DAY ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE
Tonight I am going to the Springsteen concert at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. I will be doing a hike on the way there and will post an update on Thursday sometime.
(Update)
Los Angeles is the land of freeways. You have the Santa Monica Freeway, the Long Beach Freeway, the Ventura Freeway, the Hollywood Freeway, the 405 and the trail to Sturtevant Falls. I was looking for a hike on the way to LA that I could do before the Springsteen concert (amazing show, how does the guy do it in his SIXTIES?) and I saw this waterfall hike and decided to do it. I love waterfalls and by the look of the trail so does everyone else.
The trail starts at Chantry Flats, which is at the northern end of Santa Anita Blvd. There are several trails in the area. I just happen to pick the most popular. I had asked some LA locals their pick for a nice hike in the area and none picked this one. I guess they like solitude, too.
The first part of the trail is this paved road (freeway). Thankfully, it has a diamond lane on the right so I can hike off the pavement.
Uh, yeah. Have a nice day, too.
This little informative sign tells about some of the history of the area.
It's the only hike I've ever done that has cabins almost the entire length. Personally, I wouldn't mind a cabin in the woods but I wouldn't like it so close to a freeway.
I get to the falls, which are actually pretty cool.
However, the problem with being freeway close is that the LA masses have easy access. Even though I went on a cool, windy weekday, I saw more people and more trash than I'd see on a month's worth of hikes in the desert. I didn't bring a pack so I loaded as much garbage as I could put in my pockets on the way out. Maybe I found my inner sanitation worker.
It's nice to find a waterfall in the LA area and although the trash was disturbing I was happy there wasn't any graffiti. This time. I head out to get to the concert just in time for rush hour.
I love LA.
