Walks and Words

Hike #2 - Debs Park, Part 1

2012-01-28T00:14:00.000-08:00

The good news: I tracked down most of the pictures I took from my hike at Debs Park, and I even found out some new things about the park recently.

The bad news: I did this hike more than a year ago, I think. That means I'm relying on memory. I have MS. You see where I'm going with this? Also, this place was more like two parks in one, for reasons I will soon reveal. I'm therefore going to break this entry down into two entries. Trust me. You'll thank me for that.

So, for this hike, I took my nephew, who at the time was 10 years old. He loves animals of all sorts. Physical exercise? Not so much. But I figured I might be able to nudge him into a loop around this park if I promised a day outside with the possibility of lizards.

We set out for just-past-Chinatown-and-before-Pasadena, and found the park relatively easily. It's in sort of an odd place off the 110 freeway. I learned from my last hike that I needed a backpack, so I took one but didn't have much to drink. We stopped at a nearby bodega for some coconut water, and then we continued on to what I thought was the gate to the park. Turns out, it was the gate to the Audubon Center at the park (which closes earlier than the park, which is why this noted difference is important). No matter, we had plenty of time. We turned in at the big sign that says "Debs Park," and parked. Here's what that entrance looks like:

The parking lot is small, but probably just the right size, and the Audubon Center has some pretty great stuff. We spent a bit of time in the front store/visitor's center asking some questions and getting some educated answers. We saw snake skins from park residents (so we knew what to look for), my nephew rented a pair of binoculars for free (I had to leave my Driver's License as collateral), and we grabbed a few maps.

Outside that little store/center/place, there was a wall full of donor names, a pretty big conference room that looked like a great place to have meetings, some well-maintained public restrooms, and then a Children's Center. The entrance into the Children's Center is pretty gorgeous. Here, see for yourself:

That's a big multi-layer pond with all kinds of grass and lily pads and things I can't name in it. The multi-levels made it into a small waterfall-type deal, which sounded nice and calming, and looked like a great place to sit after a long hike and enjoy some coconut water. We made a mental note about that and then turned around and went in the opposite direction, through the parking lot, through the "main gate," and over to the trailhead, which also had a gate, and looked like this:

Turns out, we should have parked out here, on this road that leads into the park. That way, when the Audubon Center closes, and you're still up there hiking, you can come back to a car that's free to leave the premises. More on that later.

We started up the slight incline with our binoculars, backpacks, and maps. The trail is super wide and well-maintained (well enough that a car could take it no problem), and it's lined with all sorts of trees. One of the points on the map talked about "Walnut Forests," which I was sure meant that there were walnut trees to be found. Having no clue what a walnut tree looks like (Note to self: Get app on phone that shows what the heck different plants look like so you can identify them while actually hiking.), I took pictures of a few different one, and sought, in vain, for walnuts at every turn.

I should tell you, before I show you more stuff, that this place is huge. About 300 acres huge. (Maybe where you live that's not so huge, but in LA? Insane.) We were set to do a loop and had no idea how far, actually, we'd need to walk. Neither of us really cared since at this point it was an adventure, and we had snacks.

We walked for what felt like about a half-mile on a tree-lined road that went up and down and bunch and looked mostly like this:

It was really pleasant. My nephew looked hither and yon for lizards, and I poked around at the trees to see if they'd drop walnuts. We were having a decent time. There were inclines that got our heart rates up, but nothing life-threatening. There were views, like this one of Highland Park, which were pretty fantastic and helped me get to know this part of LA much better:

The park stretches for what feels like miles, I swear. I couldn't believe how far I felt from the freeway, when it was less than a mile away. Amazing.

The book recommended sticking to the "Walnut Forest Trail" and then switching to the "City View Trail." We did our best, using the map, and were pretty sure we succeeded in following her directions.I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out? This is a walnut tree:

The damned things were everywhere, but I had no idea. I thought walnut trees looked like this:
I mean, come on. If this was the only picture you had of a walnut tree, and then you saw the one above, would you think they were the same?.

