incipit vita nova

Aliso & Wood Canyon Hiking

Today it is somewhat stormy, but yesterday I went to Aliso & Wood Canyon Wilderness Park, where I've hiked several times before - just not as a local resident!

I tried to take a good picture of Badger.  He didn't want to sit still . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near the nature center (it didn't seem open), and the parking lot off Alicia Pkwy, they have several areas with native plants, nature information and here - what they described as "old farm equipment."

To take the creekside trail (not the main, paved roadway leading into the park, where most people take their bikes), follow a small trail leading away from the "old farm equipment."

 

 

It's pretty clear that scouts have laid down mulch and wood chips - these trails are extremely well-maintained.

You will quickly come to a sign marking an Eagle Scout Project.  This is a set of stairs and a stream crossing.

 

 

 

 

 

I did not wear my hiking boots, so my hike was cut short about half an hour later when I reached a muddy portion of the mowed path that I had been following.  But here's the cool stream crossing put there by the scouts.  Water levels obviously topped the creek during the recent extreme storms.  Every large piece of vegetation had lots of stuff washed into its branches.  Now, the creek is small, but pretty fast-moving, with clear, clean water.

 

 

I was able to follow this mowed path for approx. 1 1/2 miles before hitting the mudpatch that I didn't want to cross.  I could tell there was a gate immediately after it.  The smell of fresh-mown grass was intoxicating.  I saw numerous small animals (mostly cottontails), many different birds, and a shadowy, brief glimpse of a bobcat.

 

The grass smelled so good because it was fresh-mown!  I passed the guy on the riding mower along the way.

 

The views were amazing.  Even though it is at no point far from a major roadway, it was quiet and still on many occasions.  Stopping and looking and listening, the sounds of nature were calming and well-worth a brief walk (VERY easy) into this beautiful wilderness area.

 

Merry Christmas Outdoors! (Cold Creek, Malibu)

Took a little hiking time this afternoon with Badger.  Cold Creek wasn't nearly as high as I thought it would be after so much rain.  But there were dozens of the biggest mushrooms I'd ever seen!  I tried to take pictures but it was super-dark.  It is already raining again.

These pictures are from good-old Stunt High Trail in Malibu.  Trail very easy, not washed out, but there were some dramatic new gullies and those mushrooms!  I recognized wood-ear mushrooms in a burned, fallen tree.  I can't identify these enormous mushrooms, can you?

Top Five Badass Outdoor Adventurers

Aron Ralston has to be on the top of any badass outdoor adventurer list.  When I read the Outdoor Magazine with Aron on the cover, I could hardly believe his story (now told through the film 127 Hours).  The article went into extreme detail of Aron's hiking trip in Canyonlands Park in 2003, which turned into a grueling ordeal.

Without adequate food or water, Aron hung out for 127 hours in the canyon where a freak accident caused his right hand to be crushed under a boulder, trapping him.  The only way to free himself was to amputate the crushed hand, which had no circulation and was no good to him anyway.  He had a multitool knife.  I know that knife, I have it myself.  He first tried to chip away at the rock, but that didn't work.  Eventually, he broke his own forearm bones, and with the dull blade, he was able to sever his wrist and free himself.  Badass.

Some people think women can't be badasses.  Obviously they don't know me, and especially don't know Jerri Nielsen Fitzgerald, who in 1999, operated on her own breast while stationed at a remote Antarctic scientific outpost providing medical care to about 40 scientists.  Oh - this was during the Antarctic winter, with the last plane having left a few weeks before.  Jerri discovered a small lump in her breast and operated on herself for a biopsy.  The lump was cancerous, and Jerri removed her own breast cancer.  Jerri died in 2009, after the cancer did reoccur.  I'm sure she had better things to do in the next world, because if she hadn't, she probably would have wrestled the cancer down and told it to find some burly 300 lb. guy's man-boobs to infect instead.

