Mt. Baldy’s Devil’s Backbone / El Moro / Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park

July 3rd, 4th & 5th

Patti and I have been both searching the net for different hikes here in Southern California. It’s hard for us, because we dismiss hikes that are less the 7 miles as a waste of our time. So we found this hike that sounded fun, to the summit of Mt. Baldy via the Devil’s Backbone. The summit of Mt. Baldy (the real name is, Mount San Antonio) is at 10,068 ft, is the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, and the highest point in Los Angeles County.

Our original plan was to get up real early, get to Manker Flats at 7:00 AM and make the summit around 10:00 or 11:00. Well that didn’t happen. I had driving instructions from a blogger that was coming from a different direction then we were. We were heading East on the 215 and the blogger was giving directions from going West on the 215. Soooo lets just say we were lost for an hour or two. I didn’t have the address to punch into my GPS. I have since looked up the address and it’s 6777 Mt. Baldy Rd., CA 91759. Instead of starting our hike during the coolness of the morning, we started out at 10:00.

From where you park at Manker Flats it’s a 3.5 mile hike uphill to the ski hut. It seemed like those 3.5 miles took a few hours. Once we hit the ski hut we had something to eat and headed for Devil’s Backbone. What I didn’t do at the ski hut was to refill my water pack, and this would come back to haunt me. So now we’re on our way and the first obstacle we come across is a huge uphill that looks like it goes straight up, and you can only walk a few hundred feet at a time. I had to stop and rest a few times.

Now it’s high noon and the sun is really hitting us, the air is thin, and at one point Patti said I had turned purple. I don’t do well in thin air, and I was now out of water. We kept going, and we reached the Devil’s Backbone and we both were shocked that this was the trail. On either side there is a huge drop off. Pictures do not do this trail justice. The mountain is made up of shale rocks, and in some places is you slip, you’ll side down the shale rock and off a drop off, and most likely you won’t be feeling very well once you hit the bottom. After we crossed Devil’s Backbone, you climb up the trail a little, hoping not to fall, then the trail winds around the mountain, at some points the trail is really only a foot wide, again if you fall, it’s not going to be pretty. After doing this for awhile I started getting dizzy due to the heat, thin air and lack of water. I decided I needed to turn back, and we did. Once we got down off the top and back to the ski hut to refill our water, I felt great, and we made our way back down the trail towards our car. We stopped by San Antonio Falls to have a look before continuing the ½ mile to Manker Flats.

Early in the morning, Patti made sandwiches so we took our shoes off and enjoyed lunch on a picnic table before heading home. Even though we didn’t make the summit it was a fun hike. I think it was our most challenging hike so far. Devil’s Backbone was really something and I’m surprised that we don’t hear about people falling off that part of the trail all the time. Total distance was 11.29 miles.

Our next summit try will be San Jacinto Peak, July 17th. We already have directions and we’ll get there early and be hiking by 8:00 AM and I’ll make sure I bring enough water for this one. We’ll revisit Mt. Baldy for the summit hike in August.

The next day, Sunday we decided to take it easy and hike El Moro. We always love our El Moro hikes. We do wish the weather would have been better. It seems that the June Gloom has continued on into July. It was a nice hike, and surprisingly to me, I felt great hiking up Moro Ridge. Really thought I would have struggled after the Mt. Baldy hike the day before, but I felt great, as did Patti. Didn’t really see much in the way of wildlife. We did hear a strange noise and we turned around an it was a roadrunner that was pretty close to us, and we saw a rattlesnake heading into a hole, and that was really cool. I was able to grab a hold of his rattle, never thought I would have held onto a rattle of a live rattlesnake before. Total distance was 13.42 miles.

So Sunday night we were thinking of taking it easy the next day, Monday, which was a holiday for the both of us. Last week, Patti found a nice hike near the coast at Cardiff by the Sea on the net. It was only 3 miles, but since we already have hiked 24 miles in the last two days, we thought a break was in order. Well Sunday night we couldn’t find that hike again on the net. Monday morning I found a nice hike and it was local, about 45 minutes away from Huntington Beach called, Caspers Wilderness Park.

Caspers’ is located, 33401 Ortega Hwy., San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. The park is really nice, with nice facilities, and the entrance fee was only $3.00 which is great when you compare it to the $15.00 El Moro charges.

