Barbara and I love discovering new-to-us trails, and just when we thought we knew Griffith Park like the back of our backpacks, the ghost of Bill Eckert led us deeper into Fern Canyon for a view-packed loop on the east side of Griffith Park overlooking the Wilson Golf Course next to the 5 and the L.A. River. I needed to say ghost...upon arrival at the parking lots off Crystal Springs Drive, orange pop-up canopies for fundraising groups covered the flat land at base of the trails near the carousel. We hit the trail to the company of costumed hikers and dogs, and Halloween isn't for two more weeks! Today's trail named for Bill Eckert, commemorates his dedication to Griffith Park and its visitors. He joined the LA Dept of Public Works in 1949 as a gardener until 1965 when he became a charter member of the Ranger Unit—Badge #1—the first ranger in the division's history. His trail is a sweet "lasso," circling a peak at the east side of Mount Hollywood. The start of the hike features a terrific close view of honeycomb shaped Bee Rock, a hike for another day. The Eckert trail steady slopes up, but not steep. The fabulous outward NE view includes Burbank, Glendale, the San Gabriels and Verdugos, and looks down on the Wilson golf course and LA River, The only tricky part—we did it, you don't have to—was on the return from the top closure of the loop. We followed the trail on the map down a narrow dirt path into the canyon covered with pine needles & cones, steep enough that earlier hikers tied an unattached electrical wire down the slope for steady balance. After a brutal hot summer, today was our first narrow, adventurous trail in a long time, and it was a great adventure, but we'll probably stay on the main trail next time. Go for the view, stay for the good hiking conditions. 

16 years ago Barbara and I started hiking weekly to scout settings for my mystery novels and discovered adventure AND settings. This month I released second editions of my old Mind for Murder Mystery series—with an update to my author website. If you're curious, the new site is here: https://rochellestaab.com/ 

Happy discovery!

   

   

   

Barbara is great at identifying trees and I like studying architecture in different parts of LA, so this urban walk through South Pasadena and parts of San Marino appealed to us for our final June Gloom hike. Being our first trek through the south side of South Pasadena, we weren't aware of its reputation as the "City of Trees," a real and serious historical factor about Pasadena's 1888 spin-off town. The original residents of now one of the oldest municipalities in L.A., were conservative, middle-class, midwest farmers mainly from Indiana. Six years post establishment, one citizen wrote a 1893 op-ed appeal for shade trees to make their new town look inviting. On April 24, 1894, volunteers gathered and planted 1,000 shade trees, including 800 ficus in one day, all donated by a family-run nursery. Today the town has 21,000 trees and over 100 acres of parks. The best example of the varieties of trees came at our starting point: the South Pasadena Public Library. We parked on the east side of the library on Fairview, and circled Library Park, an entire block filled with 75 trees in 21 different species from carrotwood to magnolia, fruitless olive, liquidambar, London plane, strawberry, ash, jacaranda, and more, including the historic, South Pasadena landmark Moreton Bay Fig Tree (above), an import from Australia, planted as a small potted sapling in 1930 by a city street department worker. The tree allegedly has magical powers that boost the imaginations of those who come in contact and benefit your life in magical ways. My only regret was not giving the tree a hug. The buttress roots alone are worth a close look. The rest of the hike led us down Diamond to Monterey, and crossing Fair Oaks into San Marino toward the second of our three park visits, was like walking into a very wealthy and architecturally stunning Mayberry. Calm, beautiful, well kept. Many streets were lined with a single species like the jacaranda on Morengo Ave or the palms on Stratford. The streets we walked in San Marino, incorporated in 1913 (its first mayor was General Patton's father) were a standing architectural showcase without a rundown yard in sight. Every block reflected the 1920s-30s Golden era of architecture including Craftsman, Spanish Colonial, Andalusian, Mission Revival, American Colonial Revival...if you love architecture, tour the impressive streets of San Marino. And, of course, the trees lining the streets were perfection. We walked down Milan Ave and east over Edgewood Drive to the sycamores and oaks of pocket-sized Eddie Park for our turnaround snack. Back up Chelton Way then over to Mission, Mission Alley, and Stratford to Garfield Park, filled with crawling babies, partying toddlers, and morning walkers among the old, beautiful sycamores. Back down to Mission Street, we passed the Fair Oaks Pharmacy (closed on weekends) on our way back to the car. Looking back 106 years at the tree-planting midwesterners establishing roots in the US, this hike gave us a small town feel, just right going into the USA's semiquincentennial week. Fun walk!

