Archive for August, 2009

The Station Fire of La Canada-Flintridge

Aug 29

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

As of this writing, the Station Fire of La Canada-Flintridge has consumed 20,102 acres. 1,804 fire fighters have been fighting a battle not seen in these parts for over 40 years. Mandatory Evacuations are in effect for over 10,000 homes. The fire is threatening the Mount Wilson Communications Facilities and Observatory.

The areas that are burning (or in danger of burning) are close to my heart. For this project, twenty one of my hikes have been done in the Angeles National Forest, some of them might be lost when this is all said and done. The flames can be seen from just outside my apartment’s front door here in Arcadia, but the mushroom-cloud of smoke can be seen from all across the Southland. I went on a hike in Malibu this morning and on the early morning drive to the trailhead, I could see the flames scorch the mountains just above Pasadena. At first, I was fascinated with photographing the wildfire, but in a way similar to the fascination of watching a train wreck or an accident scene on the side of the road.

When I got home this afternoon, I stopped watching the fire. I just simply can’t look at the fire anymore. I’m too emotionally attached to these mountains to watch them burn. Here are the photos I took of the last couple of days:

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Friday at 12 noon from East Pasadena

BRUSH FIRE RTE 2 CLOSED TO ANGELES FOREST - Most of my hikes would begin on the Angeles Crest Highway.

Saturday 6:45am - View from Pasadena

Saturday 2pm - From Mid City

Saturday 2:15pm - From Downtown LA

Saturday 2:45pm - Silver Lake Reservoir

Tags: Angeles National Forest, La Canada, La Canada-Flintridge, Station Fire, wildfire

Progress Report (August 27th)

Aug 27

Posted by Kolby in motivation | View Comments

This is a progress report for August 27th, 2009:
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The graph above compares the number of hikes I should have completed so far (the blue line) with the number of hikes I have completed (the red line). I’ve been dancing with the blue line since the day I began this project 115 days ago. As I predicted in my last progress report, my trip to Oregon in late July pushed me ahead by four hikes. Unfortunately, a few weekends this month of long hikes caused me to fall behind (see below). I’m currently two hikes behind, which I’m not worried about at all.

Here’s something fun for those of you who like numbers:

Number of hikes completed: 46
Number of days into project: 115
Number of miles hiked: 193.2 miles
Longest hike: 14 miles (Hike #21 – Telescope Peak, Death Valley)
Hardest hike: Hike #21 (Telescope Peak, Death Valley)
Furthest hike from home: Hike #38 (Terrebonne, Oregon – 851 miles from home)

If you hike with me, you become a prestigious respected member of the newly-formed “100 Hikes Club.”

Number of members: 40
Top 5 ranking members:
- Dad (9 hikes: #30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 & 38)
- Mom (7 hikes: #30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37 & 38)
- Melanie (5 hikes: #5, 13, 26, 29 & 40)
- Chris (4 hikes: #6, 21, 42 & 44)
- Samantha (4 hikes: #18, 21, 39 & 42)

I’m just shy of hiking 200 miles for this project, which equals about the same amount of hiking I did for all of the previous three years combined.
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Again, I want to thank all of my family, friends and readers for their support. On the trail with me or not, your inspiration and motivation is what fuels me.

Tags: progress report

The Longest Way – The Journey of Christoph Rehage

Aug 25

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In November of 1997, German Christoph Rehage began an odyssey. His goal: to travel from Beijing, China to Germany by foot. He has documented his amazing journey on his website, thelongestway.com, but this five-minute video seems to encompass so much. As the video images flicker by, you can see the amazing places he saw, the people he met – even a bit of romance, it seems – and the amount of facial hair he grew. I can only imagine how much he grew mentally and spiritually along the way as well.

