Hollywood Sign *FAIL*, 5 miles. 

After 78 successful hikes, it was bound to happen: Barbara and I started out early this morning for a trek up to the backside of the Hollywood sign—and got lost. Fortunately, we were seasoned hikers in a familiar area ten minutes from home, and not on some Godforsaken "Where the HELL are we?" side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. We always knew our way back. But it was bad from the start: parked in the wrong place, headed north along the side of Lake Hollywood (wrong road & direction), backtracked, backtracked AGAIN, took a detour on a mountain trail above the lake and below the sign (wrong path), and never reached anywhere close to our destination. A nice day with gorgeous views of the lake, the sign, and the city—it was a good 5-mile hike, but we were so frustrated over misdirection and a useless map that we didn't stop to smell the freesia, pet the dogs, tease the lizards, and enjoy the industrious woodpecker brunching on a dead tree limb. Now that we know where we should have gone, we WILL be back! Photos below: Where we wanted to be, where we were, the detour, and where we ended up.