Hike 2015.051 and Hike 2015.065 -- Lower Millard Canyon and Owen Brown Burial Site

Hiked Sunday, June 28 and Saturday, August 22. Two hikes in the lower reaches of Millard Canyon. In both cases, I began at the campground and hiked along the dirt fire road that heads west from the campground (2N65, Brown Mountain Truck Trail). Once you gain a little altitude, looking towards the urban-wilderness interface, you'll see a hill with a trail that appears to climb it, and some power line towers, near that hill. Eventually, that will be your destination.

In the meantime, simply follow your truck trail You may pass a rise with honey bee apiaries, on your right.

After just under a mile, Brown Mountain Truck Trail makes a very sharp turn to the right. It's easy to miss that turn, because there's a dirt berm that appears to be (but is not) the end of the road). If you were to continue over that berm, you'd still be Brown Mountain Truck Trail, and you'd eventually reach the Ken Burton Trail (as described in the hike linked, above). That's a pretty good hike, and a nice view to look into the Arroyo Seco, and across, at the Angeles Crest Highway.

On the other hand, the seemingly more obvious trail will have you miss the berm, entirely, and continue west rather than turning to the northeast. You'll pass a marker, advising that you are now on Fire Road 2N68. This fire road heads towards town, rather than away from town.

In fact, within 1/2 miles (roughly) of getting on this trail, you'll be walking on pavement, again. It's a private road, but with public foot traffic permitted upon the road. You'll pass by a couple of homes, some with interesting decorations. In particular, you'll see a car, pictured later.

Meanwhile, there's the car's hood, sitting along a side trail, which drops down, into the Arroyo Seco. It's got a quote, from St. Francis of Assisi painted on it. I explored that trail some on my 65th hike of the year. On my 51st, however, I just walked along the road.

As you proceed, you will soon pass directly in front of a couple of houses, as well as the rest of the car that the hood came from. It's a haunted car, by the way. You'll see when you get there.

Continue briefly along this paved road, Then, when the pavement turns left, you'll continue straight on to a well-defined trail. You'll pass among some electrical power towers. In well under 1/4 mile, you find yourself atop a small rise. And on that rise, and interesting marker, next to a pine tree.

The first time I saw this, I had no idea if this was an historically significant sign or not. So I went on-line, and discovered that, in fact, Brown Mountain had been named after Owen Brown, who was one of John Brown's sons. After John Brown's martyrdom, Owen moved out to California, and bought a ranch in Altadena. His ranch, so his mountain.

I also learned that he had been buried here. And, although the metal sign was not original, the wording on the sign was the epitaph on the original grave marker.

I also came across some pictures on line of the burial site. It was surrounded by wooden barriers. On a later visit to the burial site, I found the burned remains of some of those barriers. So, yes, he was buried here on this hill, although the original headstone is elsewhere.

On the walk back, I viewed the homes and the car from the other direction. I was amused by the flag, and the seemingly random collection of junk among the homes.

On a future trip, as noted above, I walked down the trail with the hood of the haunted car. It was a well-developed trail (several areas with numerous bricks, where erosion was a problem--and those bricks were heavy, so some serious work involved in building those trails).

There were many crossing trails, and I wasn't sure which one was which. One must presumably head on down to JPL. Yet, lacking the motivation to figure out which one, I just headed on back the way I came.

Lots of places to explore down here, and this doesn't even include the part above Millard Canyon Falls. I never blogged that hike, either. Will need to, eventually.

OK, so that was one "flashback," an unblogged hike from last year. I should try to get a few of those in each month, in addition to trying to keep semi-current on this year's hikes. That's it for now, though.

Hike 2016.005 -- Joe Davies Heritage Airpark, Blackbird Airpark, and Saddleback Butte State Park, Palmdale, CA

I have a somewhat short attention span. A lot of the time, I'll read something, which will remind me of something, which will remind me of something else. In this case, I think I came across a story about this place in Houston, where they have a full-sized shuttle mock up, mounted on top of one of the actual 747s that they used to transport the space shuttle around the country.

So then I read that the other 747 shuttle transport was in not-too-far-away Palmdale, in a place called, Joe Davies Heritage Airpark. Well, you may recall that, a little less than 3 1/2 years ago, the space shuttle Endeavour was flown around the Los Angeles area, and is now on exhibit at the California Science Center, in south Los Angeles.