Also, did you know that this is what walnuts look like when they're on a tree?I had no idea. Hence, of course, I was looking for the wrong "berry." I was searching for the brown-shelled wrinkly-looking thing we break open with nutcrackers during the holidays. Not these green apple-y like things. Damn.

We carried on past coastal sage brush galore and what I now know to be "toyon," but which I know as "Christmas Berry" bushes. There were a bunch of eucalyptus, too, which I love. We wound around for quite a bit, then stopped for a quick drink and a picture of the park and Audubon Center/parking lot from up above:

We wound around some more, saw some great views...and some more [I now know] walnut trees:

We made it up to a sort of ridge-like place, where things evened out after a long climb, and the flora and fauna changed quite a bit. We saw a bunch more people up here and figured we were onto something. Power lines took off down the backside of the "mountain," the terrain flattened out, and the views changed. Like this:

Shortly after this part, the trail became paved. I thought this was weird. I thought perhaps we'd taken a wrong turn. Alas, no, it's just paved right there. It goes back to unpaved in a few hundred yards. And then it gets a little fern-y. I don't know how else to explain it. Here:

See? Fern-y. Suddenly we were seeing bamboo, and ferns. Things got lusher, buggier, and greener. Big time. I figured we were pretty close to some water.And, after following the pavement for a bit, everything opened up, and behold, a little lake!

That's my nephew after picking up a big stick and skipping away with it towards the lake. There were signs all over talking about swimming safety and cooking rules. I almost thought we'd hit the jackpot and found a swimming hole.

Not so much. For the life of me, I have NO CLUE why there were so many signs about swimming. There is NO WAY anyone goes in that pond for aquatic fun. Just no way. I do this for a living, folks. This is not a swimming hole. It's a nice place to hang out and drink some coconut water and watch frogs and turtles and birds, but it's no swimming hole. The color alone is enough to tell you that.

Though, if I had allowed him to, my nephew would've jumped right in there, shoes and all, looking for frogs. Here he is checking out the bamboo and saying hello to a few turtles that swam over to check him out.

We ran around the bog a few times, checking it out completely, looking at the different animals, commenting on the green-ness of the water. There are some picnic tables and trash cans here, which I thought was nice. We sat down for a bit to check out the maps we had and plan where to go from here. We could have gone straight on past the lake, but we weren't sure if the trail would loop around, or if we'd get back in time to see the Audubon Center (I'd promised my nephew he'd have plenty of time to explore it). We didn't want to go back to way we came: Boring! So we opted for a third route.

I'll get to that, and the other side of this lake, in Part 2....

Broken Promise

2012-01-27T14:50:00.000-08:00

Well, okay, so...

I blew it.

It is more than a year after my last post. I have done some hiking, but I have been CRAP, clearly, at keeping up on the blog.

I don't mean to say I've done a LOT of hiking. I haven't. Not even close to nearly as much as I had promised myself or my reader(s) I'd do. I even lost the book for a while (gasp!).

But it's 2012 now, and this is supposed to be the Year of Change, and I've been working for the past few months on a Complete Health Overhaul, and I thought I might dredge up the ol' blog and give it another go.

I did indeed go to Debbs Park, the one I mentioned in the last post? I took my nephew, who is now 11. We had a great time. I even took pictures, planning on making a blog entry about it.

And then I had an MS-related relapse, and I had to stop everything. Then I went completely broke and spent all my time either trying to earn money or figuring out how to earn money. And then I had another relapse. The last relapse was a doozy. I was horribly depressed to the point of non-functioning, and I literally did nothing but try to figure out how to function on a most basic level (sleep, eat, bathroom) for a few months. Most of November, 2011? I don't remember it.I stopped working, I stopped...well...functioning like a normal human being.

When I finally could stay awake for a few hours at a time, and retain what I'd read five minutes ago, and drive myself to treatment, things started getting better. I started reading and watching YouTube videos like some sort of info-addict, and I started making some very serious confessions to myself and changes to my lifestyle. In short, they went a little like this:

1) I'm an overeater. A food addict. And while I've known that for a while, what I haven't done is take responsibility for it and actively try to change my habits.

