MAY
May 20th – Pre-hike: Placerita Canyon Trail to Los Piñetos Trail to Wilson Saddle and then back to the Nature Center via a Steep Firebreak
Les Wilson decided to “pre-hike” the route planned for the RSTB hike on the following Saturday (5/28/2022) He arrived in the main parking lot in Placerita Canyon County Park in southeastern Santa Clarita Valley on a very nice spring morning. After taking a few photos Placerita Canyon Nature Center (1,550’) he began hiking eastward along the Placerita Canyon Trail. The air was pleasantly cool, there was running water in the canyon, and there was a stunning abundance of wildflowers, for this time of year particularly since there is an ongoing drought [he took scores of photos]. Upon reaching the Walker Ranch Group Campground (about two miles from the trailhead) he spotted a group of boy scouts setting up camp for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic started in early 2020 [according to a local hiker Les encountered].
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NOTE: The wildflowers encountered included (but were not limited to) sticky monkey flower, deerweed, California buckwheat, golden yarrow, cliff asters, bush sunflower, elegant clarkia, speckeled clarkia, climbing penstemon, milk thistle, California everlasting, caterpillar phacelia, fern-leaf phacelia, Chinese houses, Mexican elderberry, a few Catalina mariposa lilies, and a couple of Plummer mariposa lilies.
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May 14th – Wildwood Park: Arroyo Conejo Creek, Hill Canyon Open Space, Wildwood Canyon (Paradise Falls), Lynnmere Trail Loop
6 hikers arrived at 8:00 a.m. at the trailhead at the northwest end of Calle Yucca on the south side of Wildwood Park in Thousand Oaks on a pleasant spring morning. As the hike began we descended into the shady canyon through which the Arroyo Conejo Creek flows. The trail (an old dirt road) ran through a pleasant woodland of oak and walnut trees; we crossed the creek four times by walking on wooden planks recently placed to facilitate the crossings whereas in the past we had to carefully step on rocks in the stream (hiking poles are still advised) before reaching the (2005) Hill Canyon Wetlands, formerly the home of coots, mallards, herons, and pond turtles. However, there were no signs of life in or around the water, much of which was covered with a layer of light green algae(?).
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We continued on upstream to Paradise Falls where we spent a few minutes enjoying the view. We continued further upstream to an access to the Lynnmere Trail and crossed Wildwood Creek for the last time during this hike. We followed the trail (a fairly steep dirt road) as it rose to the southeast before reaching a fork to the west which we followed as it led us around the north side of the mountain and then climbed southward to the top of the mountain, affording us with a spectacular 360-degree view of the surrounding mountains and a light refreshing ocean breeze (the day had become quite hot). We then descended back to the original trailhead and headed home having completed a mostly enjoyable 8-mile loop hike with about 1,200’ of elevation gain/loss. The blooming plants we saw included black mustard, caterpillar phacelia, Catalina mariposa lily, morning glories, purple sage, sticky monkey flower, deerweed [sic], golden yarrow, Chinese house, scarlet bugler, cliff asters, sunflowers, thistle, and bush mallow.
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May 7th – Towsley Canyon and Wiley Canyon Loop
5 hikers met at the “Ed Davis Park at Towsley Canyon” section of the 4,000-acre Santa Clarita Woodlands Park on a pleasant spring morning. We began hiking along a dirt road toward the Sonia Thompson Nature Center, crossing Towsley Creek on a concrete bridge. Soon we began a counterclockwise hike on the Towsley View Loop Trail. After passing through The Narrows section of Towsley Gorge, the trail began rising via switchbacks along the shaded eastern slope of the canyon. The verdant north-facing slopes of the Santa Susana Mountains rose steeply to the south. The single-track trail passed through sage scrub, stands of California walnut and bay laurel trees, and scattered oak trees as we made our way to the 2,450’ high point on the trail from which much of the Santa Clarita Valley could be seen. The hillsides were adorned by many blooming wildflowers which begged to be photographed. The trail then began dropping into shady Wiley Canyon which we followed downstream to a junction with the Canyon View Loop Trail which rose along the northern flank of the mountain before descending to the Sonia Thompson Nature Center. After a brief respite we followed the dirt road back to our vehicles. We returned home having completed a pleasant 6.5-mile hike with about 1,600’ of elevation gain/loss. The wildflowers we saw/enjoyed included (but were not limited to) caterpillar phacelia, yellow mariposa lily, morning glories, purple sage, lupine, sticky monkey flower, elegant clarkia, deerweed [sic], California poppies, Indian paintbrush, golden yarrow, scarlet bugler, cliff asters, bush mallow, yerba santa, datura (aka Jimson weed), and black mustard.
