On the way back from a night camping on Santa Cruz, I was lucky enough to see a pod of Orca. I’m always amazed by the natural wonders you can find on your doorstep here in LA.

IslandPackers are running special whale-watching half-day trips until April. Orcas are unusual, but there’s often grey whales, and I’ve almost never stepped off the boat without seeing a good crop of dolphins and sea-lions. The crew are always a lot of fun, especially when they go into great depth on the fauna’s sex-lives. Dolphins mate up to ten times a day, apparently! Do make sure to dress up warm. Even in the summer when it’s in the 80’s on land, I’ve got very chilly on the boat.

Towsley Canyon is a park on the edge of Santa Clarita, just off the 5 freeway. It’s a lovely place, full of beautiful flowers in the springtime, but my favorite features are the small oil seeps scattered amongst the hills. Once a commercial oil field, there’s now just a few rusty derricks and some natural springs of oil slowly bubbling to the surface. I never believed the title sequence of the Beverly Hillbillies could be real, but you can see it here! There’s also a miniature version of the Zion narrows, with a small but spectacular canyon carved out by occasional heavy flooding.

The main trail there is a 5 mile loop, that climbs about 800 feet. It’s got sections with a 30% grade on the east side, so I recommend taking the counter-clockwise direction where there’s some gentler uphill grades thanks to some switchbacks. It’s popular with bikers and runners and is a good place to take your dogs, though you’ll need them leashed. Here’s a map showing the main loop, and a shorter variation you can take.

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To get there from LA, drive north up the 5 until the Calgrove exit, and turn left at the stop sign at the end of the ramp. About 1/4 mile along that road you’ll see a sign for the Ed Davis Park on the right. You can either park on the street lot which is free, or drive in a few hundred yards and pay $5 for one of the interior parking areas. Head north along the fire road, going past the visitor’s center and ranger’s accomodation. You’ll pass a concrete dam, and then go through the Narrows on the streambed, and eventually hit a spot where the trail turns uphill. After this, there’s some well-planned switchbacks, but it’s still hard work getting towards the top. Luckily, the trail is kept in great condition by a dedicated crew of volunteers. Liz and I just returned from a day working with them, and came home with some scrumptious fruitcake as a Christmas gift!

It should be fairly clear which way to go as you hike along the trail, there’s not much vegetation growing in, the tread is in good shape, and there’s few unofficial side-trails to confuse you. Be careful if you go in the summer, there’s little shade and can get extremely hot, so make sure you bring plenty of water. My favorite time to visit is the spring, thanks to the cool weather and wonderful wildflowers that appear after the rains, including some gorgeous Chocolate Lilies.

You’ll reach a peak of around 2200 feet, and then start heading downhill fairly gently. After around a mile, it will start to get a bit steeper, culminating in a 30% grade section (marked on the map) that seems to head straight down the hill. Thankfully it eases up after that, and you’ll soon pass the largest oil seep, usually with lots of sticks left poked in it by curious children. After that, you’re less than a mile back to the parking lot.

These are my secret weapon for keeping people coming back to my trail work days. The butter and heavy mixing are the keys to getting the perfect consistency, and I’ve got the science to back that up! The taste comes from the real butter and using good chocolate chips, not the generic ones packed with vegetable oil. Makes 20 to 30 cookies.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup real cane brown sugar (not the fake dyed white stuff, doesn’t have the moistness)
• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/4 cups white flour
• 12 oz Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
2. Put the sugar and butter in a bowl, and mix thoroughly. The initial mixing is crucial, you should get a mixture that seems almost whipped by the end, that will form peaks when you lift the beaters. Start off with the butter cold, straight from the fridge, and mix for longer than seems necessary, it makes a big difference.
3. Add one egg, and the vanilla, and mix thoroughly again. Though for a much shorter time than the initial mix.
4. Add the final egg and mix again.
5. In a measuring cup, combine the salt, soda and flour, giving them a stir.
6. Add the flour to the dough, about a third or a quarter of it at a time, mixing well between each.
7. Pour in the chocolate chips, and mix them in with a spoon.
8. Take a baking tray and place lumps of dough a little smaller than golf balls on it. Line it with foil first if you want to make cleaning up easier.
9. Place in the oven, and cook for 11 to 13 minutes, depending on how gooey you like them.
10. Use a spatula to take them off the tray, and put them on a rack to dry. Don’t worry if they’re still a bit soft, they continue baking and firm up as they cool off.

