Your Hiking Community
Plus, an iconic Park Service building destroyed, the best water shoes for the trail, superblooms and native bees, blissed out redwoods, and a brand new charismatic megafauna for L.A.
howdy
I got to head back down to Los Angeles last week to shoot a segment for an upcoming episode of KCET’s Emmy-winning series ‘Lost LA.’ I’ve been a fan of the show since it was a series of blog posts host Nathan Masters was writing, so I was happy to come return to chat about hiking history in the San Gabriel Mountains (that episode probably won’t come out for several months, but you can see me on Season 4’s Griffith Park episode here.)
Of course, the day of the shoot was full of nonstop downpours, which was not exactly ideal hiking weather but it was kind of magical to be up in Bear Canyon with all the new spring growth and healthy rainfall. And it was great to meet the other guest during this segment, Tongva educator and science illustrator Samantha Morales-Johnson. At one point in the segment, Samantha talked about how she wanted more people who enjoyed hiking to notice the native plant life and think of them as their friends. It’s a philosophy I am emphatically behind.
Afterward, I told her that on a previous trip to Southern California, I ran into the desert on a trail while shouting at my husband about how excited I was to see all my old friends—desert lavender, California sagebrush, blooming beavertail cactus, and many more. So naturally we bonded a bit over plants and it got me thinking about the concept of our outdoor communities, and the many ways those things can present for us.
The vast majority of my time on the trail has been solo. This is not because I don’t like hiking with people—I genuinely do—but more to do with the fact that I’m usually hiking to write up a trail guide or I’m on deadline for a book or journalism assignment, or I’m hiking mid-week somewhere and friends don’t have the same schedule. But that solo hiking has allowed me to go at my own pace and slow down enough to notice things I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. So when I did a nice long loop trail at Griffith Park, seeing all of the native plants in bloom really did feel like I was visiting my outdoor community. There was something genuinely special and fulfilling about seeing familiar trails in an exceptionally wet season … and I had lots of opportunities to take selfies with plants like a big ol’ goofball.
A few days later, I was reminded of the power of these trails to bring together our human communities, too. I joined my friends at Just Trek for a group hike at what is still my all-time favorite trail, Sandstone Peak. A solid crew showed up (free tickets to limit the numbers for the rest of the trail, of course) and we were treated to truly exceptional weather conditions. I’ve often said that 2-3 days after a rainstorm is the best time to hike in Southern California and this did not disappoint—without hyperbole, these was the best weather and bloom conditions I have ever seen on this trail.
Hiking with a group is a very different experience, especially when you’re co-leading it and answering questions and pointing out noteworthy things to people along the way. As an introvert, it’s not necessarily as relaxing to do a hike like this as my little solo plant tour in Griffith Park was, but it can be energizing—especially when you’re surrounded by other people who are excited to share and learn about a special place you love. We were joined by some old friends, people who knew each other online met for the first time, and lots of new friends were made. And most of the folks who showed up had never hiked Sandstone before!
I truly hope wherever you are and however you hike, you can find yourself a great hiking community, too. And remember—sometimes it can start just by saying hello to someone on the trail.
The Big Story
Something to talk about
Bear-er of Good News
On Instagram, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area—the largest urban national park unit in the world (no big deal)—happily announced that wildlife biologists have captured, tagged, and released a black bear. Dubbed BB-12, the black bear is the first captured and tagged black bear in the Santa Monica Mountains. The nearest population of black bears is just north of the 118 freeway in the Santa Susana Mountains, although the park noted that neither mountain range is known to have a resident breeding population.
Bears have been sighted in the area before, and lead biologist Jeff Sikich said that it’s likely BB-12 has been hanging around for a few years already. The Park Service is interested in seeing how he shares the Santa Monicas with its other large carnivores like mountain lions.
Hopefully BB-12 will be another beneficiary of the now-under-construction Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 and will not end up another sad story about conflict between wildlife and the encroaching human developments in the area.
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
Eugene Debs Park is well-known by those in its neighborhood but always seems to be passed over by people from other parts of town when they’re looking for their next hike. That’s too bad, since Debs has some of the best views of Los Angeles around (and a killer Audubon Center to boot).
Cleo Egnal shared a great introduction to the park via the Wild Mustard Loop, which you can read about brand new on the site.
Your Parks
Your Places
Hurricane Ridge Lodge Destroyed
Olympic National Park’s Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge and Visitor Center has been closed since April 3rd for a massive renovation and rehabilitation, but a fire tore through the building on Sunday, destroying it. Firefighters arrived on the scene at 4:30 PM on Sunday, May 7. No one was at the lodge at the time and no injuries were reported, but the Park Service is reporting the lodge as a total loss.
The building saw about 300,000 visitors each year and the cause of the fire is currently under investigation. Visitors have been sharing their memories of the lodge on the park’s Facebook page.
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
Get These Shoes Wet
Now that we’re getting into the warmer spring and summer months, it might be time to dust off your water-hike footwear. And if you don’t have any of this yet, it might be time to check some out!
Water shoes are, as you might guess by the name, shoes designed to be worn in the water. They usually are also nice and light, drain quickly, and have great grip to help you with those river and stream crossings … and they also double nicely as footwear when you’re kayaking or fishing or just want to keep your footing around water. It also sure as heck beats stopping to take off your hiking boots, slinging them over your shoulder, and then fording a river on your bare feet—which is what I used to do while hiking trails like the East Fork before I sucked it up and snagged a pair of water shoes.
Livestrong has a great rundown of their favorites from this year’s crop, and it’s broken down by activity or sport so you can narrow down your search.
Leafing Out
Plants!
Baby those Blooms
Fun fact—did you know the word superbloom doesn’t actually mean anything? There is no technical definition that makes a regular ol’ beautiful wildflower bloom into a SUPERBLOOM, except maybe breathless media and tourism boards. ANYWAY, other places are blooming really nicely now, including lots of plants up here in Oregon. Up above in that photo is the Tom McCall Preserve in the Columbia River Gorge from last year around this time, and right outside in my native garden there is a lot of color going down, too.
The podcast CityCast Portland has a great short episode on how we can help support those blooms at home—by supporting our local native bee populations! Their guest from the Xerces Society has some good tips on making your local environment friendlier for our little invertebrate friends.
And hey—up and down the West Coast—you are planting native milkweed, right?
Chill out with Redwoods
If you find yourself needing some late week CHILL before the weekend rolls in, you may want to revisit Steven Poe’s accidental short film spotlighting coastal redwoods. In his description, he notes this began as a test to try to shoot high contrast scenes in high definition. The footage ended up being so beautiful that he strung it together in a short 3-ish minute dose of Vitamin N.
Check it out here.
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
I’ll be running my first Ragnar race this weekend—maybe even right now as you read this—so please send me good running vibes. I’m running the hardest leg first but haven’t really done much trail running since I moved away from the doorstep of Griffith Park, so if you could just direct all your best “no twists, no sprains, no pulls, no blisters” energy toward southern Utah, I’d appreciate it!
Assuming I come back in one piece, I’ll let you know how it goes next week.
Until then,
Happy Trails.
Hi! What is the white-bloomed (native) plant behind you in the selfie? The flowers are so fabulous!
Thank you. As too often the case, human ideas about a place, a natural phenomenon - and events over which they have no control - are unguided missiles.