Parks of LA and OC, part 3

This is the third installment of my report on park explorations in LA and Orange Counties during and after(?) the Covid pandemic. 

I’ve found that I rather like finding parks, nature centers, wilderness areas that are new to me so I plan on keeping it up. 

There may be some repeats from the past reports which means that I revisited them or just plain forgot. My main resources for discovering venues have been Google Maps and more recently Alltrails. To get decent use out of Alltrails, you have to pay money, but it has helped me find some trails that I never would have imagined were there.

Some of my discoveries are simple walks around city parks, but others are in wilderness areas that require decent shoes/boots, water, sun protection, etc. Do your homework before you go. If it’s a place you can find on Google, I don’t include directions since you should be able to Google it yourself. Be careful where you park. I typically only do hikes of 4 miles or less due to some medical issues. If you are interested in serious hikes look elsewhere. 

Working backwards in order of discovery, I just went up a trail to Santa Susanna Pass from the east side. You can also drive up from the west side. This is better as an Alltrails hike, but you can probably figure out something from Google. Parts of the trail, the Devil’s Slide, require good boots and if you do this in the summer you’ll need water and good sun protection. Parts of the trail are pretty rough. I did it in the winter so heat wasn’t a problem. Over 700’ of altitude gain, but you can get some good views. 

Santa Susana Pass State Historical Park, Stagecoach Trail (ikemi.info)

I returned to upper Newport Bay and the Nature Center is now open. It’s a big one and I found it interesting. Photos at

Upper Newport Bay and Big Canyon (ikemi.info)

Using Google I did find a short little hike. Took me a while to find the trail head.

I discovered the San Dimas Nature Center which was kind of hidden in a park. There was no one around when I visited it but I thought it was interesting, then again I think all nature centers are interesting since they say something about the community. From there you can walk to the trail head of the Sycamore Canyon Trail (how many Sycamore Canyon Trails are there in the area-I’ve encountered three so far). Don’t try going through the equestrian center. It is possible to go around it. The trail is a straight up slog to the top, but the trail is good. There are apparently alternate trails, but I don’t know where they go.

San Dimas Nature Center and hike (ikemi.info)

I didn’t know there was a waterfall in Pasadena, but you can hike to one from the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. It’s about a 4 mile round trip (in spite of what is posted) and the trail gets rough near the end. 

Eaton Canyon (ikemi.info)

Out in Claremont you can  pay for admission to the California Botanical Gardens. 

California Botanical Garden (ikemi.info)

No problem walking around here on good walkways and trails. 

I was surprised that the City of Fullerton is full of trails. These are easy walking and there are more than I explored. You can Google them.

Part of the Fullerton Loop Trails (ikemi.info)

This is a little farther afield, but Placerita Canyon in Santa Clarita has a very nice nature center and numerous trails. Should be prepared for real hikes.

Placerita Canyon (ikemi.info)

In Monterey Park (the city) is Edison Trails Park

Edison Trails Park (ikemi.info)

This is a powerline trail but it has some altitude variations and is kind of interesting. 

More straightforward and flat is the powerline park in El Segundo

El Segundo Powerline Parks (ikemi.info)

Rio de Los Angeles Park in LA has a flat walking path with some interesting features

Rio de Los Angeles State Park (ikemi.info)

Lincoln Park in LA has an interesting walking path with a number of artistic installations.

Lincoln Park (ikemi.info)

I revisited Ascot Park in LA and finally decided to go north to the other entrance which takes you to a hillside neighborhood. You can walk on surface streets back to the parking lot to make a full loop.

Ascot Hills Park (ikemi.info)

Rose Hills Park (not the cemetery) has its own trails that connect with Debs Park near the Pasadena Freeway. Google should show you the connection. The western trail has some elevation gain.

Rose Hill Park and vicinity (ikemi.info)

In Rowland Heights you can do the Powder Canyon Trail which has some good climbs

Powder Canyon Trail (ikemi.info)

This is a flat linear walk, but from one side of the storm channel you can see the Great Wall of LA in Tujunga mural.

Great Wall of LA in Tujunga Wash (ikemi.info)

A nice island of green in LA is Augustus Hawkins Nature Park

Augustus Hawkins and other parks (ikemi.info)

Nearby, especially if you have a bicycle, are South Los Angeles Wetlands Park and  South Park to the north.