We were given a map at the front gate, and was directed towards the end of the road to the Bell Canyon trailhead. After checking the map out I guessed the around the park loop to be about 10 miles. I was close, I was only off by 6.6 miles! Our total roundtrip was 16.6 miles. We hiked up Bell Canyon to Oso Trail along these trails we saw deer tracks and signs of other animals too. We also came across a huge fat rattlesnake track that went across the trail. Hiking up Oso is where we gained the most elevations. We went from 400 feet to 1,450 feet really quick. Towards the top at the Oso / Badger Pass trailhead there is a resting spot. We stopped there and had a power bar, and enjoyed the view. I guess most people don’t continue on the Oso trail, coz once we left the Oso / Badger Pass trailhead it looked like we were the only hikers to hike that part of Oso for years. It was a nice part of the hike, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking this is Mountain Lion country and there have been attacks on humans before here at Caspers and I was wondering why this trail hasn’t been used in awhile, was I leading Patti into a Mountain Lion breeding habitat that wasn’t marked??? We kept on hiking. The trail went from one sided on the peak to the other, allowing us to see 360 degrees in every direction.

Once we started down hill we came across another trailhead. This was the Oso / Cold Springs trailhead, except the Cold Spring’s sign appeared to have been stolen, but by looking at the map, it had to be the trail we were looking for. We started down Cold Springs, again this trail hasn’t been used for awhile either. This trail wound down to the San Juan Creek trail. Here we encountered Poison Oak for the first time of this hike. It wasn’t as bad as our Holy Jim Canyon hike, but there was a lot of it. We followed the creek for a little bit then the trail started uphill again. Somehow I got us off trail and side tracked over a steep part of the hill that was made up of a lot of loose dirt. I slipped once, and got a few cuts, Patti faired a little better then I did. Once we were over the rough part we found the trail again and headed downhill, looking for the Juaneno / San Juan Creek trailhead.

The San Juan Creek trail was our least favorite trail, because it runs parallel to Ortega Highway, and you can hear the cars pretty much right next to you, not a very outdoorsy feeling. Once we hit the Juaneno trail we were lead away from the noise of the highway. The Juaneno is a hiking / equestrian trail only. It’s narrow, but a fun trail that is mostly under the cover of huge oak trees. The shade was welcomed, since we’ve been hiking for hours, traveling 14+ miles up and down huge hills. I again ran out of water. Patti and I weren’t doing much talking. This hike was putting us towards 40 miles in the last three days, maybe a few too many for weekend warriors like ourselves, but we did it. After 3.6 miles on the Jauneno trail we emerged to find civilization once again. After making a pit stop we had another ¾ of a mile hike down the parks’ main road to our car. At this time, we both were exhausted. I grabbed the ice chest and sat it down on a picnic table, sat us up with ice tea and sandwiches and we started to relax and recoup then all of the sudden we were attacked by bees! We gathered everything up and headed for the car, with the bees following us. Once we got into the car, the bees kept on trying to get in by flying into the windows. One bee came in on Patti and was flying around inside the car. I finally was able to kill it. Once that was done we ate our lunch, and headed home.

So all in all we had a great 4th of July weekend. We never saw the fireworks’ show by the pier in Huntington, liked we planned, but we did push our bodies to do more then we should have, and 24 hours later, I feel like doing it all over again, well maybe not. Total distance for the three days was 41.31 miles.

Hiking with Friends!

June 26^th/27^th

Last week we advertised via Facebook to all our friends about the “Hiking with Friends” group hike, and I think the word is out not to go hiking with us. Only one person joined us on the hike and she isn’t even on Facebook! Really people, it only seems like a 9 mile hike, even though it’s 13 miles! And towards the last part of the hike, there are no more hills, just a steady downhill for a good half a mile.

Well the one person who joined us was our friend AJ. She loves hiking almost as much as we do. Saturday started off cool but warmed up once we started up the grueling hill of Moro Ridge. However, this time it wasn’t as grueling since Patti and I both are using trekking poles, also known as “Dorky Poles” according to her daughter, thanks Katie! The poles might be considered dorky (which I thought as well) until I purchased mine to help me during the long downhill ascent of the Gaviota Peak hike. What I found out during that hike was the poles actually helped on the up hills too. It’s like you have four legs! I let Patti try them during the Gaviota hike and she commented on how they made her feel like she was flying. So we both used our new trekking poles on the El Moro hike and they really made the hike more enjoyable.