So now, having read that one of the shuttle carriers was in Palmdale? Road trip!

So I decided to combine the trip to Joe Davies with a short hike, to the top of Saddleback Butte. That way, it wouldn't just be a long drive for a short wander in a park. It was a long drive, followed by a short walk, then a short drive, followed by a modest hike, then another long drive. ;D

Probably about two dozen aircraft on exhibit at Joe Davies, plus three in the adjacent Blackbird Airpark. In addition to the shuttle carrier, there's a B-52, sitting right next to the 747. Nice to be able to put both in context of size.

The composite transport was also fun, just to tap, and feel that, yes, that's not metal.

Most planes on exhibit (possibly all of them) were developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works, and many were assembled at the nearby manufacturing plant. Nearly all were jets, from the 1960s on forward.

The F-14 (previous shot) was funny, because they had those little spokes on the top of the tail fins, to keep birds from alighting and pooping on the plane.

Across from the T-38 (previous shot) was an F-5 (not pictured), which is basically the same plane, except the T-38 was a trainer version, with two seats. There's also an F-4, directly beyond the T-38, and a lot of 100-series fighter jets, from 100 on to 105.

On the Blackbird Airpark section, there were only three jets: An SR-71, an A-12, and a U-2. There was also a small, unmanned drone.

The A-12 and SR-71 are, to my untrained eye, largely identical; the A-12 was an earlier version of the SR-71.

This shot, and the next one, are of the A-12. The previous one is of the SR-71.

After that, there's the two planes; the one on the left is the SR-71, and the one on the right is the A-12. There's also an A-12 on exhibit outside of the California Science Center, by the way.

These jets are just so sleek. Despite being 1960s technology (though probably the internal sensors were updated numerous times during their operational lives), these planes still look futuristic.

They've also been superseded by either newer planes or newer satellites, which is why these planes are now on static display, here. Meanwhile, to our north, modern aircraft still flew test flights.

From the Airparks, I headed, first east, then north a few blocks, to Avenue J. According to Google Maps, they're about 26 miles apart, and 37-40 minutes to drive on surface streets. So it's a bit of a drive, but not far, if you're already here, in the Antelope Valley. You can certainly do both in a decent half-day. In fact, the drive seemed shorter than that. Don't expect to pass much in the way of retail options along the way, however.

Because I forgot my free State Park passes, I parked on 170th Street, which runs along the park's western boundary. That added a slight amount of distance. But the hike up to Saddleback Butte from the campground area is only 1.6 miles each way, so we're talking a total of less than 3.5 miles, roundtrip.

Nice hike because you get such a panoramic view. It's not very high, but it's higher than most that's around you.

San Gabriel Mountains are far to your south. The desert stretches around you. Some Joshua Tree. In the spring, sometimes, a lot of wildflowers.

It's also got running water, flush toilets, and convenient camping. I've done a few nights of astronomy from out here, though not much, recently. For various reasons, I just haven't had as many dark sky nights the past year as I had in the past.

Earlier in the week, I had half a mind to turn this day into an overnight stay. But it was so cloudy during the day, I didn't even bother packing my telescopes.

It's short, and not very steep to the summit, at least not until after the saddle. And, even then, it's just a short 1/8th of a mile or so from there to the summit. A little bit of care is necessary to pick your way to the top. By the time I got there, the broken clouds had turned to gusty and dark. I enjoyed my view, then returned the way I came.

Hike 2016.004B -- Huntington Library and Gardens, San Marino, CA

Hiked Monday, January 18. Spent a lazy day at home with my wife. But you can only watch so much Netflix. So, finally, late afternoon, I decided we needed to go for a walk. A nice, easy walk, but something to get us on our feet for a little while. And since we've got a Huntington Library and Gardens membership that she doesn't get to use very often, here's where we went.

Having just gone to Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden the day before (still not blogged--I'll stick a link in here, after I've blogged it), I was not expecting much to be in bloom here, either. That's part of why I shot the brown seed pod; I thought the theme was going to be, "Winter." Yet, as we made our way to the Chinese Garden, I was surprised by the sight of cherry blossoms. What? In mid-January? Yep.

What an odd bit of weather we've been having. A few weeks ago, we had a stretch of days when the highs were in the 50s or maybe the lowest of low 60s, and the lows were down in the 40s. Naturally, by the way, that was when my furnace was dead. I spent several nights waking up to general inside-the-house temperatures down at 58-60 degrees (but warmer in the bedroom, where I had a space heater).

