hike

Rustic Canyon Loop, AKA Valentines Day Hike, AKA Cranky Pants Hike

by

I’d been wanting to do this hike for quite some time and was pretty excited about it. The description said we had to hike through pockets of poison oak so we thought mid February would be a good day to do it, not so hot so we all could be wearing long pants. The description also said the hike is 5 miles and approximately 3 hours long.

The hike started off at Will Rogers old house in Pacific Palisades and we were chilling on the polo field while waiting for everyone to arrive.
Since it is winter and it has been a little colder lately, we started a little later than usual, we felt we didn’t have to get up at cracker dawn to beat the heat. It turned out though, that it just happen to be a hot day today anyway!
We took it fairly slow, we haven’t hiked in a while and are all out of the hiking shape.



Los Angeles can be pretty dirty, ugly and runned down when you are in the middle of it, but looking down on it from a distance with snow covered mountains in the background is pretty neat!

Then turning 180 degrees and get the views over the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island is not so bad either!

We stopped for an orange break at where we thought was halfway.
It was around here that everyone started to get a little tired and cranky…
And it was around here that we realized we had missed a turn and had hiked about 30 minutes in the wrong direction.
We finally made it back to the junction, it was a pretty obvious junction, but everyone had been busy thinking of air-conditioned rooms and cold beverages so we missed it.
The hike down was really cool, it was steep and the rain had shaped the hiking path to a deep dried out creek.
We made it to the bottom and everyone was happy to find the water filled creek so we could cool down.

I am always fascinated by all the abandoned houses, structures and junk we come across on our hikes. I can never really wrap my head around why it’s just left there, and I find it a little creepy.




We got a little lost again, but backtracked and found a sign before we had wandered off too long.
We had to cross the creek a few times…
…before the trail eventually just disappeared and we had to wade through the creek for the last two miles.

It was pretty deep at some places!
About 6 hours later we finally made it back to Will Rogers park, we usually have lunch together after the hikes, but no one was in the mood for it today, everyone just wanted to go home and do nothing!

M*A*S*H Hike

by

We did the M*A*S*H hike today.

It did not take us long before we came to a Y fork and had to decide which way to go.

We picked the one to the right.

Arriving at the M*A*S*H scene, where they used to film for the TV series.


They had left an old truck and an ambulance behind.


You are here!

Cookie break

Slowly making our way back

Stopped by a lake on the way, beautiful!



We like shortcuts!

Getty View Trail Hike

by

Today we did the Getty View Trail, we had to check out everything we had to look out for before we entered the hike.

There’s nothing like a Sunday morning hike by the 405 freeway!



We made it to the top, awesome views over Los Angeles,

A mansion, waiting for the fire

Beverly Hills



Fern Canyon Nature Trail and Rock Hill & Old Zoo Park

by

The fall is here and we dont have to get up in cracker dawn to avoid the heat for our hikes.

We were pretty much lost even before we had stared the hike today, I dont know what it is, but we have been unlucky with finding our way around lately.

We hiked passed this ladder…

It wasnt fenced off and there were no signs so we thought we had to explore!


W is living on the edge!

We didnt wanna go down the same way and we found this path going up, much more fun!

We made it to a paved road and thought it was weird when we came to a fence. Good view over Downtown LA.

oops, we were probably not supposed to climb that ladder!



We made it to the abandoned zoo.

The cages are still there after 45 years.


It was like a labyrinth with lots of small rooms and cages. I dont think you can find any abandoned place around LA that hasnt been tagged.



Dont feed the animals!

White Horse Canyon Trail Hike

by

We did a fairly easy hike today, only 1.5 hours.

A good thing with a short hike; no one really get the time to become cranky!


We usually do pretty good and manage to follow the trail without getting off the path. Today’s trail was a little confusing though, and we got off beat a little.


Trying to get reception on the phone so we could use the GPS and figure out where exactly we were on the map.

Orange break!

We found our way back to the trail!


Since the hike was so short, everyone was still in a good mood when we reached the bottom of the hill again.

Deer Valley Loop Hike

by

For today’s hike, we decided to do the hike we were supposed to do last weekend -but got sidetracked cos off all the treasures we found along the way.
I still have flashbacks from last weeks hike and the meeting with mr Rattle Snake, and so has my friend. She decided to pick up a stick -just in case we were to meet another snake. What she was gonna do with the stick, I dont know.

The start of the hike was the same path as last week, but there were no morning gloom today.

What to look out for: Friendly Bees! We didn’t see any though.

It was a pretty steep hike, with 1100 feet elevation gain.



In the middle of nowhere was a burnt down house, all that was left was the chimney.

It seemed very lonely, but at least it looked out over a nice view.

A little further up we passed the shell of a sturdy rock house.

It was a warm day and we were all a little cranky on the way up, everyone just wanted to make to the top or find some shade to rest!

We finally made it to where the loop began!

Taking a rest on what we thought were the top.

It turned out it was not the top at all and we had still some way to go before we reached the peak.

It was so worth it though when we got to the top! Beautiful views over Santa Monica Bay

and Point Dume.

View over the hike we did last week.

We finally started to descending again, we hiked through this wet part and it felt like we were back on sea level but we had a long way to go!

There were a tiny bit where we had to gain elevation again on the way back and I could really feel it in my legs, I was tired! Everyone was tired!
Once we were back to where the loop began, we knew we were gonna have to hike up a little again to follow the path, but since we all were tired, we decided to get back following the water creek. It was a lot more fun and we didnt have to do any climbing up!



The hike was 3.5hours long, and we didn’t meet any snakes.