Once we got to the top we added more rocks to the Lucy memorial. It’s becoming a home to a bunch of rabbits now. I think they like the safety of the stone walls. Well, the weather warmed up and we started off towards Bommer Ridge…We mentioned that it was warming up and chances were we would be seeing some snakes. It wasn’t long after that we ran across a garter snake. I really don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch one of them out in the bush cuz they are just too fast. Once they see you, they’re gone! I’ve caught them before, but it was in water. No water up there. Now AJ’s a little worried since she hates snakes. I think Patti is starting to get use to them. After we hit No Name Ridge I was thinking our chances will be getting a lot better in seeing and maybe even catching a snake or two. This 3 miles stretch of trail is crawling with snakes. Just about a half mile into it we saw our first snake, a gopher snake. I set my bag down and went running after it. I picked it up by the tail and this snake was really aggressive! It tried to bite me several times coming close more then a few times. I just could not get my hand behind its neck. After trying for about 5 minutes I finally put him down and he went off into the bush. Then about a mile after that snake we saw another one, and again this snake was super aggressive and came so close to biting me I actually felt his teeth on my hand, but managed to pull it away before he got me. I was able to pick up this snake and hold it long enough for a picture.

The rest of the hike was uneventful, snake-wise, but it’s the favorite part of the hike. The ocean breeze is hitting you in the face and you’re overlooking the deep blues of the Pacific Ocean. It’s a very nice part of the hike.

After we made it down and back to our cars AJ followed us over to the bluffs in Corona del Mar. We sat on our favorite spot over looking the beach and had tasty sandwiches that Patti made that morning. The perfect way to end a hike.

The next day, Sunday, Patti and I got a late start but managed to get to El Moro by 9:30am. It was warm/humid and a bit overcast. We again went the same way and once we added more rocks to Lucy’s memorial the sun came out and it was hot! We drank a lot of water trying to stay hydrated, which we did, but it was so hot we were hiking at a snails pace. We didn’t see any snakes during our Sunday hike, but it was fun anyways. After the hike, Patti and I ended up on the bluffs again eating sandwiches which she made that morning. She was so hungry that she ate her whole sandwich. After that we headed home a little tired from the two days of hiking 23+ miles. Sunday night we felt okay but Monday we both could feel our weekend hikes. July 3rd and 4th we’ll be hiking El Moro again, but we’ll be getting there earlier to beat the afternoon heat. July 5th I think we’ll be heading up to Mt. Baldy for a 10 mile hike. Should be fun!

Gaviota Peak

June 19^th/20^th

About a month ago, Patti and I decided that we were going to pick one out of town hiking trip a month and that we would alternate picking the trips. Well the first trip was picked by Patti and she picked Gaviota Peak, about 20 minutes north of Santa Barbara. Our day was planned to hike to the top of the peak and finish off the day with hiking the Campbell trail. Unfortunately the California Parks system didn’t put up any signage for the trail heads. We kinda knew where to go from reading about the hike on the internet, so we thought we were going the right way. A few hours into our hike we finally ran into some hikers coming down the trail and got confirmation that we were headed in the right direction.

The hike started off nicely with the weather cool about 70° and warming up to a nice 77° in the afternoon with it never really getting too hot. It was a long ascend to the top which you really don’t notice until you looked down and noticed how high you were. Before you knew it we were overlooking the whole valley. Once we reached Gaviota Peak you could see 40 miles in every direction. There was a metal container at the top of the peak that contained journals, and everyone that reaches the peak has a chance to write a little note. In doing so, it’s like leaving your mark up on top of the peak which of course Patti did and left a note for the both of us.

So now we’ve completed one of our goals reaching the peak, but could not find the Campbell trail, again no signs at all up there! Patti saw another peak in the distance a few miles from where we stood atop Gaviota Peak so we started off for that peak. Along the way we kept on seeing these big lizards, which I identified on the net as California Whiptails. Some of these lizards were pretty large. Really didn’t see much wildlife up there except for bear scat (poo) we could tell what it was from all the berries in it. It would have been nice to have seen a bear or two out there.

