Hiked Friday, January 16. 4 miles. Took some personal time from my day job to interview for a part-time position at the Observatory. I'm already working there part-time; this was for a different position. Higher pay, but fewer hours. Also, I may be losing my weekends. Well, weekend nights, anyway. I'll still have time to hike in the morning and daylight.
Finished up around 2:30pm. Walked outside and took some "winter" scenes, with the Astrono-mers Monument that's in front of Griffith Observatory. Then I crossed the parking lot and headed up the Charlie Turner Trail.
I wasn't 100% sure where I was heading, other than that I wanted to fit in at least three miles before dark. It was warm and relatively cloud-free, which is not all that atypical of winter in Los Angeles.
Followed the Charlie Turner (which starts at the north end of the Observa-tory parking lot) up and around Dante's View (the southeast shoulder of Mt. Hollywood), which required a bit of an ascent. From there, it was a pretty steep downhill segment towards the southeast. Shortly after crossing the metal bridge, the short spur trail to Glendale Peak is on your left.
I suspect walking round trip to Glendale Peak from the Observa-tory is longer and has a greater gross altitude gain than just going up to Mt. Hollywood, so I'm going to say four miles for the hike. Several good inclines to get the heart going.
Also, some different perspec-tives to seek the Observa-tory domes. Charlie Turner shows you it from the north and northwest. Heading to Glendale Peak gives you views of the domes almost due west from where you stand.
Along the way, I passed some nice, green canyons. All the recent rains have given an unusual greenness to the hills surrounding Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign, among other places.
I like walking around here because you've got so many good ridges, with various backdrops to shoot against. With my moderate telephoto lens, you can get nice pictures of people just enjoying their walks without crowding them, and putting it all in a nice context of the hills above Hollywood.
BTW, looks like I'll be changing job titles soon. The reduced hours are a drag, because I really enjoy my current job there. This just seems like a "promotion," although, with the reduced hours, I may not actually come out ahead, at least not for a while. On the other hand, it may free up more afternoons, so I will need to consider how to shift my day-job's schedule around to maximize my opportunities.
So this was hike five of the year. I managed hike 6 or the year on Monday; I was hoping to fit in at least three hikes on a long weekend, so this is a bit of a disappointment. Still, I'm on track for a 100 hike year, so far. I'll no doubt fall behind in the coming weeks, but try to keep close to two hikes a week. Then I'll have to catch up and get ahead of schedule in late spring through early fall, when the afternoons get long enough to fit some hikes in after work.
So far, so good!
No comments:
Post a Comment