APRIL
April 30th – Cheeseboro Canyon – Palo Comado Canyon Loop
April 23rd – Devil Canyon to Browns Canyon Road
14 hikers met at the Cheeseboro Canyon trailhead in the Simi Hills (5792 Chesebro Rd, Agoura Hills; GPS coordinates for the main parking lot entrance: N 34.1543 W -118.7339) on a chilly spring morning. We began our hike by heading north on the Cheeseboro Canyon Trail (a dirt road) under a blue sky with some clouds. Almost immediately the trail was bordered with invasive black mustard plants with their pretty yellow blossoms. We soon passed through what had been an open grassland in the wide canyon bottom and then through a drought-weakened oak woodland; the effect of the prolonged drought (and a past wildfire) was obvious from the number of dead trees lying on the ground. Still the oak woodland was appealing though the trail continued to be bordered with black mustard plants. Eventually we reached Sulphur Springs which in the past produced a strongly pungent smell, but this day there was no water and no stench. As we were hiking, quite a few bicyclists passed us as well as some high-school-age cross-country runners. There was a variety of blooming plants as well as black mustard as our hike progressed.
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9 hikers met at the hike’s starting point on Poema Place in Chatsworth on a cool spring morning. As our hike began we descended along a fairly steep “use” trail into the heavily shaded bottom of Devil Canyon where we followed the remnants of the Devil Canyon Motorway upstream as it frequently crisscrossed the sometimes wet (thanks to recent rain) creek bed. One stretch of trail was actually the stream bed but it was mostly dry. We spotted lots of interesting sandstone-rock-cliff formations and some dudleya “liveforever” (chalk) plants as we made our way up to the large check dam at the trail’s junction with the mouth of Ybarra Canyon. After a brief rest break we continued upstream along the occasionally muddy, but mostly dry, trail. As the canyon widened we passed by grass-covered hillsides dotted with oak trees. When we reached the upper-canyon Cathedral-like oak woodland, the trail looked more like the one-lane road it once was.
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April 16th – Work Party: The Lower Stagecoach
On the most beautiful partly cloudy morning, 13 volunteers gathered near the picnic area at Corriganville Park. After going over safety and tool use we worked our way up the Lower Stagecoach trail, Corriganville Trails (rsrpd.org), using Pick Mattocks, loppers, and shovels. We filled in ruts on the lower portion but mainly cleared plant overgrowth from the trail, mostly Black Mustard, Deer Weed, California Sage and Russian Thistle. We cleared the trail past the small drainage creek and picked up where litter accumulates. We filled in some large gullies with rocks and continued up the trail midway, just before the larger creek crossing, where we shored up a switchback with a 2in x 12in x 8ft plank. Most of the volunteers were from Student Corps, https://studentcorps.org/about/our-mission/. The work party ended with a group picture and with great appreciation to Ming Fei Luo, Nelson Hu, Harry Ding, Liang Wang, Qifan Zhang, Amy Wang, Weijie Zhang, Lian zhi Guo, Yonghong Tong, Anna Lu, Chun Lu, Mike Kuhn, and Martin DeGoey.
April 9th – Simi Peak via China Flat
8 hikers met along Lindero Canyon Road (near King James Court) in Oak Park on a pleasant spring morning. Our hike in the Simi Hills began at the easier trailhead in King James Court as we headed uphill along an old dirt-and-rock road as it rose steadily via switchbacks up the south side of the mountain, providing ever-expanding views to the south. Upon reaching the apex of the old road, we headed north and descended into China Flat with its oak trees and sprawling meadows. The oak trees that have survived the 2018 Woolsey Fire (and the ongoing drought) displayed bright green leaves and provided some much-appreciated shade as the morning grew a bit warmer. Fortunately an intermittent cool breeze kept the temperature at a pleasant level and there was a lovely display of wildflowers along the trail.