Another part of our planned hike was to hit up the natural hot springs. I was a little worried after reading some blogs about this place. One of the posts mentioned that when they stopped by the springs there was a naked guy hanging out. I was hoping that we would find the springs without the naked guy. Well there wasn’t a naked guy in the springs….THERE WERE TWO OF THEM! After Patti and I made small talk with them and declining their offer to hop in and join them, we headed back to Carpinteria to rest and get ready for dinner. Patti has been to Carpinteria more then a few times and her favorite restaurant is Tonys, so that’s where we went for dinner. Great Italian food and wine! After dinner we took a walk down to the beach then headed back to the room to crash. We had no problem getting to sleep till we woke by a phone call around 3:00AM by a prostitute saying “hey baby, need a date?” I told her she had the wrong number and hung up while she was saying “no no no, hey baby…” too funny!

Sunday morning we woke up and got our Starbucks and headed down to the beach to get some miles in while we looked for seals and dolphins. We hiked up and down the beach for 4 miles and saw neither, oh well, it was still fun. We stopped by the Workers’ Bee Café for breakfast before leaving town. It was a huge and very tasty breakfast and we both cleaned our plates. One thing nice about hiking so much is that you can eat huge meals and not really worry about it.

On the way home after we passed Ventura we stopped by Camarillo Premium Outlets since there was a Nike Store and the soles of my Nike+ shoes are almost all the way worn down. I guess the lifespan on Nike+ shoes is about 900 miles. I needed a new pair pretty bad and picked up a really nice style for half of what they retail for. Now I just hope I don’t get any blisters breaking them in.

Our next trip will be in July, and it’s my pick. After watching the show “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” about the couple that got lost in the San Jacinto mountains I decided we should go there (just outside of Palm Springs and near another Nike outlet). Hopefully we’ll do better then the couple featured on that show.

4 snakes in one day!!!

June 5th & the 12th/13th hikes!

Haven’t updated for awhile, sorry! And now Patti and I are just getting ready for our trip to Santa Barbara to hike Gaviota Peak this coming weekend, so kinda wanted to catch up before our next hike.

Well, back on June 5th Patti and I were hiking at El Moro. It was our first time in about a month, hiking all the way around the park, about 11+ miles. We just finished filling up our water bottles and more then half way done with the hike. I was a little bummed we already hiked 6 miles and we have yet to see a snake. Right after I thought that, there was a nice fat rattlesnake sunning its self on the trail. I ran up to it and took some pixs, I guess I was too close, coz I never got a really good picture of him, but one of the ones I did take is attached. Then we continued on, and we saw what looked like a stick coming out of the brush onto the trail, it was in fact another snake, this time a gopher snake. I was able to catch this guy, and of course Patti was screaming about keeping my distance from her, while I was holding the snake. She did snap a few good pixs. And about a mile after that snake... in the distance I saw a snake on the trail, it was moving back into the bush, so I ran and was able to catch him, and he was hissing, and even opened up his mouth. Took a few more photos and sat him back on the trail, and he took off so quickly that he kicked up a lot of dirt with his tail. So now I am excited that we went from seeing no snakes to seeing three in one day, I was wishing for a 4th, but knew that the part of the trail to the ranger’s station that we were on, wasn’t really snake friendly and in the past, we've never seen a snake on this part of the trail. As we’re making one of the final turns down hill towards the ranger's station there was another snake! This one was a garter snake, by the time we saw him, he was moving so fast and was out of sight before I could try and catch him or even take his picture, but it was fun just seeing a different type of snake up there. Four snakes in one day! It was a great hike!

Now the next weekend (June 12/13)…it was a little overcast on Saturday, we did the full hike around the park again. Didn’t really see anything, but quail and their baby chicks, and some bunnies, and that was about it, we did see some falcons flying in a group which was different. On Sunday the weather turned really nice, and again we did the full hike, Patti and I saw quail, a roadrunner and some hawks, no snakes! But we had fun. We love hiking near the beach, coz you get that ocean breeze which is so nice on a hot day.

In the morning we’re off to Santa Barbara! Here’s the trail we’re going on;http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/hikes/frontcountry/gaviotahotspring.shtml

Look for our SB update next week!

Memorial Weekend! Great Hiking and Great Food!

May 29-31, 2010 – So we kinda got a head start on the weekend by Patti making spaghetti sauce Thursday night. Patti makes the best spaghetti sauce! The sauce simmered over 14 hours. And you could really tell that, when you bit into one of the Italian Sausages. It was grrrreat! So we loaded up on pasta Friday and then early Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed off to Holy Jim Canyon to hike to the well know Holy Jim waterfalls. Well Jim wasn’t a man of God at all, he was a foul-mouthed beekeeper who was referred to as “Cussin’ Jim”. His claim to fame was being known for killing the last known California Grizzly Bear for going after his honey.

