Barbara and I hiked multiple trails north of Burbank Boulevard in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, the largest open space in the San Fernando Valley, but never the trails on the south side because of an old reputation for homeless camps and trash. Rumor had it that L.A. Recreation and Parks in conjunction with landowners Army Corp of Engineers, cleaned up the south side. I really wanted to see the Sepulveda Dam up close, so we headed off this morning not expecting much and got a series of treats. Starting behind the baseball fields off the entrance parking lot, the first part of the hike we followed tractor tracks around a huge, plowed dirt field on our left, and the 101 up a hill of stones to our right. Not much to see, then as we walked, a closer look at the mustard plants revealed branch after branch of caterpillars, BIG caterpillars with black and golden brown fuzzy stripes wrapped on and around stems. The caterpillars will morph after 2 weeks into Salt Marsh Moths with a wingspan of 1.7 to 2.8 inches. These beauties kept us entertained until we closed in on the Sepulveda Dam, a dry dam built in 1941 by the Army Corp of Engineers to withhold L.A. River winter floods in response to the 1938 floods that caused 144 deaths. We got as close as we could to the dam (marked with the usual L.A. graffiti) then followed a dirt trail along the Haskell Creek channel, a small arm of the bird sanctuary in northern basin. Socializing ducks and pairs of big Canadian Geese ignored us, but one insistent black-necked stilt made distinctive kipping sounds as we passed. Turning west at the top of the trail, we passed a line of ricinus, the castor oil plant and 2018's poisonous plant of the year. The trail along the north side of the field paralleled Encino Creek and hosted two turkey vultures brunching on a dead something. Ugh. Completing the trail around the field, we detoured to the other side of the parking lot and found another field, presumably one of the lots agriculturally leased out for planting. There were rows and rows of vegetables from beans to squash, tomatoes to corn and more. Good hike for a gray day—the sun remained behind a cloud layer all morning. Good hike for small details, and seeing the dam I've driven over for years was pretty cool.