First Autumn Hike

by

We have had a break from hiking since I got back from New Zealand, but decided to pick it up again. We were set to do the Rising Sun hike in Solstice Canyon Park. In the car there, we changed our minds and decided to do a longer hike – the Deer Valley Loop, which started from the same spot as the Rising Sun Hike.

It has gotten so nice and green from the rain we had last week!


Yeah, this is kind of green for being Los Angeles…

The hike had barely started the hike and already found lots of interesting things to explore!


This tub is still a mystery, whats it doing there in the middle of nowhere?

Kellers house was built in 1865, and was burnt down in the big Malibu fires 2007.

We were not allowed to go up there, but we could see the ruins through the gate.

This hike was full of obstacles, obstacle #1: do not get hit by a falling rock!

Obstacle #2: cross the creek.

Obstacle #3: decide whether we should continue on our path, or take a side track. We took the side track and found another burnt down house.

This house was huge, we saw the ruins of 4 chimneys!

The kitchen, fancy a meal?



Obstacle #4: crossing another creek.

The Shrine that was attached to the burnt down house.


Ostacle #5: climb up to the path again.


The view of the burnt down house from a higher altitude.




Obstacle #6: pass the RATTLE SNAKE!

It was my first meeting with a rattle snake in the wild, my friend almost stepped on it, but it was nice enough to just cruise away.

We decided to take the paved path the last bit of the hike, I wasn’t really feeling the dirt path so much anymore…

My Last Day On Skis

by

Todays weather forecast said rain, but we had such a good time yesterday, and since I am flying back home on Saturday and the boys have to swing by the car rental place to get the car sorted out, we decided to give Mt Lyford a try again today anyway.
It did not look good at all as we drove up the mountain.

Around the next corner though, we managed to get above the first set of clouds, and even if it wasnt a clear blue sky, it was still a nice day!

They had this truck that was buried in the snow, a good photo opportunity!


After our little photo session, we did a hike again, since we were still not sure if the rainstorm was gonna hit us or not we thought it was for the best to do the hike as early as possible.





The rain never hit us and we continued to play throughout the day! I’m making some turns in nice spring snow,


I am bummed that today was my last day of skiing, I was really starting to get into it again over the last couple of days. I made a decision that I will hit Big Bear at least once this winter, and hopefully even make it out to Colorado for a weekend. My life also took a huge turn when I decided to set up a goal and move here in April or May of next year.

New Zealand is the land of sheep, in 2003 New Zealands population was 3.9 million, and the sheep population was 39.2 million. That’s 10 sheep on every person!

New Zealand is also the land of adrenaline junkies, as long as the bridge is high enough, there will be bungy jump equipment set up on it, we never saw anyone jumping from this bridge though, guess it wasnt the right season.

Mt Lyford

by

The road up to Mt Lyford was probably the most entertaining so far… super narrow and with sharp turns!

It was a nice little club field and the staff was super friendly, they had one button lift, one t-bar and one nut cracker lift up to the top that they open after 1pm. They said they open it after 1pm cos it was to hard up on the top before that, we think they only had it open in the afternoon cos there were noone there but us to ride it. Once it open, they asked us to unplug and re-plug the power when we got on top so rather than having it running with noone going up, they could turn it on for us each time we wanted a ride up.

During the years when I used to have over 200 days of skiing, I was super comfortable, used to go I really fast, loved tricky corridors and didnt mind a big jump every now and then. But after a three years break with only 6 or so ski days (I had actually not skied at all for two years before this trip), I have not been feeling as comfortable, but I really got into it today! It was soft spring snow, my favorite after fresh powder, and I was confident enough to go faster and do a little bit of playing around on jumps.

We spotted a face that were the lifts wouldnt take us but was super accessible by a fairly easy hike. I counted the steps, it was 618, and 15 minutes according to Stig-Ole. His watch did off course also tell us the elevation, but didnt really pay attention to the numbers.
Jr on top, getting ready for his run.


Maybe Ive just been to excited to feel it, but I have not had any issues with my feet/boots throughout the trip. Jr has been in pain every day though, and he twisted his ankle a little last night while playing around so he gave up after a while, but me and Johan decided to do the hike one more time.


Jr took my camera and snapped some photos of us.


Me coming down the hill



Johan coming down the hill



We had some issues with the rental car today, you could chose to lower or heighten up the car while driving and today it got stuck on the low. It looked like a sports wagon and even the smallest rock on the road scratched the bottom of the car. We sent out Jr to clear the road, and it took us about an extra hour to get down from the mountain today!

Broken River

by

To get up to the Broken River skifield, you had a choice of taking the lift up or hike. The hike would take about 45-60 minutes. The lift used to be an equipment lift only and you had no choice but to hike up. It is only in the recent 5 or so years that they made some security changes to the lift so it could start carrying people up the mountain as well.

The lift did not go all the way up though, it took us to the ticket booth, and then we had to hike up the stairs the last 15 minutes.

Broken River did only have the “nut cracker” lifts, some of them were a real pain to get on, they ran fairly quick and there were a technique you had to master to get on them. Once you are on, you are scared shitless that the roller things will cut off your fingers, or a strap from your bag will get stuck.

Here is the actual nut cracker

It was hard to get a decent lunch at many of the places, especially when you are picky with your food like me. Here is a typical ski bum lunch: bag of chips and a chocolate bar for me, meat pie, coca cola and snus for the boys.

The Kea is kind of like the pigeon of New Zealand’s mountains and forest, but much more beautiful and not as gross. They hang out wherever there is food, you shouldn’t feed them though, it would make them dependent of the human.

We skid all the way to the bottom of the equipment lift at the end of the day.