The actual trail to the waterfalls is just short of 3 miles. The hike to get to the trailhead is 4.5 miles, down a rocky dirt road. If you have 4 wheeler that can handle such a road, good for you, but we didn’t so we walked it. We saw a few people drive by in some family cars, looking like they were getting beat up pretty bad. It was a long walk to just get to the trail, but it was worth it. Once we hit the Holy Jim trail, the hike was really nice, complete with lots of foliage and creeks, which at times were tricky to make your way across.

I caught a nice gopher snake, and Patti almost stepped on another snake. I didn’t see that snake, but Patti saw it right as she was about to put her foot on it, yeap, she jumped. That was on our way back to our car. I think we crossed 10 creeks, only getting our feet slightly wet. The whole hike was 13 miles in about 4 hours. It was nice to get out and hike another spot. The Holy Jim trail is picturesque, but the amount of people and the long hike just to get to the trail made it a hike that I don’t think we’ll do again. We’re happy we made the hike, and Patti made some great sandwiches, that we shared under a tree with some ice tea, that is until the big red ants started attacking us.

So that night we decided on homemade, big greasy cheeseburgers, they tasted really good. We also went out to purchase two Nike Plus Sportsbands. We normally don’t listen to music when we hike together, and to bring our iTouches with us just to record miles when we could wear a wristband that does the same thing, it was only natural that we would pick up the Nike Plus Sportsbands, plus Katie just got one and hers looked so cool, we decided we needed one too.

Sunday morning we decided to go hike El Moro, this time with Nancy and John. Nancy was a fitness instructor and John loves backpacking and does so all over California. Patti and I always think it’s no big deal hiking at El Moro, and for those who are reading this, and want to join us, please think twice. The first part of the hike is almost straight up the hill for two miles and then there are small hills for the next 10 miles. Nancy and John did great, but they both wished they started off with a 5 mile hike instead. It was nice to have them along and the weather was prefect.

Sunday night and we downed another big greasy cheeseburger and decided to hit El Moro early, about 7:00 AM Monday, coz it’s starts warming up earlier now. It was a nice hike early, and we did see dolphins playing in the surf while we were making our way up Moro Ridge. Once we got up to the top, I thought for sure we were going to see a rattlesnake or two, but we didn’t see any snakes, but we did see a few snake trails. For the first time in about a month, Patti and I did our full hike, all the way around El Moro State Park. It took us 3.5 hours but the time went by so fast, it seemed like it was only two hours. We made it back home around noon. Patti made us a huge breakfast and we sipped on mimosa…very nice and tasty!

One thing I forgot, on Sunday, hiking with Nancy and John we hike a small portion of, Elevators, which is a trail, and the last trail we needed to complete our goal of hiking every trail at El Moro! We celebrated with a marinated pork loin, which was so “melt in your mouth” good!

It was a great weekend. We wish every weekend was a 3-day weekend!

Windy & Cold at El Moro

Saturday, May 22, 2010 ~ As always Patti and I really look forward to the weekends so we can go hiking and log some miles. I had a blister on my heel so we walked only 11 miles each day instead of the 13 or 14 miles we usually like to do. It was nice to take a break. We actually got to hike a new trail called, Elevators. They call it Elevators, coz it’s like you’re hiking down a stone wall. A rope would have been nice to have on this part of the trail. We only have one more small part of a trail to hike, then Patti and I have hiked all the trails at El Moro.

Towards the end of our Saturday hike we ran across a gopher snake, which I was able to catch. Patti of course put about 25 yards between me, the snake and her. About that time these two girls walked up, and one of them asked if she could hold the snake so her friend could take a picture. I handed her the snake and told her to hold him behind his head, so she did, until the snake pulled his head away from her grip and then she tossed the snake behind her and it landed right at Patti’s feet. Yeap, Patti let out a little scream and ran one way and the snake took off another way. It was a perfect ending to our hike.

On Sunday, we invited a lot of friends to come with us, but only AJ showed up. When Patti and I first arrived at El Moro the weather was awful. The cloud cover was blocking out the sun. It was really windy and cold too. We had to wait about 15 minutes for AJ to show up, and by the time she got there the cloud cover went away and it was sunny, but the cold wind ended up staying with us the whole day.

