10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. #24: Upper Arroyo Seco—To Hell and Back, 6.66 miles (no kidding). 

Back on the trails after two weekends of prohibitive heat, Barbara and I headed to Pasadena's Rose Bowl. We bypassed the popular Rose Bowl Loop and headed due north past the Brookside Golf Club to hike the trailhead along the top end of Arroyo Seco, Pasadena's 19th century western boundary. The trail led us under the Foothill Freeway and up a steep short incline ending in a set of stairs. Well, we can't resist steps, especially a set that led down to "hell"(the graffiti riddled rocks pictured below)—a forbidden place to the Tonga Indians and early white settlers. In the 1940s, occultist Aleister Crowley conducted black magic rituals there. Back up the steps to a tunnel burrowing under Oak Grove Drive to a bridge over the 1920 Devil's Gate Dam. Enjoyed the view, then continued due north into Hahamongna Watershed Park and the abandoned "field of dreams" that was once Karl Johnson Field, a baseball field created in 1984 by Pasadena city engineers looking for a place to play. Didn't last long—apparently the city didn't appreciate a private field on public land. Barbara and I rounded home plate and retraced our steps back to our car in the Rose Bowl parking lot. Hot as hell but it was so great to hike again!