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April 2nd – Johnson Motorway to Rocky Peak Fire Road
12 hikers met at the trailhead on Iverson Road just outside the gated southern entrance to Indian Springs Estates in Chatsworth on a chilly foggy spring morning. After following the easement through the upscale gated community, we reached the beginning of the unpaved Johnson Motorway (once a toll road). The fog was so thick that we could only see a short distance in any direction. The trail (an old dirt and sandstone roadbed) rose westward until it met a short “driveway” leading north to the ruins of the ranch house that was built by Ann and Neils Johnson who were the first English-speaking homesteaders in the San Fernando Valley; they had built their primary home in “Chatsworth Park” in the 1870’s. After exploring the ruins, we followed the Johnson Motorway as it passed through a landscape of dramatic rock formations (which we couldn’t see), climbing steadily, but not steeply, toward the Rocky Peak Fire Road. We soon warmed up thanks to our bodies’ generation of heat as we hiked uphill. We were able to see a variety of wildflowers bordering the trail/road along the way. When we reached the fire road the view of Simi Valley to the west was “invisible” to us since the fog was still thick. We soon retraced our route downhill back to our vehicles and returned home having completed a pleasant 7.25-mile hike with about 1,450’ of total elevation gain/loss. The fog had finally lifted somewhat as we neared the end of the hike.
MARCH
March 26th – Ahmanson Ranch, Lasky Mesa, Las Virgenes Canyon Lollipop Loop
13 hikers carpooled to the trailhead at the north end of Las Virgenes Road in the Simi Hills on a chilly spring morning (cool temperatures, and clear skies). A short distance after the hike began we reached a T-junction and turned right onto the East Las Virgenes Canyon Trail (ELVCT), a dirt road that winds through the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (aka Ahmanson Ranch) to the Victory trailhead at the west end of Victory Blvd in West Hills. The preserve consists of a vast expanse of rolling hills and grasslands dotted with large old oak trees. There were many swaths of yellow “black” mustard on the still-green hillsides. Just before we would have reached the Victory Blvd entrance parking lot, we followed an old ranch road as it climbed up onto Lasky Mesa where we ascended to an overlook that provides a panoramic view (that was fair today) of the San Fernando Valley and the Simi Hills. Continuing our hike on Lasky Mesa we soon reached several buildings on the site of the old ranch house where there is some shade. After a short break we followed a trail (a dirt road at first which became a single-track trail after a while) down to the ELVCT which took us back to our vehicles. We returned home having completed a pleasant 6.8-mile hike with around 850’ of elevation gain/loss.
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NOTE 2: Refer to the following web site for an excellent and very interesting history of the Ahmanson Ranch (and surrounding) area:
http://www.moviesites.org/laskymesa.htm
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March 21st – Work Party: Mt. McCoy
Saturday’s Work party was postponed to Monday 3-21-2022. Two volunteers meet at the Mt. McCoy trailhead and began work where the trail goes through the cactus grove, clearing away growth encroaching on the trail. The trail was cleared to about midway to the cross, where on the last of the lower switchbacks the trail was eroded to a sandy slippery side slope, that needed shoring up. The previous Friday, a pressure treated plank was brought up the trail, and the volunteers anchored it in, and filled in the slippery side slope. Much thanks to Mike Kuhn and Martin DeGoey.
March 12th – East Canyon (and Corral Sunshine Motorway) to Mission Point
13 hikers met at the trailhead in the “East Canyon, Rice Canyon, and Michael D. Antonovich Open Space” section of the 4,000-acre Santa Clarita Woodlands Park via Interstate 5 and “The Old Road” in Santa Clarita. It was a little chilly as we began hiking southward along the non-maintained and somewhat-eroded East Canyon Motorway as it followed the small (nearly dry) creek in the canyon bottom. The route was lined with bay laurel, black walnut, cottonwood, sycamore, and oak trees. Soon the dirt road began rising more steeply along the western side of a wooded ridge adorned with quite a few wildflowers including lupine, sticky monkey flower, fiddleneck, California poppies, miner’s lettuce, and lots of healthy black walnut trees. We enjoyed views of the steep slopes to the west and relics of the bigcone Douglas-fir trees that once covered the mountain [many of the trees appear to have died as a result of the ongoing drought and wildfire]. An intermittent breeze cooled us and the temperature became pleasant as the road led us upward to a junction with Bridge Road (and the Oat Mountain Motorway) which is blocked by a SoCal Gas fence and gate where we took a break.
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March 5th – Northern Malibu Creek State Park
20 hikers assembled at the starting (and ending) point of our planned loop hike in Malibu Creek State Park on a chilly winter morning. Shortly before we started our hike a very friendly deer approached us [no doubt it had been given food in the past] and posed for photos. We began hiking northward along the North Grassland Trail as it passed through a landscape covered with bright green grass and dotted with oak trees blackened by the Woolsey Fire. We soon reached the dirt Liberty Canyon Fire Road which we followed through the oak-dotted rolling hills of the Liberty Canyon Natural Preserve to the Phantom Trail’s northern trailhead. Soon we began climbing steadily up a still-heavily-wooded slope heading southward until we crested high on a ridge. Continuing southward along the ridge we encountered patches of bright green grass and enjoyed distant views of the surrounding area which was still surprisingly green. There were lots of wildflowers of various types including California poppies, lupine, purple nightshade, sunflowers, blue dick, Indian paintbrush, and morning glories as well as lots of blooming white ceanothus trees.