Since we're talking cold-weather adventurers, Jerri might have gotten some inspiration from Ernest Shackleton, Irish-born explorer whose ship Endurance almost didn't have a name badass enough to stand up to his legend.

There are several excellent documentaries about Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, and one amazing dramatic film starring Kenneth Branagh.  

Shackleton was the type of badass who recruited men for his 1914 Antarctic voyage with this advertisement:

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

There is much to say, and know, about Ernest Shackleton, but after the Endurance became locked in Antarctic pack ice, it took 22 months, but he brought every man of his crew, and himself - home alive.

 

 

 Here is a picture of Norman Ollestad, age 11, who survived a plane crash on Mt. Baldy that killed the pilot, his father, and his father's girlfriend.  Norman got himself down the mountain one step at a time.  His memoir of growing up with his adventurer father (the cover is a photo of Norman's dad surfing with a baby Norman slung on his back, surfing) and surviving the ordeal, is one of the best survival/personal stories of recent years.

First came Ernest Shackleton, who failed to reach the South Pole but who brought all 28 of his crew back alive.  Then came Scott and Amundsen - one of the world's most famous tragedies, and the explorer who safely made it to the Pole and back.  "I'm going for a walk; I may be some time," are the famous last words uttered by honorary Badass Mention Capt. Lawrence "Titus" Oates, who left Scott's tent during a blizzard, not wishing to burden his companions any longer.  Then came Douglas Mawson, possibly one of the baddest of Antarctic badasses ever.

Here is Mawson telling the -40 degree weather it can take a hike and wait for him to finish his pipe.

In our winter/Antarctic "summer" of 1912, Mawson and a 25-man team of scientists and explorers set off to map and explore the coast and interior of Antarctica.  Weather proved to be so harsh that the team was unable to make the 1200 miles of progress they had set as a goal.  While trying to return to their base camp, their main pack sledge, all of its dogs, and its pilot, Belgrave Ninnis, fell into a glacial ice crevasse.  This left Mawson and ski champion Xavier Mertz to continue on their own with minimal food.  Eventually, the two began shooting their dogs for food, which continued for 10 days.  Unbeknownst to the pair, they were being poisoned by excessive Vitamin A in the dogs' livers.  Mertz's condition worsened, and he eventually died, leaving Mawson to continue alone.  Struggling on, Mawson reached his base camp only six hours after the ship that had been scheduled to pick up the other men had departed.  Holing up in their camp over the long Antarctic winter, Mawson and the others were eventually rescued more than 10 months later.

Oliver & Hiking

Oliver is getting to be a much bigger kitty.  He's still a kitten though, and after torturing Taz, took up this position in my ladies' lounge (bathroom).

Ahhh.  Sooo comfy.

This past Saturday, I took Meredith on a deathmarch (hike) to one of my old favorite spots, Lion Canyon trail near the Sespe wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest (southern portion, back of Ventura/Ojai).  These great series of hiking spots are accessed off the 33 going northeast of Ojai past Matilija Creek.

Here is Sespe Creek by the Lower Lion campground.  This campground was somewhat occupied despite the cold weather, with a couple of young guys, a couple and another friend, and a mature version of Chris McCandless (though a "rubber" tramp version).

My faulty memory combined this campground's pit toilet (not at all bad, plenty of TP) with the actual bathroom with running water found at Oak Flat, which is actually on the Piedra Blanca trail, not far away . . .

The stream was clear and running rapidly, but very easy to cross.

At the start of the trail looking east across the Sespe wilderness, the sky was extremely clear and a gorgeous blue.  Excellent visibility and the air was very crisp and fresh.  I don't remember the white stones outlining the trail (which was definitely less-traveled the farther we went, though a large group of kids on horses came off the trail just as we got started).

Another backcountry shot on the way back.  This is looking southwest toward Nordhoff ridge (facing back on the trail).  The scenery, with stream in the distance, is the sort where I saw the mountain lion on a hike several years ago - i.e., it was "shadowing me" on the other side of where the first stand of trees appear.  Between is the stream, recessed in a small gorge.