If you’re having trouble accessing his website, here’s some information he has added to his video:

- I never finished my original goal of walking to Germany. Instead, I walked for a year and roughly 4500km, passed the desert of Gobi, and then decided to stop walking for now.
- All of the distance from Beijing to Ürümqi has been completed solely on foot, straight good old walking. There are instances where you can see me in the video sitting on a plane or riding a boat, but those are during breaks I had to take from walking, either to sort out bureaucracy issues or to take care of some personal things.
- I had been planning this trip for over a year before I even started, and getting as far as I got was an experience for which I am very grateful.
- Obtaining the necessary visa for a trip like this was not very easy, hence I had to go back to Beijing a few times to resolve some issues.
- The songs I used in the video are 1) Zhu Fengbo – “Olive Tree” and 2) The Kingpins – “L’aventurier” – visit the Kingpins website if you want to know more, they are very cool I think.
- This is not a strict “1 pic a day” video, because I wanted to make it a bit more alive by adding some additional movement. Sometimes during the film you would follow me turn around, or something would happen in the background. I tried to capture these moments to make the video more interesting.
- The core of this project is in fact my website “www.thelongestway.com” where I have posted my extensive travel diary, starting from day 1 (Nov 9th 2007) and describing every single day until the end one year later.

Tags: China, christoph rehage, Germany, video, walking

Hike 27 – The Grotto Trail

Aug 25

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Even when everything seemed to be going against me, the planets momentarily aligned and I found myself in the right grotto at the right time with the right people.

The Grotto for Hike #27

It took a lot to get out on the trail for this one. My motivation tank was running on fumes. I didn’t sleep well the night before because of the neighbor’s dog and its incessant barking, so the desire to lay in bed all day was tempting. However, I was two hikes behind schedule. I couldn’t live with myself if I went an entire Saturday without at least one hike. So I rolled out of bed, packed a day pack, and began the 30-minute drive west to the Santa Monica Mountains. An hour passes and I’m still on the road. TWO HOURS go by and, yes, I’m still driving towards the Santa Monica Mountains. As I sat in traffic, passing at least two accidents, I was puzzled over where this strong desire to hike was coming from. How easy would it be for me to turn around, go home, crawl back in bed, and call it a day?

Then it occurred to me: I love to hike. To get out of this craziness called Los Angeles with its barking dogs and bumper-to-bumper traffic and escape into into the wilderness. If I turned around now, I’d simply be going back into the urban jungle. After two and a half hours of driving, I entered the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Last time I was here was for a hike up to Sandstone Peak (hike #6). Today’s hike wouldn’t be more than a mile from that trailhead, starting at the Circle X Ranch Visitor Center.

I started my hike around 2pm. Even though the trail starts less than 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean, it was a hot day in the mountains. No wind, little shade, and not even the smallest of clouds in the sky. I ran into two hikers about a half mile down the trail who looked like they were hating life. Drenched in sweat, they confirmed that it was hot – “Damn hot” – and that I should turn around now if I wanted to live another day. Well, they didn’t actually say this, but I could read a lot in their eyes. I threw caution into the windless air and continued down the canyon.

After a mile of hiking, the trail wanders into the canyon and doesn’t stray for the remainder of the hike. It isn’t much cooler, but the tree canopy does offer some relief from the sun. The grotto itself requires a keen sense of hearing, especially during the summer when the water barely trickles. I imagine that in the spring after a few storms, all a hiker needs to do is follow the water. However, here in mid June, there’s more water in my Camelback bladder than in the first mile of this trek. After about 1.3 miles, the trail passes a couple small pools of water and the sound of falling water can be heard. I followed my ears over a field of large boulders and into the grotto. I think the last 100 feet of this trail into the grotto is why the park service does not allow dogs: it’s not safe for them.

I entered the grotto and all of my frustrations of the day melted away. I only had to spend a few moments in the tranquil grotto before the barking dog, the traffic, and the heat became distant memories. In fact, the temperature down in the grotto was at least 10-15 degrees cooler than up above.