2) I need to change my eating habits. After months of research, and I do mean months (perhaps years, when I think about it), I've decided to work towards eating 100% Raw Vegan. What the heck is that? It means eating nothing cooked, and no animal products (well, some raw folks do eat raw meat, but I'll pass...). Ever. It's pretty intense. But I've gotta say, as I work my way towards 100%, I'm starting to feel increasingly better, and my "full button," or satiety meter, whatever you want to call it, seems to have arrived, for the first time in my life. And I think I might be starting to look better. I'm down 16lbs so far, and it's been 3 weeks of weeding things out (like cooked grains, which occupied most of my kitchen). I won't be 100% for a while yet (you detox while you make the change, and my body can't handle the intensity of "cold turkey"), but what I notice so far is good incentive for continuing on.

3) I need to get out more. Depression and MS go hand-in-hand, for sure, but I've had problems with Depression symptoms as far back as I can remember...and that's far. (Like, 3 years old.) What's the number one naturally-occurring way to address Depression symptoms? Exercise. What's one of the hardest things for people with MS or Depression (or both) to get up and do? That's right: Exercise. Nevertheless, I need it. And I need the fresh air and nature sounds, too.

So, with those three things in mind, back I go, out to the hills, to get better.

I'm going to go back and see if I can un-earth the photos from the Debs Park hike, and that'll be the next entry. Then I'll write about water. Yep. Water. My new obsession, and another reason for the hiking stuff.

After that, hopefully I'll be able to write about Elysian Park, which I haven't yet hiked, but which is Hike #3 in the book.

In addition to the hiking stuff, I'm going to be posting a bunch about the other life changes I'm making. Eating, meds, reading, etc. I may even start to put up links to other blogs and companies and such that have helped me along the way. Stay tuned! And thanks for reading.

Happy Friday.

-ST

The Great Prickly Pear Search - Hike 01 in Baldwin Hills

2010-09-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

So, the first hike in the book is the Baldwin Hills Walk for Health Trail, in Baldwin Hills, CA. But then, you may have already guessed that last part.

Anywho, the park, named Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, is a hidden treasure, right in the middle of what seems like smog-and-traffic-and-ghetto-hell. But seriously, it's a truly beautiful place just off La Cienega Blvd, between Slauson and Rodeo Avenues. I used to pass this park weekly on my way from home (Redondo Beach, CA) to school (USC) or to my internship (National Association of Social Workers, CA Chapter, Southern CA office, which used to be next door to the CA Automotive Museum, on the Miracle Mile on Wilshire Blvd. Great office, great area, but I digress...). Once, when I was still in grad school, I drove up through it, and I remember being surprised by its size and by how many people where there doing what appeared to be fishing in the little lake there. Back then I didn't get out of the car, just because I was driving through. This time, I parked and did some exploring.

The book says that this hike is 2 miles, that it'll take me about 1.25 hours to complete, and that the scenery will include Sagebrush, salamanders, California quail, jackrabbits, and LA city views. It also says that the park is named for the legendary Kenneth Hahn, former mayor of LA and father of a local political dynasty that includes San Pedro's own Janice Hahn, City Council member and general upwardly mobile politician (she's running for Lieutenant Governor of California presently. I hope she doesn't win, but that's just me), amongst others. Kenneth Hahn is one of my early heroes, and this place was a big deal to him, as well it should be. This place has everything! Baseball diamond, picnic tables everywhere you look, basketball court, playgrounds, wide open, grass-filled spaces, hiking trails, and a lake that's stocked with trout and catfish (limit is 5 per fisherman per day). There are restrooms and trash bins everywhere, and parking for the whole world. It's truly a park. Like, I could take my whole family here for a day and never run out of things to do.