Here is one of the small seasonal waterfalls to be seen along Hwy 33 on the way from the Ranger station to Rose Valley road.  I was unable to locate the boy scout spring that I am pretty sure is also around somewhere on the route (Meredith driving).   

I sure love this backcountry.  As I told Meredith, this section of the Los Padres National Forest is next to the giant Sespe Wilderness.  33 miles of the Sespe is now a wild and scenic river (and I think Matilija Creek, which would be really awesome, because it is so gorgeous).  This large area, being wilderness (also including the nearby Dick Smith Wilderness, also awesome) is closed to non-wilderness activities, such as motorized vehicles, off-roading, ATV's, and let's hope - gangs of beer-guzzling tourists with supersoakers (as seen at the foot of Yosemite Falls - no lie - beyond appalling).

It's wild enough back there that even the short jaunt that I took Meredith on led us well away from the campground and modern noises and sights into the genuine wilderness.

No lions this time though - maybe next time.

Don't be lazy - click and learn about this precious and huge treasure of nature right here in California. - I learned that Sespe Creek is the last undammed (i.e. - no dam) river in Southern California.  As someone who grew up near the formerly awesome Santa Ana River (no lie) pre-flood control, or at least, pre-extreme flood control and diversion, I remember this great river.  It was truly huge at flood-height, spanning almost the entire valley where I grew up.  The large flood basin, as well as entire residential developments, like "East Highlands Ranch," shows what a mighty river this was before human diversion and use.

Anyway, the Sespe is usually crossable and is a creek.  And it's the last one.  Nice, huh?  What they did to the Owens River Valley - that's not progress.  It's a crime.

Abalone Cove

Abalone Cove is one of the beaches on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  Yesterday, I figured it would be a good idea to check out that area as far as hiking goes.  There are some popular hiking trails in the area, and I thought about the Shipwreck Trail, which isn't very far from Abalone Cove.  I was put off that adventure by the recent Local Hikes comments that said there were a bunch of dead, headless seals on way that really stank.  Why there would be so many dead seals there, and headless - is a mystery to me.  But it was a sight I didn't want to see.

So instead I went to Abalone Cove, which is the site of most excellent tidepools.  I went at the wrong time of the day (early afternoon) because the tide was in, obscuring most of the pools.  Abalone Cove is a very beautiful area, and there were a few people taking in the sun, and a couple of people fishing.  It's not easy to get to no matter which way you go.  It's not far from Portuguese Bend - and I even saw people calling it "the poor man's Portuguese Bend."  You get to the area by parking in the large Abalone Cove Shoreline Park parking lot, which does cost $5.  I think it is a city of Palos Verdes Park, and there is also a beach school down by the beach which is super-cute.

This is a view of the main beach area looking south from near the beach school.  To reach the tide pools, it is a lot of rock scrambling.  With the tide farther out, you could probably walk on hard sand, which would be easier.

Here is another view of the beach, looking north.

Finally, a short way down the beach, there are some really gorgeous rocks in the water.  It is amazing how much this area, although very developed, with numerous neighborhoods of beautiful homes and even the Trump National Golf Club, looks like the Central Coast once you are down on the beach.  The weather is very different, however.  It is much more like Orange County beach weather than the cooler climate just a few miles to the north. 

Yesterday was a very bright, sunny day and the water color was unbelievably blue.  Ocean coloration depends on a number of factors, but ocean water absorbs light in the red spectrum, causing the deep blue color.  That is why, on a bright, sunny day, the ocean will often appear strikingly blue, and also why, on a cloudy day, the ocean appears grayish.

This UCLA web page explains all of this, and much more.