Bixby Marsh is a small preserve run by the LA Sanitation Dept. It only opens once a month:

https://www.lacsd.org/community-outreach/tours-speaker-s-bureau/bixby-marshland

Popular with birders from what I understand.

Gardena Willows Wetlands Preserve is open to the public again. Only open a few times a month and may require online reservations. Check at

https://gardenawillows.org/

A loop trail goes mostly around the  perimeter. Unfortunately, last time I went, there are no longer guided tours. 

Echo Park in LA has a paved walkway around the large pond. Try to catch the Lotus Festival

Lotus Festival (ikemi.info)

You can walk through Alondra Park

Alondra Park (ikemi.info)

Darby Park in Inglewood has a short paved walking trail. You can get a good view of Sofi Stadium from there. 

Thomas S. Burton Park in Hacienda Heights has a short walking loop around the park. I went there when I discovered that my desired trailhead was inaccessible. 

Columbia Park in Torrance has a walking path of about a mile. Also the venue for the local Cherry Blossom festival. 

Cherry Blossom Festival (ikemi.info)

In Brand Park in Glendale there are trails behind Brand Library. You can make a loop or go up all the way to the top. Although not long, one of the trails can be a gutbuster and becomes a scramble in some places. The one to the west? You could also just walk around Brand Park.

To the NW is Stough Nature Center, which is quite modern and has nice displays. There are trails that set off from it. I only ventured a short way up one of them since I had already explored Wildwood Canyon Park on the other side of the golf course. There is a trail that climbs up from there and connects to a paved road so you can make a loop of it. 

Wildwood Canyon Park and Stough Nature Center (ikemi.info)

Back down south again in Brea is Carbon Canyon Regional Park. You can hike to the southern side of the park where you can see a genuine redwood grove, planted from seedlings leftover from a bank promotion. They might not be too happy but they are surviving. 

Carbon Canyon Regional Park Redwoods (ikemi.info)

In the Whittier Hills a complement to the Arroyo Pescadero loop is the in and out Arroyo San Miguel Trail. At Arroyo Pescadero when you go up the entry trail, skip the turn off to the loop and keep going on the broken pavement. This should take you to a tunnel that goes safely under the street. 

Arroyo San Miguel Trail (ikemi.info)

Peck Road Water Conservation Park has some nice views and plenty of birds There is a colony of homeless people living there.

Peck Road Water Conservation Park (ikemi.info)

My 2022 Holiday Greetings, extended version

This is an extended version of my Holiday card text, so it will be of interest to a very small audience, if that. Read it if you want. 

Best of wishes to everyone and I hope you’re doing okay. For me, no return to normal, but coping, sort of. Steadily trying to get rid of stuff, but not sure if outflow exceeds inflow. If it weren’t for digital books, I’d be in desperate straits. I’m starting to face  up to the fact that some books I will never open again, but in spite of that there are still some I can’t let go of, yet. The number diminishes every year. Big milestone this year was letting my telemark skis go. Finally got ones that worked for me, but my knees, as well as the cost of lift tickets,  say it’s time to quit. A lot of other outdoor gear is also gone. Power tools are disappearing. I’ve built enough speaker enclosures and I don’t want to start another one. I hauled my almost last major stash of plastic models to the local aviation museum. 

A number of years ago I walked away from scuba diving after my dive partner died. My short time as a pilot ended after an eye injury and then loss of balance. Lots of transitions out; only transition in has been into DIY. I could include gardening, but that’s kind of a DIY.

Have all of my vaccinations (5 covid, 1 flu, 1 shingles, and something else Kaider gave me). I still wear a mask in crowded indoor areas. I liked catching a reduced number of colds and sinus infections in 2020 and I want to keep that up. I had chronic sinus infections pre-covid and they seem to be gone now that I use a mask. Using N95 masks. Shame that I sewed all those masks per the NY Times design and don’t use them anymore. I do occasionally go out to restaurants, and even go indoors, but I try to stay away from crowded ones. As a science project, I got a CO2 meter from Amazon to see how good the ventilation is indoors. The theory being if that the CO2 level is high, the ventilation is poor and there are more possibilities that the germ concentration is high. My reading so far have convinced me to keep wearing a mask. 

