Altadena Crest Trail

The super-hot weather is over. It's hiking time again. Of course it was hiking time during the super-hot weather if you got up at 4:30 a.m., but you were not me if you did that.

I've never hiked the Altadena Crest Trail from one end to the other all at once. I've done different parts at different times. The trail is long enough that to do that at my pace I'd have to take provisions (lunch, dinner, and probably breakfast), and someone would have to drop me off at one end and pick me up at the other.) The trail's got exposed parts, rocky parts, precarious parts and disputed parts.

All of its parts are worth a trek. But you don't have to do them all at once.

Theme Day: Tranquility

I thought about the Huntington Gardens. I thought about my back porch. I even thought about my bed but a mockingbird has recently occupied our tree, so at the moment that doesn't fit the bill.

Nope. For tranquility I like to get above it all.

Our area has countless hiking trails. I don't have a favorite; each has its own merits. Some cross trickling streams in secret valleys. Some ramble along access roads hidden in the hills. Some soar atop the mountains above town, leaving you open to the sky. This time of year one wants shade, so unless you're an early riser, the Altadena Crest Trail between Eaton Canyon and Zane Grey Terrace is best saved for autumn. It's a decent stretch, sparsely traveled, and just the place to locate your tranquility when it gets lost.

Today's the first of the month, when participating City Daily Photo bloggers post variations on a theme. June's theme is "tranquility." Click here to view thumbnails for today's participants and visit somewhere you've always wanted to go.

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Here, Right Here

L.A. CO. F.D. Camp 2
To our brothers Art Ruezga and Chris Herman
who will always live in
our hearts and never be forgotten
August 20th 1993

Two firefighters died in the Glen Allen Fire on August 20th, 1993, in the steep canyon beneath the Altadena Crest Trail. Their colleagues are quoted in this LA Times article.

This memorial stands alongside the trail. If you look carefully, you can see a second cross in the canyon below where you're walking. The memorial is a heart-catching sight. It punctures the solitude hiking can create and makes you realize you're not alone.

The plaque (quoted above) doesn't lie; a couple of those fire station caps on the cross are brand new.

Sure, people have died here. People have died everywhere, we just don't always think about it. That's what a memorial is for.

Jackson Pollock's Back Yard

Hmm. There must be a reason to post this photo:

because I'm having trouble concentrating;

because I only have 15,649 other photos and this is the best one of the bunch;

because I like it;

because I lost an earring in there....

...what else?