After about 20 minutes of quiet solitude, I could hear a group of hikers approach from above. I winced. I slightly expected any moment to share this beauty with a group of loud and annoying suburbanites who have the incredible ability to complain about nature without actually taking the time to look at it. (You don’t need to hike in LA for long to run into these types.) But little did I know that the grotto was moments away from becoming a meeting place for some of the coolest, like-minded people I’ve ever met on a trail. Standing out from the rest would be Gregory and Emily, a twenty-something couple from Silver Lake whom share my passion for insects, photography, insect photography, hiking, and hiking photography. After an hour of talking, we exchanged contact information and made tentative plans to go on a hike.

As I began the hot climb back up the canyon towards the trailhead, I felt embarrassed for ever thinking that the people entering the grotto were going to be clueless 90210-rejects. I shouldn’t have jumped to such a silly conclusion despite past experiences. Nature-respecting people must make up most of the people on any given trail. As I was condoning my thoughts, a group of four approached me coming down the trail. As I pulled off the trail to let them pass, her boyfriend said to the group, “Oh, snap! This guy’s got the right idea bringing ski poles!” They all laughed. I wasn’t sure how exactly to respond to this, since I was in fact using hiking poles, so I just smiled and laughed along with them, noticing as they passed that a female in the group was wearing flip flops.

Thoughts about the hike:

Every hike I’ve taken in the Santa Monica Mountains has introduced me to so many types of animals. On this hike, I saw lizards, a tree frog, toe biters, newts, and even a tarantula hawk.
I saw a canyon to the east that I’d like to come back to explore.

Resources:

Hike #27 Trip GPS Stats:

Date of hike: July 7th, 2009
Location: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California
Length: 3.0 miles
Duration: 3 hours, 26 minutes
Average speed: ±0.9 mph (more like 1.3 mph)
Altitude at start: 1,694 feet
Altitude min.max: 1,188/1,694 feet

This map was made with the data my GPS captured on the hike.
For a more detailed trip report map, check this out.

Photos:

Striking a pose in The Grotto

Child and Grandpa near a small pond in the woods. Norman Rockwell, eat your heart out.

An electric car parked in front of Circle X Ranch. Future meets past.

The Grotto Trailhead, 0.2 miles from the Circle X Ranch

A Western Fence Lizard chillaxin

A view south towards the ocean from the trail.

One of these days I hope to actually SEE a rattlesnake. Seriously. It is a goal of mine!

Wildflower

Another wildflower

Natural beauty.

Tags: Circle X Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area, The Grotto Trail

Death of a Camera

Aug 24

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

This weekend I mourned the loss of my camera. It had died a noisy death while attempting to focus on… well. Never mind. Instead of going into the details of its death, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on its life. In just one year, the trusty little camera took 15,733 photos and 50+ hours of video. I’d say about 90% of all photos (100% of all videos) on this site were taken with this die-hard camera. It was banged up, dropped and scratched many times, but it kept giving me the shot I needed. It didn’t complain much, either. Oh sure, sometimes it would turn off unexpectedly, complaining about its battery needing replacement (even though it was just charged). More times than I care to remember it would refuse to shut down, beeping camera-ese about the lens being jammed or something. I know I could have treated it better, kept it in a padded case made of the finest fake fur. I could have added a protective film over the LCD screen to keep it from being scratched up. I could have… but I didn’t. Instead, I treated it like the tough-skinned SOB it was. The type of camera that scoffed at danger, that laughed at a little water, and did its job in the worst of conditions. Take photos from a kayak in the ocean? No problem! A short video while climbing an active volcano in Nicaragua? Piece of cake! A one-handed photo out the window of the Oregon coast during a storm while driving on the highway? But of course!

A deceased Canon Powershot 1100 IS

Yes, I mourned for this camera. I almost shed a tear. Almost. But when I got home from the hike, I started shopping for its replacement. OK, truth be told, I knew what the replacement would be months before this one kicked the bucket: the Canon Powershot SD990IS, a powerful 14.7 megapixel camera with 3.7x Optical Zoom, a 2.5-inch PureColor LCD II with anti-glare, anti-scratch coating, and most importantly, a metal alloy shell. Hopefully, this guy can stand the test of time better than the last.