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FEBRUARY
February 26th – Mission Point Loop via Neon Way
17 hikers gathered in the parking lot at the entrance to O’Melveny Park (the second-largest park in Los Angeles County) in Granada Hills on a chilly but clear winter morning with intermittent wind gusts. Not to be deterred by the weather, we began our hike by walking southwest along the nearby sidewalk on Sesnon Blvd to its junction with Neon Way. We then followed Neon Way three blocks north to the lower end of the Sulphur Spring Fire Road (aka the Dr. Mario A. De Campos Trail). We then began the steady climb along the dirt fire road to Mission Point in the Santa Susana Mountains. As we gained elevation we were treated to expanding views of most of the San Fernando Valley and its surrounding mountains, as well as the view through the Cahuenga Pass of the upper sections of the tallest buildings in downtown Los Angeles and the nearby view of the Los Angeles Reservoir (which replaced the Van Norman Reservoir whose dam nearly failed during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake).
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After a short break we resumed our hike by retracing our route a short distance downhill to the junction with the Mission Point Trail which we followed northeast as we made our way down into Bee Canyon; the trail became increasingly steep as it lost elevation. We were treated to excellent views of the rugged landscape to the north. After reaching the floor of Bee Canyon we followed the trail downstream into beautiful 627-acre O’Melveny Park with its well-maintained green lawns shaded by oak and eucalyptus trees; there are still some citrus trees near the entrance to the park but they were not bearing fruit the day of our hike (signs forbade us from “picking fruit”). We reached our vehicles, completing our loop hike, having hiked 6.2 miles with about 1,500’ of elevation gain/loss on a relatively nice morning for mountain hiking.
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February 19th – Work Party: Lower Stagecoach Trail
The Work Party was spectacular. Thirty People meet by the picnic area at Corriganville. Most were from Student Corps: https://studentcorps.org/about/our-mission/ The atmosphere was lively and the chill in the air was gone. We went over the usual safety rules, then talked a little about the trail, and the volunteers were eager to get started. The younger volunteers, with their trash grabbers, were the first up the trail. Then came the groups with the Pick Mattocks, loppers, and shovels who went to town clearing the trail of encroaching plants. To name a few: Black Mustard, Deer Weed, California Sage, and Russian Thistle. With much appreciation for Mark Scheele, a veteran RSTB volunteer, helped oversee things while the other volunteers were busy filling in sinkholes on the edge of the trail with large rocks. The work party ended where there is some kind of run-off, presumably coming off the freeway, where there was a lot of trash and the trail was washed out down to boulders. Some volunteers gathered many big rocks, and made two huge water bars, and back filled the trail. Other volunteers picked up trash that was mixed in with runoff debris – it was such an incredible job. It was the best work party in many years thanks to GeeGee Garcia, Geno Gonzales, Monty Gonzales, Martin DeGoey and the Student Corps: Jonathan Chen, Harry Ding, Andrew Chen, Nelson Hu, Sansur Borijin, Kevin Wang, Eric Qifan Zhang, Edward Shen, Ryan Shen, Maxwell Zhong, Isabella hou, Simon Yao adults: Naren Borjigin, Mingfei Luo, Baohui Chen, Ada Tang, Stella Tong, Vicky Chen, Yuqin Wang, Yanchun Zhong, Xin Zhou, Apple zhang, Jie zhang, and Jack Borijin. Click here to view a movie.
February 12th – Danielson Memorial via the Wendy, Fossil, and Old Boney Trails
25 hikers gathered at the Wendy Trail trailhead at the south end of Wendy Drive in Newbury Park on a pleasant warmer-than-usual winter morning with a clear blue sky. Our Santa Monica Mountains outing began as we hiked the Wendy Trail over to the Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center in Rancho Sierra Vista. We then headed south as the paved upper section of Big Sycamore Canyon Road descended into the canyon; as we did so we passed large areas covered with lush green grass. Immediately after crossing the bridge in the canyon bottom, we left the road and headed northeast on the Upper Sycamore Canyon Trail for a very short distance to a junction with the Fossil Trail which we turned right onto [the former sign at the trail junction that was burned badly in the May, 2013 Camarillo Springs Fire is still gone completely]. The Fossil Trail began climbing steeply to the east on a flank of Boney Mountain, gaining 760’ of elevation in 0.9 mile. Our route was adorned with lots of wildflowers including bush sunflowers, purple nightshade, wild cucumber, blue dick, California poppies, deerweed, and ceanothus trees (both white and blue); near the trail’s upper end we stopped briefly to admire several fossils embedded in rock.