   

   

   

On a visit to Pasadena in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt said the Arroyo Seco would make "one of the world's greatest parks." Larger than Central Park by over 100 acres, and one of the oldest continuous footpaths used by the Tonga peoples for thousands of years. Barbara and I followed only part of the 26 miles of Arroyo Seco trails today and we pretty much agreed with Teddy. We've done several hikes in the section we hiked today including a 6.6 mile trek on our Week 17 in September of 2017. Today's hike was short and entertaining. We started at the parking lot on the east side of Washington Blvd and Rosemont Ave, across the street from the Brookside Golf Course north of the Rose Bowl. Instead of crossing to the golf course as expected, the map led us up a narrow trail along a steep hill looking down on the course and across the canyon for a distant view of the canyon hills. Less than a quarter mile up, another trail took us down to street level, then across Rosemont where we picked up the Horseback Riding and Hiking Trail into the woods paralleling the E.O. Nay Course, the shorter of Brookside's two courses that runs on the north end of the complex. We soon broke away from the golfers as we headed toward the 201 overpass, the first section of the 210 that started construction in 1958 from the eastern end of Foothill and crossing the Arroyo Seco near Devil's Gate Dam, and opened in 1966. Just outside the overpass we came to what looked like a circus training setup or a really fun and really high swing and trapeze set up. Had to look that one up—turned out to be a rig the power company set up to measure and prevent oversized equipment from entering the area. I guess the swings were just for fun? Next stop for us, a tricky rock hop over a stream passing under the overpass. As usual we searched upstream for a narrower rock passage, found one, but had to crawl under bushes to get back to the trail. But! Did not get our shoes and socks wet. On the other side of the overpass and the top of our trail loop, the back side of the hike took us on the west side of the golf course on completely charming trail through tunnels of trees and hillsides, in some parts, covered with tumbling flowers. The trail let us out at Rosemont Avenue bordering the other Brookside golf course, the C.W. Koiner Course, opened in 1928 between us and the Rose Bowl, a National Historic Landmark and California Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, opened in 1922. Pretty flowers, funny golfers, good tree tunnels, and stream hopping. We had fun! 

Good trivia: the first game played at the Rose Bowl? October 28, 1922. CAL defeated USC, 12–0. 

The best part about hiking is also the best part of parks: Mother Nature and all five senses are involved, and each comes with a background story. Barbara and I found the Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park on the Long Beach map while searching for another location we never did find. A big green splash on the Long Beach map, we decided to give Harbor a try. We found a pristine haven, a "dedicated city wildlife sanctuary" in inland Long Beach. Part of the backstory here is the Who: in 1948 park namesake Ken Malloy, an environmentalist, led the charge to transform the 231 acres  to a community recreation space, a reserve of wetlands with trails, lakes, streams, and lush vegetation, part of the natural habitat of SoCal for native animals and plants. Time and intruders took their toll, including an invasion of alien species and pollution,  bullfrogs and apple snails "as big as baseballs," Florida banded water snakes, and, from 2005–2007, Reggie the alligator (now residing at the zoo.) In 2014, L.A. Dept of Public Works set out to restore the park, one of the largest remaining coastal wetland ecosystems in SoCal. They hydraulically dredged 240,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the lake and installed a treatment system. Three years later, the refurbished park had pathways, observation piers and zones, pedestrian bridges, fixtures, 622 new trees, and over 50,000 new plants. THAT's the park Barbara and I hiked through this morning. Hiking, biking, dog walking, and catch-and-release fishing in freshwater Machado Lake. So beautiful that the view from every bridge could be a picture postcard. Even the cloudy water near the wetland shoreline gleamed in swirls. Canadian Geese roamed the open spaces freely, including the goose, gander, and their three goslings waddling across our trail. In addition,  Egyptian geese, ducks, squirrels, and a lot of birdsong. Adjacent to L.A. Harbor College, the park also includes a golf course. Harbor Park might be a trek from L.A. but if you're down in Long Beach looking for an escape, this hike is a beauty.