Midweek Mountaineers 2024

JULY

July 17th – Wildwood Park Loop

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The morning sky was a bright summer blue behind scattered high clouds when six hikers met at 7:00 AM at Wildwood Park west end parking, off Avenida De Los Arboles in Thousand Oaks. The hikers began their counterclockwise loop hike by heading west on the Mesa Trail. Turning south and hiking a short distance on the Tepee Trail, we turned right when we came to the Stagecoach Bluffs Trail. There we saw a lone, curious coyote watching us. As we continued westward with the usual views of hill sides of prickly pears and Wildwood Canyon below, we came to the Mesa Trail. Instead of passing Lizard Rock on the south side, we hiked westward on the north side of Lizard Rock where we saw a spectacular view of the Santa Rosa Valley.

After taking a short break, we followed the Lizard Rock Trail down into Hill Canyon and soon headed eastward into heavily shaded Wildwood Canyon. As we headed upstream we crossed flowing water several times on short wooden bridges. When we reached Hoegeman’s Hollow, there were several picnic tables (and bathrooms). We took a short break and continued on upstream to Paradise Falls where we enjoyed looking at and listening to the waterfall. Eventually we reached the always pleasant Indian Creek Trail and followed it up to a short unnamed trail that led us back to our vehicles, thus completing a 5.0 mile hike with 928’ of elevation gain/loss.

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July 10th – Santa Rosa Valley Lollipop Loop

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Note: A map of Conejo Canyons Open Space is attached to this message; as you read the trip report, it should provide a general idea of the route our hike took.

6 hikers met in a dirt parking area on the left (east) side of Hill Canyon Road in Santa Rosa Valley Park (10241 Hill Canyon Road, Camarillo) on a cool early summer morning [which would become very hot as the day progressed]. 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 flowing water. We then hiked along the Hill Canyon dirt road; it followed the creek upstream toward a trail intersection that we’ve named “Five Points.” Slightly before reaching Five Points we followed a short nameless spur trail down to the very strongly flowing creek.

We then made our way the short distance up to “Five Points” where we continued southeast a short distance on the Hill Canyon trail before turning southwest (right) onto the Hawk Canyon Trail (a dense riparian woodland with lots of plants). The shaded canyon trail led us along a seasonal feeder stream (presently nearly dry) to the Western Plateau dirt Road which we climbed as it rose steadily eastward to Conejo Center Drive where we turned left (east) and passed the impressive Thousand Oaks Municipal Service Center after which we made our way onto the Hill Canyon Fire Road and descended to the recently completed Conejo Canyons Bridge near the Hill Canyon Treatment Plant. After walking across the bridge and then back across we headed westward on the Hill Canyon trail/Road and returned to our vehicles [which were quite hot inside] having “beat the heat” during our hike thanks to our early (6:30 AM) start, lots of shade along our path, and intermittent cool breezes. Our pleasant hike was 5.2 miles long with 561’ of elevation gain/loss. There were a few types of blooming plants, primarily lots of bush mallow and datura with a couple of nice displays of wild roses; we were by ourselves during most of the hike but we saw quite a few rabbits.

NOTE; Conejo Canyons Bridge The bridge will “Provide trail and vehicular access across the Arroyo Conejo Creek” and will “allow trail users including pedestrians, bicyclists, and equestrians to have a defined route between Santa Rosa Equestrian Park and Wildwood Canyon.”

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July 3rd – Porter Ranch Counterclockwise Loop Hike

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On a bright summer morning 4 hikers met at 6:30 AM at the Aliso Canyon Trail trailhead just below Porter Ridge Park at the east “end” of Sesnon Blvd near the north end of Reseda Blvd in Porter Ranch. We began our hike by walking west on Sesnon Blvd to Tampa Avenue near the trailhead at the north end of Limekiln Canyon. The early morning hour afforded us shade and tranquility for a short distance down the Limekiln Canyon trail. The shade and quiet continued after we crossed Tampa Avenue and hiked along the wide well-maintained Palisades Trail, which provided views of the surrounding area mainly to the south. There were some flowers and birds as well as bush rabbits seemingly everywhere.

After reaching Reseda Blvd we crossed it where the trail continued at Eddleston Park dropping into Aliso Canyon where the trail was nearly level and was enhanced by large oak trees and a sparkling flowing stream, a refreshing sight during early summer. Heading north toward Sesnon Blvd we crossed the stream twice. After the second crossing we came upon a large (4 ft.) western rattlesnake crossing the trail; it was quite the sight! A couple of horseback riders passed us for a grand finale before we tackled a last sunbaked uphill trek to our vehicles which we reached having completed a 4.5-mile hike with about 700’ of elevation gain/loss, We parted grateful to have enjoyed another great hike.

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JUNE

June 26th – Chivo Canyon and Tapo Open Space Loop

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9 hikers met on Westwood Street in the Wild Horse Canyon housing development in northeastern Simi Valley on a cool early-summer morning. After a short walk to the mouth of nearby Chivo (“goat”) Canyon we began hiking northward in the canyon bottom. At 0.7 mile along the trail we reached a trail junction. We turned left (west) and followed a short connector trail and soon began hiking the Tapo Open Space Loop trail (thereby leaving Chivo Canyon for a while). We followed the fairly well-maintained trail westward as it wound through a grassy valley and then rose somewhat steeply up to the high point of our hike where we took a short break and enjoyed the views.

We then continued along the loop trail which soon descended eastward back to the connector trail which we followed back down into Chivo Canyon where we turned right (south) and returned to our vehicles thus completing a pleasant 4.4-mile hike with 604’ of elevation gain/loss [NOTE: Several factors allowed us to “beat the heat”: we started at 6:30 AM; the north-south layout of Chivo Canyon; and the woodland along a portion of the loop trail].

There were lots of blooming plants along our hiking route including (but not limited to) cliff aster, elegant clarkia, scarlet bugler, Indian paintbrush, coyote gourd, datura, heartleaf penstemon, Indian pink, bush mallow, tamarisk (salt cedar) sticky monkey flower, deerweed, morning glories, golden yarrow, sunflowers, yucca, and Mexican elderberry. There were several rabbits but very few other hikers or bicyclists. NOTE: The oil seeps not far from the mouth of the canyon have continued to grow; be careful not to step in any of it.

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June 19th – Long Canyon And Lang Ranch Open Space Loop

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Six hikers met at 7:00 AM in the Long Canyon Trail parking lot in Wood Ranch on a warm but overcast morning. Our hike started along Woodridge Connector Trail with our usual friendly chat. While hiking the Autumn Ridge Trail It was apparent that summer had arrived, things were becoming dry. When we were passing through Lang Ranch Park a friendly young lady from a high school fitness gathering took our group picture. The Chumash Interpretive Center was lush and green with plenty of flowers. We saw woolly blue curls, monkey flower, bush poppy, heartleaf Penstemon, slender tarweed, smallseed sandmat and a lot of deerweed.

We then followed the Long Ridge Trail and the Rocky Incline Trail to the Sunrise Trail that led us to the Long Canyon Trail, covered with elegant clarkia on both sides, then we hiked down to our vehicles. It was an enjoyable 5.41 miles hike with 943’ of elevation gain/loss on a great morning.

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MAY

May 29th – Sage Ranch Loop

After successfully navigating Black Canyon Road, 6 hikers arrived at the lower parking lot in Sage Ranch Park in the Simi Hills on a cool overcast late spring morning. The 625-acre park is located just north of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) (aka Rocketdyne/Boeing) at an elevation of 2,000’. It is chock-full of world-class sandstone rock formations and has several picnic tables shaded by large oak trees. Shortly after starting we skipped the side trail to a nice overlook that usually provides sweeping views of Simi Valley since mist covered the valley [we could still see the landscape where we were hiking]. We continued hiking along the main Loop Trail and a few somewhat overgrown “use” trails declining to hike up the imposing Sandstone Ridge (aka “Sugarloaf”) due to poor visibility. Eventually we reached the “detour” section of the trail and a temporary “fence” blocking a section of the original trail. The temporary blockage has been caused by a planned cleanup of the former trap and skeet range in the park We were pleasantly surprised [finally after several years] to see a team of workers apparently working on the cleanup. We turned onto the “detour” trail which led us northward through the center of the ranch, thus providing us with views of this little seen section of the park. We finished the hike on a recently discovered (by us) trail leading down to our cars. The clearly-seen wide variety of blooming plants blanketing the terrain more than offset the inability to see things in the distance.

We completed our relatively short, but quite scenic, stroll around and through the park having hiked about 3.8 miles with about 750’ of elevation gain/loss]. The blooming plants we saw included (but were not limited to) chaparral, broom rope, black sage, California everlasting, canchalagua, chaparral, yucca, golden yarrow, caterpillar phacelia, chamise, sticky monkey-flower, elegant clarkia, black mustard, evening primrose, fiddleneck, white snapdragon, hairy vetch, holly leaf cherry, chalk plant (dudleya live forever), and milk thistle. We encountered no other hikers during our hike.

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May 22nd – Alamos Canyon Open Space

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Six hikers gathered at the trailhead of the Alamos Canyon Trail in the nearby Oak Park County Park. After paying the $2.00 parking fee we parked at the signed trailhead. We began our hike along the connector trail connecting the true trailhead to the Alamos Canyon Road, rich with flowering plants and bush (bunny) rabbits. Following the road uphill and then under Hwy 118, we saw a dozen or so swallow nests with their inhabitants swarming all around. Soon we reached the official signed entrance to the Alamos Canyon Open Space, and continued north/northeastward along the Alamos Canyon dirt road. There were a lot of birds all around, with crows and seagulls staying close to free pickings from the nearby landfill.

After a long stretch of flat open space our route curved uphill to the west while passing a few trees and we soon reached a plateau with rolling hills in the distance. Continuing, we soon we reached a trail junction with the central ridge trail where we saw a lone coyote. We then headed south, eventually turning east where it led us back to its junction with Alamos Canyon Road (thus completing a loop). There we retraced the route that we came in on and reached our vehicles having completed a 6-mile hike with a little over 950’ of elevation gain/loss on a very nice day for hiking. A list of flowers photographed are; elegant clarkia, blue dicks, datura, white sage, Peruvian peppertree, black sage, chaparral yucca, white sweet clover, bush monkey-flower, chalk dudleya, clustered tarweed, bush lupine, Indian paintbrush, golden yarrow, milk thistle, California poppy, rattlepod, white sage, Catalina mariposa lily, and caterpillar phacelia.

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May 15th – Wildwood Neighborhood Park Lynnmere Trail Loop

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Six hikers (and one cute dog) met at the trailhead in the Baseball Field Parking Lot at the junction of Avenida de Los Arboles and Canna Street in Thousand Oaks on a pleasant overcast spring morning. We began our hike by crossing Avenida de Los Arboles to the east and descending into a tunnel under Avenida de Los Arboles. We then climbed some stairs and crossed Arroyo Conejo on a bridge; next we headed through a neighborhood to the Las Flores Trail which we followed to Lynn Road where we connected to the Lynnmere Trail which we followed west to the Wildwood Canyon Trail which we followed eastward back to Neighborhood Park.

The mountainsides and canyon boasted displays of a variety of healthy plants and provided views of the surrounding countryside. There was a variety of blooming plants including wild onion, chalk dudleya, purple sage, California bush sunflower, prickly pear, California everlasting, golden yarrow, fiddleneck, miner’s lettuce, hairy rockrose, sticky monkey flower, morning glory, purple nightshade, owl’s clover, miniature lupine, vetch, and elegant clarkia. We encountered no other people during the hike. The route we took was still new to most of us so the hike was especially interesting. We reached our vehicles having completed a 4.8-mile hike with 771 feet of elevation gain/loss on a nice morning for hiking.

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May 8th – Woodridge Lollipop Loop

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Ten hikers met at the Long Canyon Trail parking lot in Wood Ranch on a bright spring morning. The Hike began by going west on the Woodridge Connector Trail where there were little bunnies all over, being eyed by a small, inconspicuous coyote. Upward on Simi / T. Oaks trail and crossing a paved road, we connected with the Woodridge Loop trail where there were views of elegant houses and Conejo Valley off to the south. To the north, at one point we could see Bard Reservoir through a fence. The hike continued around a gated community at the end of Sunset Hills Blvd. until we started heading east into Long Canyon Open Space. We enjoyed different types of scenery, quiet air and each other’s company, along with various flowers such as; morning glory, California everlasting, purple sage, wishbone bush, black sage, California bush sunflower, vetch, milk thistle, chaparral yucca. We completed a 4.4-mile round-trip hike with around 733’ of elevation gain/loss arriving back to our vehicles at the Long Canyon trailhead.

May 1st – Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park Loop

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9 hikers met at 7:30 AM in the dirt parking area along Lilac Lane at the upper end of the Chatsworth portion of the Stagecoach Trail in the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park on a pleasant spring morning. We began our hike by following a short loop passing by a pond (with water) near our starting point. We then headed northeast into the park via the Mattingly Trail which we followed to the Upper Meadow Trail which led us to a rocky overlook of Chatsworth Park South and the surrounding area. We then followed a short connector trail northward to “Five Points” where we continued following the Mattingly Trail to the northeast to the Williams Trail which led downhill toward the Spahn Ranch [there’s little to see there now] and the El Camino Nuevo Trail which headed west and connected to the Sanchez Trail which we followed to the paved Santa Susana Pass Road (SSPR).

A short distance westward along SSPR brought us to the northern end of a nameless dirt trail that we followed southward to our vehicles. Our route provided us with many picturesque views (mountains, rock formations, etc.). There were lots of blooming plants including hedgehog cactus, caterpillar phacelia, morning glory, black sage, wishbone bush, deerweed, sticky monkey flower, golden yarrow, and popcorn flower. As usual we encountered no other people during our hike. It was a pleasant outing, particularly the opportunity to spend time with old and new friends.

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Santa Susana Pass SHP – Brochure with MAP

APRIL

April 24th – Big Sky Loop

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Six hikers met near the waterfall on Big Sky Place on a moderately cloudy morning. The hike began walking north on the sidewalk of Erringer Road, stopping at the Big Sky Trail entrance for a group photo. Going east, and crossing the stream we took the right fork for a counterclockwise loop. Up the first steady incline the wild flowers thickened, seeing mostly owl’s clover. Upon reaching the first summit and taking a breath we saw an old truck full of bullet holes at the bottom of a cliff. The hike continued while surrounded by bush sunflowers, on the north-south ridge east of the housing development. We enjoyed the views of the valley below and sections of different neighborhoods among the surrounding hills, including Whiteface Mountain.

At the highest point of our hike (1,463’) we could see the remnants of Lost Canyons Golf Course. There was lots of greenery and quite a few wildflowers as we made our way to the oak-lined streambed that runs through the Big Sky development. We had the trail all to ourselves as we finished our 4.5-mile hike with 895’ of elevation gain/loss in 1 hour and 44 minutes on a pleasurable spring morning hike.

Photos taken of wildflowers included owl’s clover, deerweed, silver puffs, lupine, yucca, tidy-tips, red bush monkey flower, California bush sunflower, golden yarrow, popcorn flower, Santa Barbara milkvetch (Astragalus trichopodus), black sage, purple sage, blue dick, Catalina mariposa lily, bush lupine, and morning glory.

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April 10th – Los Robles Trail via the Los Padres Trail and Oak Creek Double-Loop

Three hikers met at the Los Padres Trail trailhead in Thousand Oaks on a cool spring morning. The beginning of the hike was very pleasant with its canopy of oak trees bursting with new growth, and the sound of a creek running alongside the trail. The trail steepened until we reached a dirt access road. We followed it up to its junction with the Los Robles Trail (the primary trail in Thousand Oaks) encountering an occasional swarm of what appeared to be mosquitos; they didn’t seem to be biting. Upon reaching the trail junction, we headed west on the Los Robles Trail but soon turned right onto the “Scenic Loop” trail which led us to the point which provides panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and grasslands. After stopping to take a short break we continued on along the Los Robles Trail; the swarms of mosquitoes thickened. We had to hold our breath for fear of breathing an unwanted guest as we descended to a nice oak-shaded picnic area taking another break, making use of a large picnic table. We then proceeded on to a junction with a connector trail that led us to the upper (south) end of the Oak Creek Canyon Loop Trail.

The western 0.4-mile section of this trail is called the Oak Creek Canyon Whole Access Interpretive Trail and is a mostly shaded oak grove area that is accessible by all, including equestrians, bicycles, hikers, wheelchairs, disabled and blind individuals; there is actually a “guide cable” along the fence as well as informational signs in braille.

After hiking the heavily shaded western section of this loop we walked a short distance eastward along Greenmeadow Avenue to the (partially shaded) eastern section trailhead and hiked back up to the connector trail that led us to the south end of Moorpark Road. We returned to our vehicles about a block away and returned home invigorated, having completed a 4.6-mile hike with 692’ of elevation gain/loss, in 1hr-42 min. NOTE: There were several types of blooming plants along our route including (but not limited to) black walnut, fiddleneck, miner’s lettuce, green bark Ceanothus, wild cucumber, wishbone bush, long-beaked stork’s bill, purple nightshade, Ceanothus, sugar bush, canyon sunflower, fuchsia flowering gooseberry, sticky monkey flower, prickly phlox, Indian warrior, California everlasting, and California poppy.

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April 3rd – Mt. McCoy to The Reagan Presidential Library

Five hikers and a cute dog gathered at 7:30 AM at the Donut Delight parking lot on a chilly spring morning. We crossed Madera Road, walked the short distance to the west end of Royal Avenue and then headed up Washburn Street to the trailhead. We began our climb up the trail’s many switchbacks, enjoying the bright green foliage and blooms. Upon reaching the cross at the top of Mt. McCoy, we stopped for a short break. The sun was out and the morning had warmed up to a pleasant temperature. We enjoyed the views in all directions. Before long we headed toward the presidential library, passing the nearby water tank and then following the service road to Presidential Drive which we followed up to the library. Several guided tours outside the library were underway so we sat by an outdoor table and enjoyed the nice morning. Eventually we began heading back the way we came.

However, two members of our group offered to show us a “secret” alternative route back, so we kept walking downhill on Presidential Drive (past our usual left turn) until we reached a point where a “use trail” headed down to the right/west to a tunnel heading east under Presidential Drive. After passing through the tunnel we followed a trail eastward; the trail is north of the nearby homes. Eventually the trail ended at the sidewalk parallel to Madera Road and we followed it for a while. Soon we switched to Acapulco Avenue to avoid the loud traffic noise on Madera Road until we reached its junction with Royal Avenue which we followed back to our vehicles having completed a 5.1 mile hike with 724’ of elevation gain/loss. The blooming plants we saw included (but were not limited to) Indian paintbrush, bush sunflower, purple nightshade, California everlasting, fuchsia flowering gooseberry, deerweed, Catalina mariposa lily, wishbone bush, goldfields, wild onion, owls clover, blue dick, golden yarrow, and a beautiful spread of California poppies along Presidential Drive.

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MARCH

March 27th – Tapo Canyon Open Space Trail to Chivo Canyon

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Seven hikers met at 7:30 AM near the dirt trailhead parking area (1,136’) for the Tapo Canyon Open Space Trail (T23) in Simi Valley. It was a cool but beautiful morning. Our hike began heading northward along the nearly flat dirt road/trail, with lush greenery all around. After a mile or so, the road/trail rose steadily to a narrow pass and a dirt-road junction (1,535’), where we took a short break and enjoyed the views of the valley before us and the rows of mountainous ridges to the northeast. Continuing, we turned right and began hiking the T23 loop, which took us along a dirt road/trail that led downward through oak woodland toward its eastern junction (1,276’) with itself. We turned right and hiked eastward down to the floor of Chivo Canyon where we noticed a small, newly constructed bridge crossing the stream. We crossed over the bridge and hiked about 0.4 miles on the Chivo Canyon Trail heading NE until we came to the junction of the Cappochi Trail. With a short break, we turned around and headed back the way we came to the creek crossing.

We resumed our hike by heading westward [back] up the T23 loop as it rose gently to the west through a large “valley,” before rising fairly steeply to the southwest to another dirt road/trail junction (1,620’), the highest point on our hike). We enjoyed the scenery from this viewpoint and then took the left fork. There were some people along the way, some hiking with their dogs, a couple runners and even a person on a horse. We followed T23 back to the narrow pass (completing the loop) and then on down to the original trailhead. We completed our leisurely outing having hiked 6.0 miles with a total elevation gain/loss of about 1,060’.

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March 20th – Santa Rosa Valley Park (Conejo Canyons Open Space)

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5 hikers plus a cute dog met in a dirt parking area on the left (east) side of Hill Canyon Road in Santa Rosa Valley Park (10241 Hill Canyon Rd, Camarillo) on a cool foggy early-spring morning. 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 flowing water. We then hiked along the Hill Canyon dirt road; it followed the creek upstream toward a trail intersection that we’ve named “Five Points.” Slightly before reaching Five Points we followed a short nameless spur trail down to the strongly flowing creek where we spotted a couple of mallard ducks.We then made our way the short distance up to “Five Points” where we continued southeast along the Hill Canyon dirt road to the Conejo Canyons Bridge [“at the Hill Canyon Treatment Plant” adjacent to the nearby “Wetlands the home to local bird and wildlife”] which is in the final stages of its construction. The bridge will “Provide trail and vehicular access across the Arroyo Conejo Creek” and will “allow trail users including pedestrians, bicyclists, and equestrians to have a defined route between Santa Rosa Equestrian Park and Wildwood Canyon.”

Then we returned along the Hill Canyon road a relatively short distance before turning southwest (left) onto the Hawk Canyon Trail (a dense riparian woodland with lots of plants). The shaded canyon trail led us along a seasonal feeder stream (presently nearly dry) to the Western Plateau dirt Road which we climbed as it rose steadily westward to a junction with the Peninsula Loop Trail which we followed until it rejoined the Western Plateau dirt Road.

Almost immediately we turned right (east) onto the Plateau Rim Trail and followed it to an overlook above a seasonal waterfall (where there is a bench) and continued north/northwest until it rejoined the Western Plateau dirt road near the junction with the Volcanic Trail.

We then followed the Western Plateau dirt Road back down to “Five Points” where we retraced our steps along the Hill Canyon dirt road to our starting point. We reached our vehicles having completed a very pleasant 6.5-mile hike with about 822’ of elevation gain/loss. We encountered a few other humans during our hike (particularly near the end). There were lots of blooming plants including hoary leaved ceanothus, fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, holly-leaved cherry, purple nightshade, arroyo willow flower, milk thistle, wild cucumber, morning glory, bush sunflower, California goldfields, wishbone bush, Indian paintbrush, lupine, wild onion, lance-leaved dudleya, deerweed, blue dick, wild radish, and California peony.

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Click to see Conejo Canyons Trail Map.

March 13th – Wildwood Park: Mesa Trail, Stagecoach Bluff Trail, Lizard Rock Trail, Paradise Falls, Wildwood Canyon, Indian Creek Trail Loop

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On an early almost spring morning, eleven hikers met at 7:30 AM at Wildwood Park west end parking off Avenida de los Arboles in Thousand Oaks. The hikers began their counterclockwise loop hike by heading west on the Mesa Trail. Continuing westward with the usual views down into Wildwood Canyon, we hiked through a huge display of prickly pear. Upon rejoining the Mesa Trail, we hiked leisurely westward up to a trail junction just below Lizard Rock.

After taking a short break, we followed the Lizard Rock Trail down into Hill Canyon and soon headed eastward into heavily shaded Wildwood Canyon. As we headed upstream we crossed flowing water several times on short wooden bridges. When we reached Hoegeman’s Hollow, there were several picnic tables (and bathrooms). We took a long break, and mused at Samson the great little dog playing with sticks and chasing birds. Then continuing on upstream to Paradise Falls where we enjoyed looking at and listening to the waterfall. Eventually we reached the always pleasant Indian Creek Trail and followed it up to a short unnamed trail that led us back to our vehicles, thus completing a 4.6 mile hike with 819’ of elevation gain/loss. There were quite a few blooming plants; prickly pear cactus, goldfields smallseed sandmat, wishbone, bush sunflower, hairy vetch, sugar bush, lupine, blue dicks, fiddle neck, popcorn flower.

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FEBRUARY

February 28th – Canyon View Trail, Coyote Hills Park, Oak Canyon, and Long Canyon Trail Loop

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3 hikers (and one cute dog) gathered at the Long Canyon Trail trailhead parking lot at Wood Ranch in Simi Valley on a late-winter morning (a little chilly to begin with but soon quite nice) . We left the parking lot and headed east along Long Canyon Road to the southwest end of the Canyon View Trail. We began hiking uphill on the trail, enjoying ever-improving views of the surrounding area including the Bard Reservoir. We hiked along the ridgeline until we reached a junction with a trail leading down to Coyote Hills Park. After our descent we hiked through the park and then crossed Long Canyon Road and followed a nameless trail to the mouth of Montgomery Canyon. We passed by it, hiked south through Oak Canyon (aka East Long Canyon), and eventually reached the signed upper end of the Long Canyon Trail which we descended to the parking lot from which we started our hike, thus completing a 6.5-mile loop hike with about 1,300’ of elevation gain/loss on a pleasant morning for hiking. We encountered very few other people during our hike and spotted only a few blooming plants.

February 21st – Tapo Street, to the Arroyo Bike Path, to Arroyo Vista Park, and Back

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Five hikers gathered in the parking area near Tio’s Café (which is near the Walmart store on Tapo Street in Simi Valley) shortly after the intermittent raining stopped. Soon after we began our hike the sky cleared and we were treated to sunlight, a blue sky, and puffy white clouds for the duration of our hike. We headed parallel to Tapo Street and then along its sidewalk until we reached the bridge over the Arroyo Simi; we were astounded by the amount of water rushing down the arroyo [it was the most we’d ever seen in the arroyo]. We continued south along Tapo Street until it curved to the west and its name changed to Guardian Street and soon passed by the impressive relatively new Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District Activity Center. We continued westward through a surprisingly pleasant wooded “industrial” area to Tapo Canyon Road where we turned north until we passed over its bridge over the Arroyo Simi.

Marveling at the force of the water below; we also spotted a group of seven mallard ducks managing not to be swept away by the water. We then turned westward and followed the newly paved Arroyo Simi Greenway (bike and walking path) until we reached Sequoia Avenue. We then headed south on its bridge over the arroyo to the Vista Del Arroyo Park on Chicory Leaf Place with the adjacent (well-appreciated) Arroyo Simi Equestrian Center Restroom. After resting a while at the park we headed back eastward to Tapo Street along the Arroyo Simi Greenway and then returned northward to our motor vehicles, having completed a 4.5-mile hike with a whopping 164’ of elevation gain/loss on a beautiful morning. There were several types of blooming plants including bluepotato bush (Lycianthes rantonnetii), Tulip Magnolia (Magnolia Soulangeana), telegraph weed, and mule fat.

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February 14th – East Canyon

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Two 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. The weather was cold but warming slowly with the rising sunshine. We began the hike following the small stream, normally a creek, southward along the non-maintained and somewhat-eroded East Canyon Motorway. Lined with bay laurel, barren black walnut, cottonwood, sycamore, and oak trees, we were thankful for a new wooden bridge placed over the first stream crossing. As we continued up the dirt road a short distance, we came to a second stream crossing, where a group of four hikers and two dogs were held up and had decided to turn back. The banks of the crossing seemed steep and muddy so we decided to explore Rice Canyon instead. The heavily wooded trail that hugged the stream bed was gorgeous. After 0.92 miles, the trail became impassable, we crossed the stream eight times, up and back. Coming back we explored an unmarked trail; we went up about 500 ft. and then turned back. The plants we photograph were bay laurel, caterpillar Phacelia, milk thistle and arroyo willow. We hiked a total of 3.42 miles with 510′ elevation gain loss.

JANUARY

January 31st – Porter Ranch Loop

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11 hikers met at 8:00 AM at the Canyon Trail trailhead just below Porter Ridge Park at the east “end” of Sesnon Blvd at the north end of Reseda Blvd in Porter Ranch on a pleasant sunny winter morning. We began our clockwise-loop hike by dropping down into Aliso Canyon; we then followed the wide dirt trail southward toward (nearly all the way to) Rinaldi Street and Aliso Canyon Park (Note: we used a workaround trail part of the way to avoid a section of the Aliso Canyon Trail that has been severely damaged by heavy rains in recent years). The Aliso Canyon Trail was nearly level and was dotted with large oak trees (many of which had been damaged by wildfire) and quite a few blooming sunflowers so it was a pleasant stroll through the canyon; there was water flowing in the stream. We then followed a well-defined connector trail that led somewhat steeply upward to Eddleston Park at Reseda Blvd. Crossing to the west side of Reseda Blvd, we hiked northward a short distance on an unnamed trail to the eastern trailhead for the Palisades Trail which we followed westward. The wide well-maintained Palisades Trail provided views of the surrounding area mainly to the south.