But enough about the park. So, I arrived and drove to the middle parking lot to park. I did this mostly because I figured I could get anywhere if I parked in the middle, and because I was finishing my morning coffee and needed a restroom. So I parked near a restroom and the volleyball court (did I mention there's a volleyball court, too?), and got out. Here's the parking lot:

The book says the trailhead for the Walk for Health trail (which opened in 2003) is back by the entrance to the park. I walked back there (after setting the Endomondo app for hiking/fitness walking and pressing "GO") past two different playgrounds, a few guys picking up trash, and the basketball court, and started up what I figured was the trailhead. I thought it was the trailhead because it looked like this:

Yeah, I was wrong. The trail I was on looked like this:

Nice, huh? Right, but about 300 yards later, that trail joined up with this one:

Woops. First mistake. No worries, though. Now I was on the right path. I hung a right and continued up this new path, and was promptly greeted by a little hill. Fine. I huffed and puffed up the hill, and then was greeted by another little hill. I passed sagebrush, pine trees, and a few other walkers, and eventually reached a little landing where I could go left towards a little pagoda that said it was called "Christine's Point", or I could go right, onto the rest of the trail. Or, I could just stay there, put my arms over my head, and try catching my breath while also catching a glimpse of a stunning view of greater Los Angeles.

I chose all three. Here's the view up to the pagoda:

Up there, amongst the birds chirping and the breeze blowing, I read about watersheds from a tiled educational, um, thing, sitting under the shade. Taggers have been there and done their thing (it's not an LA fixture if it hasn't been tagged. Even the trees were tagged in this place.), but the tiles were still readable. They talk about where the water runs down our hills and eventually finds the ocean.

Lesson Learned: Did you know that water is filtered through dirt and flora/fauna? Better your water should run down a hill and be absorbed by it and eventually find its way to stream and the Ballona wetlands than falling on the roads and sidewalks, getting polluted by horrible car-and-trash-things, and then run through the gutters to the Ballona Wetlands. I did not know this. Now I do. Thanks, Christine!

Off I went, back down the hill and to a little lookout point, where I could see, truly, the city in its entirety. It was a little overcast and smoggy this morning, but nevertheless:

There's Century City and Santa Monica in the distance, and Ladera Heights in the foreground, along with some sagebrush in the fore-foreground.

And up there is Hollywood, the Miracle Mile, a little bit of South LA, and the San Gabriel Mountains in the far back.

And this one, above, is downtown LA, and USC, my home for 6 years. South Central is in the foreground, really. Some good BBQ places, so I've heard, just down the hill from here. I'm not big into bar-b-cue, so I really wouldn't know.

Onward I trudged. I kept to the Walk for Health route, even though there was another trail marked "City View Trail" that looked interesting. I passed one sign that talked about staying hydrated, which I appreciated but did not heed. I brought nothing with me except my phone and my keys. Stupid.

Lesson Learned: Bring a backpack with water, phone, ID, and whatever else I need.

The Hydration sign also told me that the Prickly Pear, which grows in abundance here, stays hydrated by holding rain water in its "pads." It had a picture of the Prickly Pear plant, which made me think, "Cactus." It also made me wonder what the difference is between a cactus plant and a Prickly Pear plant.

Lesson Learned: Answer? Nothing. A Prickly Pear IS a cactus. I had no idea.

So, with that lesson learned, and about a quarter of the route walked, I realized I hadn't seen any of this famous Prickly Pear plant as yet. I looked around, sure I had missed something. Nope. Birds, brush, trees, trail. No Prickly Pear. Hrmmm.

I pressed on and continued looking for cactus. I walked up a bit of a hill to another pagoda on a sort of landing called "Autumn's Peak." It looked like this:

No tiled info block here, but a nice lookout point, nonetheless. I could see the Palos Verdes Peninsula, or, home, and I could also see the majority of the park. Here's the view from the top:

See? Trees, brush, no cactus. But the trees are pretty.

This is another view, turned slightly to the left (south). In the smoggy distance is the PV Peninsula. In the foreground is La Cienega Blvd. The traffic going north was horrendous.

I took this shot of the rest of the park but also so you could see the oil fields in the distance. This park, too, was once an oil field. The book says a local conservancy group is working on grabbing some more acreage from some neighboring oil fields that they oil people are no longer using. I hope that happens. The oil fields are super ugly, and lately every time someone mentions oil, my stomach turns and I yearn for a day when we'll all have turbines and solar panels on our roofs and electric outlets on our cars. But I digress...