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February 5th – El Escorpion Park: Cave of Munits and Castle Peak
14 hikers met at the El Escorpion Park entrance (905’) at the west end of Vanowen Street in the San Fernando Valley on a cool mid-winter morning. We began our hike into the Simi Hills along the Hunter Allen Trail (aka Moore Canyon Road), a wide dirt road with no shade, but soon turned right/north on a “use” trail which led down to a second heavily shaded “use” trail that led us westward parallel to (but out of sight of) the dirt road. We eventually reached the well-defined “use” trail leading north up to the entrance to the Cave of Munits. Upon reaching the vertical cave entrance a few members of our group decided to climb steeply up into the cave. Doing so required the use of both hands and both feet (a short class 3 climb). As described on the excellent Modern Hiker web site, “The walls of the interior fold and undulate into a seemingly endless series of side caves and back caverns … it’s ceiling is very tall and it can feel like you’re standing inside a natural rock cathedral … this area was spiritually important to the Chumash [Indians].” After exploring the interior of the cave, the hikers exited by returning the way they entered the cave [rather than climbing out one of the cave’s chimneys and carefully circling around on the mountainside back down to the cave’s entrance].
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JANUARY
January 29th – Mentryville and Pico Canyon
5 hikers carpooled to a dirt parking area about 0.4 mile outside the entrance to Mentryville, located in Pico Canyon in the north end of Santa Clarita Woodlands Park (only a few miles [by road] from Towsley Canyon). Mentryville was an oil boom town in the 1880’s and was home to over 100 families until the early 1930’s. Pico Canyon was the site of the first commercially successful oil well (Pico No. 4) in the western United States. Several historic buildings are still standing in Mentryville including Charles Mentry’s grand 13-room mansion, a one-room school house, and a small barn. After taking a quick tour of the “ghost” town, we headed southwest along the paved road into shady Pico Canyon with its towering walls and a pleasant stream until we reached Johnson Park (“the party place for oil miners of more than a century ago”) where we dallied for a while. As we continued further into the canyon, the paved road made a sharp switchback to the northeast, became a dirt road, and we began climbing up out of the canyon. As we gained elevation our views of the surrounding rugged landscape with green mountainsides (thanks to recent rainfall) steadily improved. As we continued southeast toward the road’s upper end we had excellent views of the transverse range of the Santa Susana Mountains. The road ended in a wide flat mountaintop area which was at one time the home of the Union Oil Company’s Odeen #1 oil well, but is now the home of a lone picnic table with two benches. After a leisurely snack/rest break, we returned the way we came and reached our vehicles, having completed an 8.5-mile hike with about 1,450’ of elevation gain/loss on what had turned into a very nice day for hiking.
January 15th – Work Party: The Hummingbird Trail
It was chilly and a little windy when we arrived. Filming was happening at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch, so there wasn’t much parking. By the time the four volunteers gathered, the wind started to die down. It was a lovely hike up to where we worked. There were two switchbacks, maybe a quarter the way up the Hummingbird trail, that needed shoring up with wood planks. Two 2″ X 12″ X 8′ pressure treated planks, were brought up by wheelbarrow, a couple days earlier. We trenched in the planks, and filled in the eroded trail, by hauling fill dirt by wheelbarrow and flattening out the trail with pick mattock, McLeod hoe, and shovel. The soil moisture content was perfect. It sprinkled a little bit but not enough to get us wet. Thanks for the remarkable accomplishment and the tireless efforts of Sheryl Knight, Muffit Jensen, Mike Kuhn and Martin DeGoey.
January 8th – Santa Rosa Valley Park (Conejo Canyons Open Space)
14 hikers met in a dirt parking area on the left (east) side of Hill Canyon Road just past Santa Rosa Valley Equestrian Park (10241 Hill Canyon Rd, Camarillo) on a chilly winter morning (a 15th hiker joined us during the hike). We began our hike into the Conejo Canyons Open Space just west of Wildwood Park by crossing 25-foot-wide Arroyo Conejo Creek via a nice bridge that provided excellent views of the year-round creek which had lots of water flowing. Our route then followed the Hill Canyon Trail upstream along the creek toward a trail intersection that we’ve named Five Points, but before reaching it we took a “use” trail down to the creek where we noted that the temporary dam that is sometimes there was “missing” and there were no waterfowl in evidence.
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