PS – The Canon 1100 died while taking a photo of a butterfly. A frakkin’ BUTTERFLY! Not some awesome photo of a fireworks warehouse explosion, or a mountain lion attacking prey, or even a hungry bear. No, the last photo the shutter would see before it went gently into that good night was a butterfly. *sigh* At least it was a nice shot.

The final image

Tags: Canon, Canon Powershot 1100 IS, Canon Powershot SD990IS, photography, review

Hike 26 – First Water Trail

Aug 24

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“The up is gonna suck.”

Melanie, Josh and I in First Water Canyon

I’m beginning to realize that the best time to hike in Los Angeles is on a weekday morning. While city folk start another day of their cosmopolitan lives in the urban jungle, the mountains start their day free from most humans. It’s tough for even a nature lover like myself to wake early enough on a weekday to get in a hike and get to work on time. I have to set three alarms to get my butt out of bed. If I’m able to roll out of bed, stumble around the apartment like a recently hibernating bear, and shock the brain awake with a shower, a sunrise hike starts to sound great. (Not so much the case the night before after a long day of work.)

Melanie has been a great hiking partner (hike #5, hike #13), especially on weekdays. She’s a morning person (I’m not), and is lucky enough to work from home helping others find employment. Josh is an old friend I haven’t seen in over a decade who, out of the blue, contacted me about joining me on a hike. One thing lead to another and we found ourselves meeting at my apartment the next morning and carpooling up into the Angeles National Forest.

Chantry Flats is a recreational area five miles up Big Santa Anita Canyon above Sierra Madre, CA. Although it is just a 20 minute drive from my apartment in Arcadia, I have never made the journey. I can’t comprehend why not – possibly because the road was closed for many years around the time I moved to the area – but I was happy to finally make the journey.

Our quest for the day was to make it down to Hermit Falls. The trek would be a “backwards hike”, meaning the first half would be mostly downhill while the last half would be uphill. We all enjoyed the first half, but Melanie quipped, “The up is gonna suck.” After a few switchbacks, we were into the canyon. There’s nothing as peaceful as a shady canyon filled with rays of light and sounds of running water. Along the small creek, we spotted a few check dams and cabins, most likely added many decades ago.

I set a mental alarm that we would turn around at 9:45am, giving me enough time to get home, shower, and arrive at work in Pasadena before 11am. Unfortunately, since we were all having fun photographing our surroundings, 9:45 am arrived about a 1/2 mile from the Hermit Falls. Alas, we would need to return another day to see them. (We would!)

The way back up did indeed suck, as Melanie predicted, but all-in-all we had a lot of fun.

Thoughts about the hike:

An SLR camera and a small tripod are suggested for early morning hikes into deep canyons. Low level lighting can be a pain with just a simple point-and-shoot camera.
Unfortunately, I could tell how popular this trail is on weekends by the amount of trash found along the way.
Hiking poles rock.

Resources:

Hike #26 Trip GPS Stats:

Date of hike: July 7th, 2009
Location: Chantry Flats, Big Santa Anita Canyon – Sierra Madre, California
Length: 2.3 miles
Duration: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Average speed: ±1.4 mph
Altitude at start: 2,164 feet
Altitude min.max: 1,646/2,164 feet

This map was made with the data my GPS captured on the hike.
For a more detailed trip report map, check this out.

Photos:

May Your Search Through Nature Lead You To Yourself.

Josh, the fellow photographer.

Heading down into the canyon.

Beautiful lighting along the trail.

First Water Canyon has cabins that are still occupied.

The group in First Water Canyon along Hermit Falls Trail.

First Water Canyon

Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

Foolin

Tags: Angeles National Forest, Chantry Flats, First Water Trail, Hermit Falls Trail

The Hike List

Aug 20

Posted by Kolby in hikes | View Comments

I’ve noticed that there’s no table of contents on my site. There’s no way to see which hikes I’ve done (43) nor how many trip reports that are available (25), so I’ve remedied this problem. Click on the group of images below (or the permanent link found on the right) to view The Hike List.