The Abalone Cove trail/beachwalk was described as "moderate" and, while these are questionable terms, since one person's "moderate" will be another one's "easy" and so-on, I think it really is moderate.  I think it's about 2 1/2 miles, which is no big deal, but it's all downhill on the way in, and all uphill (steep) on the way out.  That's "officially" moderate as far as I'm concerned.  Abalone Cove is a beautiful natural area on the Los Angeles County coast, and a fun trip for anyone interested in the beach, nature and the outdoors.  Minus the headless seals (thank goodness!).  I also missed the nude sunbathers - those are supposed be located at Smugglers Cove, south of Abalone Cove.  I went around the point and had a look - there were only two people there, with clothing on.  How sad is that?  You are either going to hike this beach in good boots, or you are going to take one of the several trails down from the top of the cliffs to the beaches, and not move around a lot, because the beaches are mostly rocky.

Jamie Neale: No Chris McCandless

Lost in the Australian wilderness for twelve days, 19-year old Jamie Neale seems to have turned a vacation from the UK to Australia into a survival adventure.

Jamie is currently resting with relatives in Perth, after nearly two weeks lost and wandering in the Blue Mountains of Australia.  It might be 80 degrees as I'm typing right now in Southern California (by the ocean), but down-under, it's winter.

According to Jamie, who is enduring criticism that he accepted $200,000 Australian dollars to appear on the Australian edition of "60 Minutes," he left for a hike on July 3rd carrying two rolls and a small bottle of water.  He did not take his cell phone, apparently no backpack, wore only light clothing, and had no other survival equipment.  Jamie then proceeded to wander around the Australian mountains encountering leeches and other nasties, and eating bugs and seeds, for the better part of the next two weeks.

First off, the Blue Mountains are a tourist area, and do have villages, attractions and accommodations.  Located in New South Wales, the mountains are approximately 50-60 miles from Sydney.  The backcountry looks pretty spectacular, with gorges, a blue haze that gives the mountains their name, and numerous rivers and forested areas.  It looks like the Blue Mountains are a great place for backpacking, hiking and canyoning ("canyoneering" to us in the US).  In Australia, they call it "bushwalking," tramping or trekking.

Things were pretty cold for Jamie, with temperatures in the low 30's (Fahrenheit) during his days in the wilderness.  Mostly, it seems, Jamie's challenges were due to the lack of food, and his lack of appropriate clothing, as it seems he must have been able to locate enough water to get by.  Of course, if Australia's backcountry water is anything like it is here, Jamie probably picked up some giardia and will lose a little more weight before he starts building his health back up again.

It should go without saying that two rolls and a small water bottle aren't equivalent to Chris McCandless' 10-pound bag of rice, rifle, and other, admittedly inadequate equipment.  The Blue Mountains also don't sound as daunting as the central Alaskan wilderness at any time of year.  

So, Jamie got $200,000 Australian dollars for telling a similar story to being lost in the Sespe for 12 days, I'm guessing.  He's lucky to be alive - but by the same token, he is neither Chris McCandless or Aron Ralston.  Aron is the climber and backpacker who got his hand stuck under a boulder in Blue John Canyon in Utah in 2003, and who saved himself by amputating the hand with - I think - his utility tool that was pretty dull by the time he did it.  As to Jamie - he was lucky to have been found by two hikers with supplies by the time they did locate him and get him to safety.

Poison Oak: Leaves of Three, Let it Be

I have a dandy case of poison oak on my right hand, courtesy of a brush of Badger's leash against some poison oak on a hike - I'm going to say weeks ago.  I've been exposed constantly for my whole life, of course.  California doesn't have poison ivy, and I don't think, "poison sumac," but it does have lots and lots and lots of poison oak. 

Most of the poison oak I've seen has a reddish tone, like the picture to the left.  The shrub changes throughout the year, and now in the early summer, often has little white "berries" and little waxy white flowers. 

In my case, my lifelong "immunity" is gone to the point where, I thought I'd beat the stuff back, but it flared up again!  The skin on my palm and underside of my fingers is so stiff that I can barely bend them.  Because the skin there was tough to begin with, the blisters are deep beneath the skin.  I would say it was making me mad, but there's no point.  It's not going to stop me from hiking.  Poison oak reactions come from one's skin coming into contact with the urushiol oil produced by these plants.  Only a tiny amount is needed, and the oil will set off an extreme allergic chain reaction well-known to outdoor enthusiasts, gardeners, weeders, and those living on farms.