I kept on the trail and soon hit another pagoda, this one titled, "Michael and Emilia's Inspiration Point." Here's the pagoda:

For the life of me, I can't figure out what Michael or Emilia found so inspirational at this point. Maybe each other? But this particular view was not my favorite. I'll share it with you. Maybe you can find more inspiration than I did. Here:

I mean, it's fine. You can see the rest of the park, the parking lots, the trees...the oil fields...the power lines...what's not to like? I guess? I don't know. Maybe it's nicer than other places I've visited, sure, but asphalt and power lines and oil pumps don't inspire me to do much except punch people in the face. So, I moved on....

And found some Prickly Pear! At last! It literally cascaded down the hillside, but I had to walk to the other side of the hill to finally see it.

It's over there. On the hillside. Wear the shadows of the trees are. See it?

Yeah, neither could I, really, so I took this next picture, too.

Better? Not really, but a little. Just hang on, I'll find more.

But before I do, I've moved significantly along in my trail journey, and I'd like to show you what the park looks like now that I have:

This is a nice view of some Eucalyptus trees that are evidently part of the section of the park entitled "Olympic Forest." Now, this "forest" is supposed to be a cluster of trees that were planted in honor of each of the countries who participated in the 1984 Olympic games (held right here in our fair city). For the life of me, I could find no grove of trees, no labels, no signs, nothing. It's not that I don't believe Laura, the book author, who told me about this famed forest. I just think maybe it's changed a bit since she was last here? Maybe? Or, maybe someone tagged all the trees and the county people yanked them out? I don't know, man, but I didn't see any forest.

But I DID see me some more Prickly Pear! I was so excited it was so close to me, I busted out the new "FX Camera" app on my phone and took this with the "toy camera" part of the app:

You can sort of see the little red fruit on one of the plants toward the center/bottom of the picture. And, I like the color in this one! Here's another one, taken with the fisheye thingy on the phone:

I thought that was sort of fun.

I took a little moment at this point to get all obsess-y about the new FX Camera. There was a change in the trail here, too. It got skinnier. More Prickly Pear, skinny trail, some people (everyone was nice except a Mexican man who was dressed in jeans, a red and white checked, long-sleeved collar-shirt, and a cowboy hat with a red bandana, and cowboy boots. He didn't say hi. But then again, he was jogging. I couldn't make that up if I tried.)

Anywho, I was playing with the phone and took this "Polandroid":

There were a ton of bugs right in here. I mean, tons. I felt like a horse, stamping to get them off my legs and shaking my ponytail to get them away from my face. The trail was still pretty, though, and now it bent to the right to lead me somewhere new....

You know, like the end of the trail. It actually finished under a big power line and dumped me out onto a paved trail that looked like it was attached to some sort of country club/golf course/random park place. It was completely different from what I'd been walking through, and even though there were people all over walking through it, it scared me with its manicured-ness.

So I turned around.

The book said it was sort of a one-way deal. Go to the end, then turn around. Laura recommends going back the way you came. I, however, am not a fan of the walk-back-the-way-you-came method of hiking. It's boring. So, I found one of the other little trails I'd seen earlier, and took one that lead in a downward direction. It was significantly less up-kept than the one I'd been on. And while I was sure I'd slide down half of it at some point, my Reeboks held their ground. Even when the trail looked like this:

OK, this picture doesn't make it look remotely as treacherous as it felt. You'll just have to trust me. But I made it down, right smack into what was supposed to be The Olympic Forest. I swear. I looked. There were a few Eucalyptus. (Eucalypti?) That's it. And some trash.

So, I crossed over to the grass in the park, and walked over to my car, where I ditched my hoodie. Then I walked over to the bridges-and-grass part of the park that leads to the lake. Here's a Polandroid from the first brook-bridge:

Man made, sure, but pretty nonetheless. I walked along the brook, past people who bid me good morning and who introduced me to their dogs, and I took this one along the way with the ToyCam app:

Then I stopped on the second bridge to take a few of the lake. Here it is, in all its splendor:

OK, it's not huge or anything, but it was hosting a few ducks, and some cranes, too. I'm fascinated by cranes, and I watched one of them not even flinch as a fisherman walked, pole in hand, about 2 feet near it on his way to another part of the lake. I mean, it didn't flinch. Neither did the fishing guy. I couldn't believe it. If only I'd had the camcorder on!

