Hiked Saturday, December 24. Today's hike was pretty lame. I had a lunch appoint-ment at noon and only had about 2 1/2 hours in the morning (including driving time) to squeeze in my hike. Besides, I played some basketball yesterday, and was feeling a little stiff.
Parked on Lemon Ave, just east of Mountain. That's about two miles north of the Foothill Freeway (I-210). I parked on the street.This is the southernmost section of the wash-side walking trail. It's mainly used by joggers and dog walkers (and, in fact, I ran into a friend from Monrovia on my way back. He and his daughter were walking their dog). There are dispensers for bags to pick up your dog's poo at several spots along the way.
From Lime, the trail heads mostly to the north, passing over or under several roads along the way. The only off-street parking is one block north of Lime, at the end of a private drive that's opposite Foothill Blvd, just east of Mountain. That public lot is often used as by visitors or residents to a small condominium development at that corner, however. So, today, I just started at Lime.
It took me about 30 minutes to get to the gate for Monrovia Canyon Park. There's a short trail (1.8 miles from the entrance station, probably 1.9 to 2.0 miles from the road gate) from there to Monrovia Falls. Today, however, the gate was locked, even though I got there well after the 8am opening time. I thought that meant the park was closed, perhaps due to recent storm damage. However, the friend I ran into on the way back suggested it might just be that the rangers had Christmas Eve off.
I returned the way I came, having covered about 3 miles on my wash-side walk. I passed numerous dog walkers and a few joggers. I also saw several hawks and saw and heard several woodpeckers. Had I been a little more efficient and framing the hawk sitting in a sycamore, I would have had a nice close-up view of him. The sycamore were still looking very fall-ish. It's always amazing to see fall foliage in December.
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