We went up Moro Ridge we then headed left down Sommer Ridge, took another left on, Slow ‘N Easy, and that runs into El Moro Canyon. Patti and I really like this trail even though it’s 3 or 4 miles shorter then we like to go. It was AJ’s first time through the canyon, and she liked it very much. Once we got into the oak trees I asked the girls to stop so I could take a picture, well, AJ looked to her left and saw a bush move, having seen a snake on the side of the trail a few miles back, AJ was a bit jumpy, and screamed, and that made Patti scream and they both jumped in the air, once they both saw it wasn’t a snake, Patti started hitting AJ for making her scared. Very funny stuff!

We had a nice hike through the canyon, once we got out of the trees, and back into the sunlight, I noticed a snake going across the trail, first made sure it wasn’t a rattlesnake, then I grabbed it by the tail and was able to get my hand behind his head so the snake would stop trying to bite me. Patti came and got the camera from me to take the attached pix. I think that was the closest Patti has ever came to a snake on purpose. About two months ago Patti walked within a foot of a rattlesnake, both Patti and the rattler jumped at the same time. Lucky for Patti the rattlesnake jumped right back into the sagebrush, and Patti ran about 100 years back down the trail.

All in all it was a great weekend, we ended both hikes with a sandwich from Gallo's in Corona del Mar overlooking Newport Harbor. We both wished it would have been warmer, and I wished I didn’t have the big blister on my heel, but oh well. Next weekend is Memorial Day, weekend! Patti and I are going to start off the weekend with a hike at Holy Jim Canyon. I haven’t been there for years, but we think it would be nice to try some other places. We’re going to try and hike 50 miles in those three days. I am sure we’ll be able to do it. Hopefully the 2 inch blister on my heel will be healed up by then.

Slow 'N Easy - El Moro Canyon

Sunday, May 16^th - When Patti and I were driving to El Moro for our hike it was about 8:30 in the morning and we had our windshield wipers on! Not good, fortunately it was a light rain and stopped by the time we arrived, although it never warmed up like we had hoped. There was this thick marine layer with us the whole day, at times it felt like we were hiking in the clouds.

Joining Patti and I on this hike was her daughter, Katie, her boyfriend Griffith, Laura and her boyfriend David. We went on our favorite trails, up Moro Ridge we then headed left down Sommer Ridge, took another left on, Slow ‘N Easy, and that runs into El Moro Canyon through the oak trees and back to the rangers’ station. It’s always fun to get out and hike, just wished it was a little warmer. When it’s cold you really don’t have a chance to see any rattlesnakes, we did get to see a deer feeding on a hillside right off of the El Moro Canyon trail.

As a lot of you know already, Patti and I track our miles using our iTouches with the Nike Plus system. You have a sensor in your Nike shoes, and the iTouch has a receiver for the sensor, and it tracks your miles and calories burned, your pace and also the time. It’s a very cool tool to use, if you like to hike, walk or run. Well, we showed the system to Laura, and after we left our 12 mile, 3 and a half hour hike, Laura stopped by the Nike store and bought the shoes and sensor, she already had the iTouch. Yeah, Laura! What’s funny about logging miles via this system, is that it makes you want to log more miles, Patti and I always try to out walk each other. I walk a 5 or 10k in the morning before work and Patti walks at lunch. If you want to learn more about the Nike Plus go to; http://www.nikeplus.com

We’re having another group hike at El Moro this coming Saturday at 8:45. Contact us for details if you would like to join us.

Mother's Day Weekend, El Moro Hikes!

Saturdays hike was really fun. Patti’s long time friend, Joni and her daughter Kristen joined Patti and I on a 14 mile hike through El Moro. I was hoping the girls would see all kinds of wildlife. While Kristen and I were waiting for her mom and Patti to come back to the Rangers’ Station we did see a hawk flying with a squirrel in his talons. The hawk landed in a near by tree and started to eat the squirrel. Kristen said she never saw that before. It was cool to see, nature at work. Once Patti and Joni made it back from the car we started off going up Moro Ridge. It was 9:00 AM, nice and sunny on Saturday. The first part of the hike, you’re hiking right through the Mustard Plants, and you have the awesome view of the ocean and Emerald Bay, baby bunnies are running around, you really don’t notice that you’re hiking almost straight up this huge hill for a mile! We’ve done it about 20 plus times and we still feel it.