The crane is under the trees, pretty far back there. It didn't look this far while I was standing there. If there hadn't been so much glare from the morning sun, maybe I'd have seen what a crap photo this was and tried again. But I didn't.

I did, however, take one more of the ducks. It's as crappy as the one of the crane. Oh well. That's the fishing guy in the lower righthand corner. And then in the background, out on a rock in the middle of the lake, is a man and his son, fishing. They were really cute. The kid couldn't have been more than 3, but was probably closer to 2. Father and son fishing. Cool. The one time my dad tried to take us fishing, we were on a pier in Santa Barbara. We cast our lines, with worms on hooks, into the ocean...and then promptly got them all tangled up with each other's, had a big fight about whose fault it was, watched as my dad got steaming mad while he tried to "expertly" untangle the lines, tried not to look embarrassed or to laugh at my dad, who really, really doesn't like to be embarrassed, and then left. Half hour. That was it. Fishing with Dad.

Anywho, that was the journey through the Kenneth Hahn State Park place. According to Endomondo, and despite the book saying the hike was only 1.25 miles, I walked 4.16 miles at an average speed of 4.29mph, for a total of 58.13 minutes. And, according to the same app, I burned 601 calories on my journey. Woot!

This is a great park, and I'd love to bring my 10-year-old nephew back to see if we can grab a few fish out of the lake. Maybe I will some day. I also didn't see any salamanders, like the book said I would, but then again, I didn't look nearly as hard for them as I did for the Prickly Pear. My nephew, who is a Lizard King, may be able to scurry some up when he and I come back. So there, there's my purpose for returning to this treasure-in-the-city: Fishing and salamander hunting with the nephew. I'll put that on my To Do list....

Next week? Hike #02 in the book: Debs Park City View and Walnut Forest Trails. Will I see actual walnuts? (Or an actual forest?) Stay tuned....

In the Beginning, There was a Book

2010-09-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

So, hello. This is the first of what I hope will be many posts. About hiking. Or, rather, it'll be about walking on dirt paths in and around the greater Los Angeles area.

Three years ago, my mom bought me a great book about hikes in LA. She bought it for me because we'd taken a trip that year to O'ahu, Hawaii, and I'd done a bunch of hiking there and hadn't stopped talking about it since. When Christmas rolled around, *poof!* There was the book in my stocking. The book is called, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles, by Laura Randall. Look! My first link in my first blog! Okay, moving on.... I have the 1st edition, which doesn't look at all like the 2nd edition, but whatever. The places are still there.

[Lesson Learned: If I talk enough about something, eventually my mom may do my favorite thing: buy me a book about it.]

So, I decided, finally, after 3 years of putting things off and finding reasons not to go hiking, to get into a routine and get out the book. And, after thinking about this for three years, I decided to make my foray into local hiking a much bigger deal than it really is...and to blog about it.

[Lesson Learned: When you get an idea, get off your butt and just do it. Now.]

So, here's the plan: Start at the beginning of the book, and work my way to the end. I'm a full-time swim coach, and I have Multiple Sclerosis, which means my schedule is whacked, and I need sleep and lots of recovery time. I coach a few mornings a week, so I decided that each Thursday, after morning practice (during which I coach adults, which involves no physical activity whatsoever on my part), I'll go on the next hike in the book.

But there are 60 hikes, you say! One measly hike a week will take more than a year to complete! Well, right you are, dear reader, so I'll do my best to take my trusty book along with me whenever I go to a swim meet or whenever I have a day off, and I'll pledge to get in a hike on those days, too. Whenever my schedule allows me to take an extra hike a week, so be it. But each Thursday, come hell or high water, I'll do a hike from the book.

I'll write about each hike here, take pictures on my trusty phone, log time spent, miles logged, and calories burnt using Endomondo, an app on said trusty phone, and I'll also log any lessons learned, so you don't have to make the same mistakes I do, should you try to replicate any of my little journeys about town.

So, here we go. Onward and upward, to hike #01, in Baldwin Hills....