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The parks listed above are off limits for those who would try to hike despite the ash and smoke (and in some spots, probably fire department barricades). I count myself among those, as I am thinking of heading to Eaton Canyon after work, if it is not too smoky (or it has not been closed by the time I get there).

The map also shows where the fire begun (thanks to Star News reporter Janette Williams for pointing it out to me). The location confirms what I’ve been hearing from our reporting: it looks as if the canyons and woods of Chantry Flats are mostly unscathed from the fire. Much as nobody wants to look at the charred remains of the front of our foothills, better that than losing one of the few local places to go and escape the heat under the shade of tall trees.

Ever dream of biking from place to place at top speed? The bikers here are living out the dream, outpacing cars stalled in gridlock traffic. (Video found via thejokeisup.com)

The author of that blog, suggests that biking on the freeway might be safer than on surface streets:

“And truth be told, when traffic is that thick, what theyre doing is safer than riding surface streets.. Intersections are where the vast majority of accidents occur with any vehicles. With bicycles, the most common collisions involve a car turning right or left into a riders path. Freeways remove that problem and, considering that traffic is at a virtual standstill, problems from differences in speed are also negated”

Would it be absurd to consider a plan for a biking freeway, or at least one separate walled off lane for bikes? Without stop signs, red lights, etc., a bike could really compete with a car on commute time, particularly during heavy traffic times.

The idea was actually tried out along the Arroyo Seco around the turn of the century (click here for more, including pictures.)

Of course, then cars came along and ruined that idea (btw, I don’t mean to disparage cars… I actually love car travel when it is outside the thick urban traffic). I’m not sure exactly when the “bike freeway” was torn down, but it apparently did not last all that long.

I am starting a new blog feature, here with the local hike of the week…. the idea here is to list hikes that are 30 minutes or less away from most in the San Gabriel Valley. I am starting with one of the best in Echo Mountain.

This is a good after-work leg muscle builder, but also a nice piece of local history. The mountain once contained several resorts, including the White City resort, which you reach at the top of Echo Mountain.

There used to be a railway which you could take from Pasadena to get up to the resort, which had hotel rooms, tennis, and gardens. Today all that is left are some old tracks (below, right), and old foundations (shown on left).

Apparently the mountains were not kind to the resorts, which were subject to falling rock and fires, and were ultimately abandoned.

The hike up is on the Sam Merrill trail, and is about 2.5 to 2.7 miles, depending on whose estimate you believe. It takes me about two hours round-trip to go up and down and hang out for a few minutes up top. It is a hefty uphill climb, but not too steep, about 1,400 feet elevation gain. Up there you can see out to Catalina Island on a clear day, but as it was far from clear the day I took these photos, I chose to spare you all the view of the white cloud of smog I was staring into.

It is a busy trail on weekends, and even on weekday mornings, but head there around 5 on a Friday afternoon and you have the mountains to yourself. It is located at the top of Lake Avenue. Go behind the metal fence, and follow the signs.

There are many dedicated historical societies, archaeologists and other obsessive folk who drop by this place occasionally. Most seem to go up for fitness… lots of joggers on this hike.

For more on location, check out my fledgling hiking map…. I plan to eventually integrate it into the blog a little better.

Today our sister paper, the Daily News, reports on damage to flowers by hikers using “unsanctioned trails.” I’ve hiked plenty in the Griffith Park (I lived at the foot of it in Los Feliz for almost two years, and moved shortly before the 2007 fire that gutted the park’s vegetation) and have admittedly used some of these trails.

Or at least I think I have. There are trails dotting the steep slopes of the park, which I am sure are there because of years of hikers blazing trails through the area. I am not sure in all cases which the public are allowed to use, and which are not permitted. The picture shown above, for example, is an ‘unsanctioned’ trail, but as you can say it is wide-open and clear of vegetation, indicating it has been used by hikers for years.

So why the fuss now? I would guess it has to do with Park and Rec’s desire to reclaim the trails in burn areas…. with people shut out of many parts of the park, they have a unique opportunity to re-seed areas where trails once blazed through. The article mentions that park rangers are particularly upset about hiker intrusion into burn areas:

“In addition, some are trekking through the slurry of seed and mulch in burn areas that have been hydro-seeded.”

Incidentally, it is not just park rangers that are upset about the trails…. the Daily News also quotes several angry Sierra Club hike leaders who accuse other club members of leading hikes on unsanctioned trails. One long-time leader seemed especially put-out by hikers who seem to have a different idea of how to enjoy the activity:

“They were coming straight up where there was no trail, grabbing branches like it was the cat’s meow,” said Rosemarie White, a hike leader who chairs the club’s Endangered Species Task Force. “(They were) No.5 and No.6 (level) hikers, the real hot-doggers, who are going to do it their way to harass Mother Nature. Those wild places should not be destroyed by humans trying to demonstrate their prowess.”

And another who rather hysterically anticipates the death of plant life in the park:

“They’re treating the park like a gym,” said Angela Colicchio, who until recently led Sierra Club hikes for 30 years in Griffith Park. “If this went on for years, there wouldn’t be a bush or shrub or a blade of wild grass left.“

Meanwhile, one of these “extreme hikers” says that without the steep hiking, there is no fun to the activity at all:

“I’m a fast hiker, but I don’t blaze new trails,” Serrano said. He added that, without the sporting element, many hikers would rather stay home. “They won’t come. I wouldn’t come.

“The fire trails are like a sidewalk. There’s absolutely nothing interesting there.”

Wow. As someone who both likes the peaceful pace of a moderate hike on a wide trail, and the heart-beating intensity of pushing myself up a steep mountain, I never expected that there could be such divisive views within the hiking community.

The Forest Service is taking another step in surveillance of marijuana-growing operations: two pilotless drones that will scan for farms and prepare officers with surveillance information.

I did a story on the CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Plating) state teams that do surveillance and bust up farms, and I am sure the drones will help them… one of the team told me that the fly their helicopters overhead right now, virtually ensuring that growers bail on the farms before law enforcement actually comes in.

The concern about the farms has risen in recent years as the Mexican mafia has increasingly become involved in the pot trade, employing poor Mexicans to tend the crops. One officer told during an operation where they nabbed a grower at a site in Central California, the grower told authorities his boss had told him he was being assigned to a site in Arizona.

I drove out to Joshua Tree the weekend before last to hunt up some flowers… and they were easy enough to find. The desert floor was blanketed with them as shown above.

Because of a long dry period these flowers might now be on their way out (the excellent DesertUSA flower report is showing that J-Tree’s peak flower time seems to be over). However, with some rain this week, the situation could very quickly change. Also, according to the report, the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve is heavily in bloom right now.

I found that the best flowers, by far, are in the southern part of the park (shown below) by the 10 Freeway. This is the lower elevation part of the park in the Colorado desert. The high alititude Mojave desert zone, with all the fun-to-climb rocks, has very few flowers. The full map of the park is available here.