There is of course, a Poison Ivy, Oak and Sumac "Information Center" on the internet.  On the poison ivy victim message board, it says "beware of pet fur."  I am pretty sure Badger has been cross-contaminating, because this sucker has lasted at least a month so far.  The good part is that it hasn't spread much past my fingers, where it obviously came from holding his leash (small patch on left hand - same deal - I switched hands when my right hand started "bothering me").  The bad part?  There's still some of that urushiol oil somewhere - either I failed to wash it out of his fur, it's somewhere on my bed where I can't tell (have washed everything twice) or it's on some other common thing that I touch and hold that hasn't occurred to me yet (steering wheel of car?).  That would be just sick, wouldn't it?  I can't give too many helpful treatments (Sarna lotion helped me somewhat but it keeps coming back!).  The Information Center linked above has more than you'd ever want to know, and some pretty horrible victim pictures.

Solstice Canyon Afternoon Hike

Meredith and I returned to Solstice Canyon, finding it much less crowded this afternoon than over the Memorial Day holiday.

Solstice Canyon burned in 2007, and you can still see evidence, although the stream is lively and the recovery is rapid.  This sycamore tree was burned, it's hollowed-out, and yet living above this burned, hollow area.

A super-fun family hike, there were indeed families out on this easy adventure.  If you would like to take this hike, Local Hikes offers a great description.  You can hike the canyon either clockwise or counterclockwise - going up the canyon trail or the Rising Sun trail, depending on which way you choose to go.

Badger knows a good stream when he sees one, so he immediately drank from and went playing in the stream.  A new bridge crossing the stream supposedly allows steelhead trout to traverse its entire length.

At the end of the trail is a gorgeous waterfall, lots of fun rocks to climb, and the ruins of "Tropical Terrace," a house belonging to the Roberts Family that burned in the 1980's.  This looks like such a nice house that I was sad to see all the destruction.

Badger's headed for the stream . . .

And following are a picture of Tropical Terrace and the waterfall:

 

The remains of the Roberts' home, Tropical Terrace.

Peter Christian's Response to Chris McCandless

Here is a response by Alaska park ranger Peter Christian to Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild, about the life and death of Christopher McCandless.

So do your homework now . . .

Upper Zuma/Newton Canyons

Talk about an awesome day!  For the end of May, the weather is so perfect in the Santa Monicas.  Meredith and I originally planned to do Solstice Canyon today, but it was too crowded.  We then headed for "Tunnel #3" on Kanan Road, the site of the trailhead parking lot for the very first hike I ever took her on several years ago.

This is the trailhead for two very different hikes along the Backbone Trail.  Because she has not been out for a long time and I just myself bought new hiking boots, we went to the easy, Newton Canyon direction.

The Newton Canyon trail almost immediately enters riparian woodland from the parking lot.  This is the first picture I took, and you can see how lush and green things are, even as summer is beginning.

The trail then begins moderate uphill and downhill climbs.  The wildflowers are still very much in bloom and I got several good shots of all of the different types.  The trail is fern-lined in many places, also mossy, and with lots of patches of miner's lettuce.  Let's see if one of the miner's lettuce pictures comes out.

Here is a picture of monkeyflowers, which were in extreme abundance all along the trail.

Badger had an awesome time, and indeed, drank from the stream when he had the chance (good for him!).  One reason this is such a great trail is that once you reach the portion of the stream that has water, there are little bridges and easy access for pups to drink.

He was super thirsty.

On the way out, we saw a garter snake California whipsnake or "racer" catching a quick meal from a lizard.

Let's see if the picture came out:

Yes - you can see his body going into the brush.  Click on the image for a bigger version.  All in all - great hike!