Once we got to the top of the hill, Patti and I told our guest that was the hardest part of the hike and everything else from then on was easy. It actually was pretty easy, but they did start to comment on every little hill that we came upon. ;-) Joni is a workout queen at the gym and Kristen is only 16, so they both did the 14 mile hike without any problems. We really didn’t see any wildlife on Saturday, except the normal stuff, but Kristen and I did see the hawk, which was cool.

Sunday the 9^th, Mothers’ Day. It was just Patti and I. We started off the day early, and were on our way at 8:30 up, Moro Ridge again, but this time we wanted to take another trail once we were on the top. There are only a few left in the park we having hiked on.

So after we finished Moro Ridge we then headed left down Sommer Ridge. Just about 500 feet before we hit the trail head for the next leg of our hike we ran into another rattlesnake. This one was a nice one and blended in really well with the brush on the side of the trail. We almost walked right next to him. We stopped for a few pictures and then headed off to a trail we never hiked on before, it’s called Slow ‘N Easy. So far the most scenic trail we’ve been on. It’s on a ridge in between two other ridges we hike on a lot. We saw some flowers that we haven’t seen on the other trails, which was kinda neat. This trail started bending to the left and dropping into the canyon pretty quick, once we hit the floor of the canyon we merge onto another trail called, El Moro Canyon. This was really something; you’re surrounded by these old oak trees that had to be over 100 years old, and you’re under a canopy of trees. There was water running to the left us, next to the canyon wall, and also a few caves are visible. I was wondering where all the wildlife that lives in the park gets their water and I guess we now know. During this part of the hike we heard so many birds, we couldn’t tell what kind of birds there were, coz it was just too many of them. We did see a few that we didn’t recognize, and that was cool too, because you know you’re looking at something special.

On both Saturday and Sunday we did add about 100 pounds of large rocks to Lucy’s memorial. Saturday, Joni’s daughter, Kristen spelled out Lucy for us in white rocks, which was very nice of her. Patti and I both had a great weekend. Over the two days we hiked 25 + miles. Next Sunday we’re bringing another group of friends with us. If you want to come just let us know.

The Facebook advertised, “Frank & Patti's El Moro Hike”

May 2nd, 2010 - This past Sunday our friends and family, Grif, Katie, Laura, Anjanette, Brittany, Alex, Laura, Dana, Chris, Patti and myself all went on our Facebook advertised hike in El Moro. Patti and I were both excited to see so many people come out. We weren’t expecting a lot of people to participate, and come out to the canyon for a day of torture. Actually, only the first part of the hike is a bit difficult. Once we hit the base of the hill that overlooks Emerald Bay, you walk about a mile straight up that hill. We took a few breaks along the way, but everyone made it up the hill just fine.

Along the way some of the girls collected little white rocks to spell out “Lucy” for her memorial. I loaded up my pack with a few larger rocks to add to Lucy’s memorial as well and it’s really taking shape now. This was our 4th visit to the site and with a little help, we want to eventually make a memorial wall with a hole in the center for flowers. Lucy was a large part of my life along with Lucy’s mom Kristen, and all of our friends, and I will miss her forever.

So after adding to Lucy’s site most of our group had other commitments, so we showed them the trail back down to the ranger’s station. They headed down the “I Think I Can” trail…. haven’t heard from them yet, but I’m pretty sure everyone made it okay. That group did get a nice 7 mile hike in.

Now, Patti, AJ and I continued on with our normal hike across Moro Ridge to Sommer Ridge and then took a left on No Name Ridge for the home stretch. Our total hike was 3.3 hours long and 13 miles. It was a really nice day close to 80 degrees and sunny, but the wind did start to pick up. Our original plans were to hike down to Crystal Cove for a picnic but thought it might be too windy so we all three drove to the bluffs in Corona del Mar overlooking the ocean. After we ate the great lunch Patti had prepared the night before, we were all three so tired that we could have taken naps right there on beach towels. On a funny side note, AJ really enjoyed the cookies Patti baked and ate almost a whole bag of them by herself. When Patti and I drove away, AJ drove herself to the back bay and hiked another 8 miles to work off those cookies. She blamed that on me, since I might have been kidding her a little bit, oh well. All in all we had a great time with everyone coming out. Hopefully we all will do this again real soon.