The Hike List

Hike 25 – Sam Merrill Trail (II)

Aug 19

Posted by Kolby in hikes | View Comments

The first repeated hike of the project.

Sharon & I high above Pasadena on Echo Mountain

I now have twenty five hikes under my belt. One quarter of the way to my goal. I didn’t need to think very long about where I should mark the occasion: I had decided on where to hike back in May. I wanted to see how far I’ve come physically by retracing the first hike of this project to see if I do any better. Oh, who am I kidding? If I didn’t do any better on this trail than my out-of-shape self did back on May 5th, I might as well throw in the towel and call it quits. I didn’t even get to Echo Mountain on my first hike. How could I possibly do any worse?

Long story short, I didn’t do any worse, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. My friend Sharon (hike #22 & hike #23) joined me and we started our hike around 4pm. It was a warm day in the San Gabriel Valley with highs in the mid 80s, but somehow it seemed a lot warmer on the trail. The first part of the journey I felt great, but as we climbed and the only shade seemed to be our own shadows, I began to overheat. I felt myself needing to stop every quarter of a mile or so or my blood would have most certainly boiled and my heart exploded.

I was determined to get to the top and my memories provided the motivation. At one time in my life, I could make it from the trailhead to the top in less than 30 minutes, even taking the two “shortcuts” straight up the mountain. In those days (2002), I used to go up to Echo Mountain 2-3 times a week. These memories made me more serious about making it to the top. Although I might have been speedy back in my slim days, but slow and steady wins in this race. No sense ending the day with a heat stroke!

Despite the long history I have with this trail, I kept pointing out to Sharon how I progressed on my previous trek here taken in May: “Here’s where I stopped, completely out of breath.” “Here’s where I took pictures of a cool beetle.” And one of the proudest moments of the hike: “Here’s where I turned around last time!” Sharon and I would pass my last benchmark and make it to the top. In fact, I ran the last 50 yards up the trail I was feeling so good.

About a century ago, Echo Mountain was a very popular tourist destination. A funicular train brought thousands of visitors a year up to the top of Echo Mountain where they could either explore the White City resort or jump on another train and head up further into the mountains to the the Mount Lowe Tavern, which operated from 1895 to 1936. I enjoy visiting Echo Mountains and looking around the ruins of the resort. The tracks are long gone as our the buildings, but the floorplan is still visible as is the train platform (see photo above), which jets out into the San Gabriel Valley.

After checking out the area, Sharon and I headed back down. With temperature dropped as fast as the sun, and by the time we got back to the car at the corner of Lake Avenue and East Alta Loma Drive, it was a bit chilly. Hot on the way up and cold on the way down. I hope that the next time I climb this trail (hike #50?), the temperature will be more comfortable going both ways.

Thoughts about the hike:

I saw my first snake of the project! A mountain garter snake (Thamnophis elegans elegans) exited the trail as we approached, so no photos to show.
I love hiking in the evening when the crickets come out. They sound like nature’s orchestra.
On the way up, I spotted a tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) a beautiful little bird with shimmering bluish-green feathers.

Resources:

Hike #25 Trip GPS Stats:

Date of hike: July 5th, 2009
Location: Lower Arroyo Seco. (Gabrieleño Trail), La Cañada-Flintridge, California
Length: 5.5 miles*
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes*
Average speed: ±1.5 mph
Altitude at start: 1,800 feet
Altitude min.max: 1,800/3,207 feet

This map was made with the data my GPS captured on the hike.
For a more detailed trip report map, check this out.

Photos:

I don

Sharon taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.

A coastal whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis tigris stejnegeri) on Echo Mountain.

Echo Mountain (facing north)

The Echo Phone!

San Gabriel Valley (Pasadena) from Echo Mountain.

Hike 25!