Don’t like traveling anymore, but did get out to go see Glacier National Park and adjacent areas. 

Got one photo of a glacier using a very long telephoto lens. Got that lens to take pictures of birds, but the wildlife sanctuaries I visited were mostly dried out. Makes the drought very real. Very impressed by Idaho and Utah, as always. Visited the small Hemingway memorial near Ketchum. Impressed by the beauty of the area. Would have liked to have gone on the trail nearby.

Guess I can’t get away from photography, although I’ve started selling off or giving away some cameras. Right before the pandemic I started getting into old 35mm film cameras after finding a place that would refurbish them.  A friend gave me a camera. Picked up some old classic bodies and lenses off of eBay.I got most of the stuff I wanted before prices started to go up after this hobby became popular. Learned not to buy used camera gear from Japan, which was sort of disappointing. Don’t shoot film very much since it is expensive, but when I do the concentration required is refreshing. Don’t know how the great photojournalists made those shots with manual focus and exposure, plus lugging around all that weight. I don’t remember a Nikon F weighing that much. 

After watching a bunch of Caltech astronomy outreach webinars, decided I wanted to go see the Owens Valley Radio Observatory again. It’s currently closed to the public but I talked my way in via email. Some of the nice people there answered some of my dumb questions. Neat (and free) place to visit if it’s opened to the public again. I timed it to also catch the Caltech outreach lecture at Bishop High School. Got to hear in person one of the astronomers I’d seen on the webcast. 

Mt. Palomar Observatory, also part of Caltech, has re-opened to the public again, so I am planning a trip to go down there again. My folks took me there when I was little, as well as a trip shortly after college. My father got to watch them haul that 200” mirror up the mountain; the JWST of the time. The LIGO up north is also open to the public so I will be planning an expedition there, too.

Audited another free online EDX class, this time on Radio Astronomy instead of the history of Tokyo. My math abilities have really degenerated. Trying to exercise what is left of my mind. Had an MRI this year, which is kind of like a Disney ride with all the noise and jostling around, but more expensive. Didn’t learn much except my brain is shrinking at a “normal” rate. Time to start drinking better wines and reading faster. 

Good harvest of persimmons this year and the limes are doing okay. Vegetables didn’t do well with the watering restrictions and me disappearing for a while on vacation. Not going to make it off the grid, yet. Plenty of squirrels and gophers in the adjacent park, but I’d have to compete with the resident coyote. Had a family of raccoons in the yard for a while, but they disappeared right after I set up trailcams. Started using the cams on the bird feeders, but now we have avian flu so I emptied out the feeders as recommended by the nature center. Back to watching webinars and talking to the geese in the parks. I do keep my distance because of that avian flu threat. 

Although I promised my aunt I would back off on motorcycling, I still have my Triumph in the garage. It’s supposed to be the last bike in my life, although the Yamaha FZ800 was supposed to have fulfilled that role. The Triumph is not a bike I especially like, but I have tamed most of its bad features and it’s good enough to go to the Huntington Library so I can take advantage of the special motorcycle parking space near the entrance. Long motorcycle trips are now out of the question due to my health situation. I did make a trip as far as San Luis Obispo this year. Current plan is to give up motorcycling in 2 years if I last that long. Maybe I’ll get a Honda Super Cub then.

Should bicycle more since it is good for my knees. I got rid of my full size bike and now have just a couple of folding bikes. The folding bikes fit into the back of my car. Lifting a full size bike onto my roof rack is now problematic. At the least I bicycle to the LA Natural History Museum or California Science Center. The recently completed Metro K-line can also take me there, so sometimes now I can cheat. With a senior discount card, I sometimes like exploring where I can go on the Metro, especially with a bike to increase my options. 

Continuing to explore local parks, nature centers, and wilderness ardkikemi@wordpress.com/wp-admineas. The pandemic started me on this and I’ve been amazed at how many there are in LA and Orange Counties. I keep on discovering ones that are new to me. I can still hike if it’s under 4 miles and the terrain is not too bad. 

Well, that is my summary for my 2022.

My photos from 2022 are at:

http://ikemi.info/mytravel2022.html