Yeah, that sucked. But then, a string of days in the mid-70s. So, apparently, some of the trees there didn't need much chilling, and much of a stretch of warmer days, to decide that it was time to bloom.

Most of the plants are still in hibernation-mode, but those cherry trees were well on their way.

At the same time, the heavenly bamboo was a mixture of fall reds and spring light greens. As I said, weird.

Fruit blossom are often hard to photograph because their colors are usually pretty subtle. They're mostly just white, though I see the first tree I encountered was pinkish (looking sort of like peach blossoms, except I'm pretty sure the sign had them in the "prunus" family, so a cherry of some sort).

Both were of the double-blossom sort--instead of just five petals, they had ten or so. Double-density. Ornamental.

In addition to the cherry, there was also quince in bloom. They're always striking, and also usually an early bloomer.

Somewhere along the way, I passed some daffodil, as well.

The was also a section with numerous "bonsai forests" -- on trays, collections of small "trees." They were fully in hibernation, and presented very wintery appearances.

The water features of the Chinese garden make it an easy place to spend time. It can be very peaceful. There are also often waterfowl visiting. Canada geese and mallard ducks are both common.

Plenty of very large koi in the water, as well. So you can add that to the bridges, the trees, the blooming flowers, etc. Lots of things to attract your attention. It's probably one of the more popular sections of the gardens, even among non-Chinese.

So probably half the time at the garden (out of a stay of maybe 90 minutes) was just wandering around a very small area, taking pictures of and around the water features.

I had a ball, shooting the area, then reviewing my shots, after the fact. I was happy that, despite my many trips here before, I managed to capture something different.

People might wonder, "How can you enjoy something when you're always looking through your camera?" It may take me out of the moment. It may cause my actual memories of a place to be replaced by my photos of the place. Could be.

For me, I like taking pictures because it's about picking out the moment--focusing on the small things, or the fleeting things, and trying to capture a feeling or a representation of one particular moment.

I do know that when I feel like I have succeeded, like, "Yeah, that's it," perfectly-timed, catching something as it happened, where two seconds earlier or later, or ten feet to the left or right, and the moment would have passed, unnoticed. But I *was* there, at just the right time, in all the history of the universe, and all of human existence, I got something.

Yeah, that sounds pompous. I don't mean it to be. In fact, it's not supposed to be about me, at all. It's supposed to be about the moment: The moment when the colors mesh just right, or the shadows and light create an aesthetic pattern, when a couple pauses at the bottom of the stairs for a moment, or the seemingly-hyperactive child stops for just a few seconds and appears lost in contemplation, even if only for a few seconds. And, so, there's that moment, that never happened before and never will happen again, that no one else will ever be able to experience directly, but they can still experience that moment, second hand.

Anyway, that's how I feel when I'm walking around a place like this, and shooting literally hundreds of frames, trying to capture little moments that tell little stories, or fleeting emotions, or interesting colors and patterns.

So, on that afternoon, it was a short bit of walking. Not much of a hike, by itself. But nice to stretch my legs. Nice to be able to experience a little slice of time in San Marino. And, undoubtedly, a place I'll visit, again.

This year seems to be unfolding as a different sort of hiking year. Well, I still intend to do some "real" hikes. But a lot of my time recently (and possibly during at least part of the coming year) is walking around these very highly modified parks: Here, at the Huntington. Further east on Huntington Drive, at the Los Angeles County Arboretum. Descanso Gardens, in La Canada. Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens. Those are the places I've already been to, this year, and it's only a little over a month old.

I also plan to visit South Coast Botanical Gardens. Probably go back to the so-called "Springs Preserve," in Las Vegas. Probably keep looking for other places that my Arboretum membership will let me visit for free. Just spending some tie enjoying a different sort of walk in the park.

Still having trouble setting time aside for my blogging. Still much to catch up for on last year, never mind the three or four I'm behind this year, too.

Next week, I'm hoping to make it out to Death Valley, so maybe a few hikes from out that way, next week. Probably heading out there again, in April. Probably Mojave Preserve, in May. Probably Red Rock and Lake Mead, a few more times this winter and spring. So it won't all be these manicured gardens. Just some, as a different sort of experience, for me.