Tags: Angeles National Forest, Echo Mountain, Mount Lowe, Sam Merrill Trail

Blueberry Beer Pancakes

Aug 18

Posted by Kolby in much ado about nothing | View Comments

Over the weekend, I went on a 10-mile hike (#42) in the Eastern Sierras with a few friends. The hike was strenuous, taking us up to Kearsarge Pass (11,760 feet) and a peek into the back of Kings Canyon National Park. The payoff was gorgeous views, a stronger appreciation of nature, and beer pancakes. The morning after our hike, at the beautiful Onion Valley Campground, I cooked pancakes for the trekking troop. I’m rarely a campsite cook let alone a home kitchen cook, but a video over at backpacker.com inspired me to put on my chef’s hat and attempt to make some ale-infused flapjacks. Yes, attempt. I had hopes to make the ultimate beer pancakes – I even threw in my own ingredient of dried blueberries – but not everything in life can go as planned and the following video is proof.

Tags: Backpacker Magazine, backpacker.com, beer pancakes, camping, cooking, Onion Valley

Hike 24 – Sycamore Canyon Waterfall Loop

Aug 13

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A hot Fourth of July hike in Point Mugu State Park.

Hot and happy at Sycamore Canyon Falls

My desire to hike was in full force during the Fourth of July Weekend. I had done two hikes on Friday, July 3rd (hike #22 & hike #23) but I was still wanting more. I’m completely addicted to hiking! Early Saturday afternoon, I headed out to Point Mugu State Park, trail map and daypack in hand. My goal was to find the Sycamore Canyon Waterfall, which I heard about from site visitor Hikaholic Camille.

The hike began at the Satwiwa Culture Center parking lot Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa in Newbury Park, California. From here, I headed south. This area of the Santa Monica Mountains has a mess of trails crisscrossing every which way, but I took the Satwiwa Loop Trail to the Boney Mountain Trail, the most direct route across the open fields to the canyon. The first half mile of the hike has a great view of Boney Mountain, an icon of the area which looms beyond my destination. Maybe I’ll be able to summit the mountain before this project comes to an end in December? We’ll see.

The grade begins to climb when the Satwiwa Loop Trail meets Boney Mountain Trail. The trail hugs the side of a hill as it climbs, then drops down into Sycamore Canyon, covered by a thick foliage of green plants and broad-leafed Sycamore trees. If I had a favorite type of trail, this stretch of trail would be a perfect example: a forested canyon alive with plants and animals, butterflies flutter by every few steps, and the continual sound of running water – the source of life for the canyon. I love it.

About one hundred yards upstream is the waterfall. Or, I should say, where a waterfall would be if there was more running water. The Sycamore Canyon Waterfall is a seasonal fall, so don’t expect much if you visit during the middle of the summer. I didn’t know what to expect so I wasn’t disappointed. It would have been nice to see some falling water, but I was content with the fact that I was the only one in the canyon.

I sat there and took in the rich environment before heading back. I wasn’t looking forward to the climb up Boney Mountain Trail nor the shadeless trek across Satwiwa Loop Trail, so I decided to extend my stay in the canyon by taking a longer detour on the Upper Sycamore Trail which follows the creek down the canyon. This stretch of trail is now my favorite in the Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa area. Best of all, I was the only one on it for the entire stretch. I guess hiking isn’t high on many people’s list of things to do on a warm Fourth of July weekend!

Thoughts about the hike:

I love how the Santa Monica Mountains park system provide free detailed trail maps at the trailhead which cover the immediate surrounding area.
This was my first lengthy hike since Telescope Peak. I’ve learned to appreciate the low altitude and how well I breath in it.
I kept a strong pace on this trek and it felt good. However, I did stop quite frequently to take (or attempt to take) photos of butterflies and other natural wonders. It seems that the naturalist in me is always fighting with the fitness-oriented hiker in me.
I was totally expecting to run into a rattlesnake on the trail! No such luck. But I did have the misfortune of discovering a busy beehive just feet from the trail. I quickened my pace as I passed it and was left alone.

Resources: