Secret Stairs #23: Astro Loop, 3 miles, 674 steps.

Back to Silver Lake for a challenge. Steep hills, gorgeous views, sooper-sekrit stairways, and unpaved roads. First photo, Barbara Beck waits for me in the middle of a 212 step climb to the small castle at 2605 Ivanhoe Drive where 11-yr. old Judy Garland lived with her mom and sis in 1933. Check out their view in the second photo. The best "discovery" was unpaved Silver Lake Court, the former route for the Red Car trolley lines to downtown and Glendale. At the end of Silver Lake Court we hiked down between the Red Car Trestle Footings, now an official historical cultural monument. The pilings look like little tombstones in the photo but they're huge, created in 1906 for a 500-ft. wooden viaduct that spanned a gulch that is now Fletcher Drive. On the other side of the street is the opposite end of the viaduct, and the 64 steps bordering the pilings to the top. Excellent, challenging hike. Who knew there was a dirt road in the middle of Silver Lake?