Hiked Friday, April 10. I continue to fall behind in my blogging. This was my latest hike, earlier today. Since I've done it many times before, I mostly just took (and am only posting) wildflower shots from along the way.
Got a slightly late start. But, being a weekday, I figure I'd be fine.
I was also somewhat limited in time by needing to get to an astronomy outreach event by 6pm. So, in combination with my late start, I eliminated a couple of possibilities I had been considering the previous day.
Decided on this hike, even though it's something I'll probably do another half-dozen times between now and the end of the year (especially if I actually manage my 100 hikes).
As I turned off of Altadena Drive and started down the hill, I saw a showy patch of Matilija Poppy. So I turned my car around once I got to the bottom of the hill and parked up on the street. Then I shot probalby 25 shots of the little patch. Just one of the shots are above.
In fact, the first five shots I posted were taken before I left the nature center. There of them were probably within 50 feet of each other, near the entrance to the nature center. But they were pretty!
It was a good day for hiking. Probably lower 70s for most of my hike. It had been a while since I'd done this hike, and I enjoyed getting another quick dose of climbing (the previous two hikes, neither of which I've yet blogged, were to First Water and Jones Saddle, both of which have some pretty good grades on the way up).
One thing I had never noticed before was that there was a "nature trail" up at Henninger Flat.
I tried following it, but there wasn't much point. There were concrete monu-ments, with numbers on them. But there was no description of what I saw. And I lost it after only covering about half the trail Still, adding that extra 1/4 mile or so up there at the top was a nice twist to a hike I've done dozens of times before.
The Nature Center gives the distance to Henninger as 3.7 miles. I don't know if that's via the Walnut Canyon trail, or going the long way, over to near the bridge.
Incidentally, it also gives the Mt. Wilson distance as 10.1 miles. Again, I'm not sure which route they take.
That would make the roundtrip distance to Mt. Wilson as 20.2 miles, which is about two miles further than I thought it was. That means I actually have done 20+ miles in a day, before. I didn't know that!
At any rate, adding the 1/4 or so at the top, plus the little extra bit from the nature center to the street (twice) gives my daily hiking distance traveled as about 7.75 miles.
Not a lot of flowers on the trail, or at least not very showy ones. Mostly wild mustard and Spanish broom, with a few lupine mixed in. A few other flowers, but not much.
Down near the nature center, the Matilija Poppy were blooming well. The sunflowers were past-peak, but still blooming. So not a lot of wildflower shots. But it was a great hike, nonetheless.
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