May 1st 2010, El Moro Canyon

El Moro Canyon

Today started off being a perfect day. The weather was nice, the ocean blue, Patti and I both had our Nike Plus systems to count our miles. It was just great! After last weekend, I knew we could collect the big rocks for Lucy memorial closer to the top of the hill, unlike last weekend when I carried 50 pounds of rocks straight up the Moro Ridge for over a mile. Well we collected another 50 pounds of rocks but didn’t have to haul them up hill, but still had to carry them on across the top of the ridge for almost a mile. Lucy’s memorial is going to be the best. I bet once we’re happy with it, it’ll be built with 500 pounds of rocks. All carried there by friends and family with Love.

Back to the perfect day… So Patti and I are 2/3rd into our 13 mile hike. Patti says, “This is the first hike I haven’t lost any miles on my Nike Plus” I said “I wouldn’t say that” well about a mile after that, Patti lost all her miles. It was due to human error, not totally Patti’s fault, but an unfortunate set of things happened that lead to her miles not registering. I felt bad, and Patti started stomping instead of hiking, with her arms crossed. She was very upset.

It was a beautiful day, a great hike, Patti wasn’t real happy, but towards the end of the hike she started smiling again. Tomorrow is our big Facebook advertised, “Frank & Patti's El Moro Hike” It’s the same hike we did today, kinda wanted to hike the trail before we brought up our friends on Sunday.

El Moro, April 24th/25th, 2010

Saturday started off nice and cool. We hit the Moro Ridge about 9:00. While we were hiking up the steepest part of our hike, we looked over towards the ocean and we saw dolphins playing in the surf. Out of all the hikes we’ve taken there, we never have seen dolphins before. About three miles into the hike we planned on setting up a memorial for Lucy.

Lucy was my baby, she actually was my friends’ Kristen’s little dog, but I considered myself her dad. I took care of her during the day and pretty much anytime Kristen needed me to. Lucy was such the love bug. She passed away April 21st, 2010. Okay, so we’re at the spot where we want the memorial. We planned on gathering rocks and setting up a rock memorial for lil’ Lucy. I didn’t think that there would be a problem finding large rocks at the site we picked, well, there was a problem and there were no large rocks. So we started off gathering any size rocks we could find, and that’s what we did. The next day, Sunday, we headed back to El Moro, but this time with a backpack. I carried, 50 pounds of rocks straight up the toughest part of the hike to Lucy’s memorial site. Patti picked some flowers along the way. We added the larger rocks to the small ones we sat down the day before, and her memorial started to take shape. We’re going to be adding larger rocks, and fresh flowers every weekend we’re up there.

After we left the memorial we still had about ten miles to go on our hike. Friday we did 6.2 miles, Saturday we hiked 10+ miles, and Sunday our legs started getting a little fatigued, but we kept on going. We ran across a gopher snake. I was able to pick him up, but he kept trying to bite me so I let him go on his way. No rattlesnakes sightings this past weekend, we did hear a few off the trail.

Towards the end of the hike the ocean breeze started blowing into our faces, cooling us down. We planned on heading back to our car and then hike down to the beach and eating the lunch that Patti packed that morning, but we were just too tried and drove to the bluffs in Corona del Mar over looking the ocean and we ate lunch on a blanket with our shoes off. ;-)

El Moro Canyon in northern Laguna Beach

My girlfriend, Patti and I have been hiking at El Moro Canyon in northern Laguna Beach since September of 2009. We started off just hiking a few miles at a time, which was fun. Our most recent hike was 5.5 hours, over 13 miles. Our favorite hike is the El Moro loop. We start off at the El Moro grade school, head down to Crystal Cove, hike on the beach for a few miles, head back up and start our real hike on Moro Ridge, which takes you over Emerald Bay. We think it’s the hardest part of the hike. It’s almost straight up the hill for two miles.

So far we’ve seen all kinds of wildlife up there, like, deer, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, road runners, quail, hawks, turkey vultures, falcons, sandpipers, lots of rattlesnakes, a scorpion, dolphins, and that’s about it so far. What’s cool about this place is that you never know what you’re going to see.

One Saturday this huge rattlesnake was hidden in the shade under a bush next to the trail, well we didn’t see him and he was just about a foot and a half away from Patti, and she and the rattlesnake both jumped in the air at the same time. It was crazy.