the month. Stopping for a moment while wandering on the Wilcox Property. Er... I mean Douglas Family Preserve. Hanging out in the gardens at the Getty. Heading out to one of the free summer concerts . A jacaranda on campus. My campsite at Idlehour . Walking along the trail that forms the boundary between open forest and that closed by the station fire. A spot of Humboldt Lilies by the creek .

Angeles National Forest 26th | 27th | 28th The new day started again with a gentle brightening of the clear blue sky and an eruption of birdsong at 5 AM. Someone's got to eat all those bugs. I decided not to be so lazy getting up, so I could enjoy the most time going uphill in the shade. No one had stolen my cashews in the night. I didn't manage to finish off my dried fruit even though it looked like such a small stash the day before. Camp was struck fairly quickly and the pack stuffed to the top. I got some water pumped from the stream and a little dirt scrubbed off. Then splashed on some bug attracting sunscreen and followed it up with some mostly DEET to get rid of them again. About 6:15, I started up the trail. Okay, I wasn't in that much of a hurry. I met a little sunshine in the bottom of the canyon the trail had come down, but the day was still cool. There was very little on most of the trail as it wound up the north side and around the west s...

Angeles National Forest 26th | 27th | 28th Between the elevation and all the twists and turns to get through the canyon below, there was no marine layer to darken the morning and cool the initial part of the day. Light started breaking around 5 AM and the forest erupted into birdsong. The loud stream down the short cliff very near the tent was virtually drowned out in the noise of at least a dozen different ways of screaming "mine!" Having not gone down the stream bed because of the poison oak, I was suspicious I wouldn't go up it either for the same reason. Instead, I would probably follow the trail on up to the top, maybe all the way to Inspiration Point, connecting with where I've been before. I was rather lazy about getting up. Eventually I did as the sun started touching the tops of the nearby trees. It took a while with the high canyon walls. Someone had gotten into my bags and carried off most of my almonds. Not to say I had many left, but th...

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead. 26th | 27th | 28th Eaton Canyon is a local hike with hundreds of people headed up to the first falls on a daily basis. The falls themselves and the area around them offer no way up to the top. Apparently you can get there for another waterfall, but that one completely blocks all progress of the hiker. Most of this canyon cannot be seen unless you've got a very long rope. I've poked around Rubio enough to know that there can be a lot more waterfalls up there. I've been meaning to take the Idlehour trail but had been told it was somewhat hard to find once (not true). I realized that it was getting late in the season and I'll never get another chance, so if I really want to go up there, I better go now. I decided to make it an overnight, or rather two night. Grab the tent, but now the rain fly since the average rainfall for this month is in the hundredths of an inch. I decided to pack it all up in the ultrali...

Angeles National Forest Locate the trailhead (if you dare! Edited to correct spot based on the topo, original point went here based on what I remembered of the road and river.) According to Afoot and Afield in Los Angeles County , there is a trail up Warm Springs Mountain. It doesn't actually get to the top, but it gets close enough to scramble the rest of the way. According to the forest map, there is a trail up Warm Springs Mountain. It even has "OHV" written on it at the top, though that may be due to whatever road at the saddle Afoot and Afield mentioned should be ignored. The directions seem less complete than usual in the book, but they did seem to hit all the points in getting me there. It says the trail is unsigned at marker 11.23. Unfortunately, the roads in the area have been remeasured. I already found this on the other trail I tried, so wasn't too worried that 11.23 a fully unmarked wall and there wasn't any ravine for the trail to go...

Los Padres National Forest Figueroa Mountain is a favorite spot for viewing wildflowers for the general public. There are a few places where the displays are considered more impressive, but they are very few and further away. Also, for some, this is a favorite drive, getting high up the mountain before dropping down the other side. My mother and I made the drive for my birthday and, of course, to see the wild flowers. Very near the top of the mountain, a steep hillside appears to be a lot of grass rather than flowers. Our first stop was by the side of the road nearing the top of the mountain. Here there was all sorts of lupin reaching high into the sky. The lupin had quite a number of ladybugs wandering their stems in search of aphids. A bunch of lupin stalks and a couple lady bugs patrolling them for their favorite prey.

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 .