There was stark evidence of a wildfire in the past as we passed a formerly beautiful grove of pine trees which is now a stand of burned-and-blackened skeletons. The trail then rose fairly steeply just before dropping down to Tampa Avenue which the group followed north to Sesnon Blvd (near the entrance to the Southern California Gas Company’s Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage facility, infamous for its 2015-2016 months-long methane leak). After crossing Sesnon Blvd to the northeast, the group followed the Sesnon Trail (which forms the border of a housing development to its south) eastward to Ormskirk Avenue and then walked a couple of blocks to Porter Ridge Park where the silhouettes of the upper parts of several of the highest skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles can sometimes be seen through the Cahuenga Pass (but not today). We then returned to our nearby vehicles having completed a 5.3-mile hike with about 850’ of elevation gain/loss. We encountered a few other hikers and there were a few blooming plants including sunflowers, morning glories, red-stem filaree, and red flowering gum tree. NOTE: Ormskirk (see above) is a market town in West Lancashire, England, 13 miles north of Liverpool; it was famous for its baking of gingerbread.

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January 24th – Chivo Canyon and Marr Ranch Road Loop

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Eight hikers met at 8:00 AM at the “trailhead” on Cottonwood Drive in the Wild Horse Canyon development on a chilly winter morning. The sky was covered with clouds and there was stillness in the air as we began our hike through Chivo Canyon on a single-track trail. When we came to the old Chivo Canyon (dirt) Road we followed it to its junction with the Buckhorn Trail (named by Joe Beautz after finding a set of deer antlers). Along the way we passed a couple of large oil seeps (there were no new decorations).

We followed the Buckhorn Trail up to the Marr Ranch Road atop the eastern ridge of Chivo Canyon where we had views of the surrounding mountains and canyons. We then headed south along the Marr Ranch Road to its junction at “Four Points.” We passed by the Cappochi Trail (also named by Joe), because of overgrowth; then we continued southward and descended using the “Steep Mountain” section of the old road that leads down to Cottonwood Drive [at Gate 3]. We completed a pleasant 4.0-mile hike with about 974’ of elevation gain/loss. The flowers we saw along the way were: sunflower (California brittlebush), wild cucumber, sugar bush, toyon, indian paintbrush, and lupine.

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January 17th – Long Canyon and Lang Ranch Open Space Loop

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6 hikers met at 8:00 AM in the Long Canyon Trail parking lot in Wood Ranch on a slightly chilly winter morning. The outing began by hiking up the Long Canyon Trail to the Lang Ranch Open Space where we followed the Sunrise Trail eastward to the Alapy Trail and then the Rocky Incline Trail. Then we followed a connector trail to the Long Ridge Trail which led us to an entrance into the eastern end of the pleasant heavily-wooded area that contains the Chumash Interpretive Center portion of the Oakbrook Regional Park.

We then walked a short distance eastward on the Lang Ranch Parkway and turned northward onto Autumn Ridge Drive and followed it a few blocks to the Autumn Ridge Trail trailhead and followed that trail making our way to the Woodbridge Connector Trail which led us back to the Long Canyon Trail parking lot thus completing a nice 5.4-mile hike with just under 1,000’ of elevation gain/loss. We encountered several other hikers and bicycle riders and surprisingly there were small numbers of various blooming plants including California sunflower, lupine, sugar bush, toyon, bush mallow, and smallseed sandmat.

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January 10th – Las Llajas Canyon to the Abandoned Coquina Mining Operation

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Six hikers met at the trailhead on Evening Sky Drive on a cold very breezy morning. We began our hike by descending a short paved section of road into the canyon bottom; from there we followed the wide well-graded dirt road upstream to the north 1.8 miles, crossing the flowing stream two times. The wind had stopped and the sun was shining when we came to the a single-track “use” trail (the remnants of an old mining road) as we climbed up the eastern slope of the mountain, atop which there are panoramic views of the surrounding area including parts of Chivo Canyon, Las Llajas Canyon, the Santa Susana Mountains, and Simi Valley. We took a break when we reached our goal, the site of a coquina (a soft whitish limestone formed of broken shells and corals cemented together and used for road building) mining operation. Various mining equipment artifacts are strewn about near the mining site, most notably a P&H Model 206 “steam” shovel. We returned to our vehicles having completed a pleasant 6.5-mile hike with about 1200’ of elevation gain/loss on a pleasant morning for hiking.