If you’ve ever marveled at the beautiful rocks above the 118 on the pass between Simi Valley and Chatsworth, then you should get a closer look on the Hummingbird trail. Starting just north of the 118 in Simi, you park on the side of Kuehner Road. It’s 2 miles long, and about 1000 feet in elevation gain, so it’s quite a workout. As you can see in the picture, there’s some amazing sections heading across solid rock, it’s a great place to see some naked geology. It’s popular with local mountain bikers, but I also enjoy it as a hike. Bikers have trouble getting up enough speed on this terrain to be a hazard to pedestrians, so there’s not too much user conflict.

Here’s a Google map showing the route:

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Parking is on the east side of Kuehner, 200 yards north of the freeway. There’s an open area between the lot and the start of the trail proper. They’re redeveloping this for housing, but it’s an official trail, so just walk across this section to a small creekbed. The trail itself heads up from here, and is mostly very clearly marked, apart from the slickrock sections. It is quite technical if you’re biking, so take care. There’s also a lot of switchbacks, with sections where people have cut across. These shortcuts turn into streams very easily, since they’re following the ‘fall line’ straight down the hill, so they accelerate erosion and end up scarring the land.

There’s several sections where the trail heads across bare rock. Keep going on the same heading that the trail entered each, and you’ll pick up the next dirt part of the trail. There’s also one section with small painted markers to follow. The whole area burnt several years ago, you’ll still see a lot of charred shrubs amongst the regrowth.

The trail ends at Rocky Peak Fire Road, which you can take back to the Rocky Peak exit of the 118. There’s no real loop you can do on Hummingbird, so I often end up making it an out and back. The climb gives you some gorgeous views out over both Simi and San Fernando Valleys.

Here’s another description of this trail including some of the history, by the Simi Trailblazers.

There’s no equivalent to the British concept of ‘proper’ in the US. It’s the adjective you use to describe something that’s correct against the implicit standard, as in a proper cup of tea, or a proper job. The funny thing is, it’s not the same as good, or enjoyable, instead it just implies that the subject complies with the natural order of the universe, as if beverages or careers had some platonic ideal they could be measured against.

What I love about this country is we get to set our own standards, there isn’t some cultural ether that everything’s defined in reference to. Most people I knew in the UK sneered at gaudy holiday house decorations, but I secretly loved them. Now I can decorate my house with multi-colored Christmas lights, and people respect that it’s my business, rather than trying to force me to conform. If anybody has an issue, it’s treated as a matter debate between us, and doesn’t rely on an appeal to some faceless ‘proper’ standard of behavior.

I have a lot more fun now I’m leading an improper life!

Previously I’ve covered camping in La Jolla Valley, Sycamore Canyon, Circle X and Santa Cruz Island. I thought that La Jolla Valley was the only place in the Santa Monicas where you didn’t need a reservation to camp, with a first-come, first-served hike-in campground, but I was wrong!

Musch trail camp is another small hike-in campground like La Jolla’s, and it’s in the east end of the mountains at Topanga State Park. It’s about a mile from Trippet Ranch, the park entrance off Entrada Road, near Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Here’s a Google map showing the campground, trail and parking lot:

View Larger Map

The campground is fairly small, and looks like it would hold 6 to 8 tents maximum. There’s water available, and restrooms. You’re allowed to camp in a fenced-in area under some eucalyptus trees, and there are some picnic benches provided, as you can see in the photo above. It’s a fairly open spot next to the trail, without much of a view. It costs $3 a night, per person, and you can stay a maximum of 3 nights. You’re not allowed to smoke or have any fires except for propane stoves, for reasons that are obvious after the last few months.

There is no reservations system, and it doesn’t seem heavily used, but I would recommend phoning the park before-hand on 310 455 2465 to check on conditions. Talking to a ranger at Trippet Ranch when you get to the park so they know you’re there is a good idea too.

The campground is halfway along the Musch trail. The easiest way to get there is to start off at Trippet Ranch, and head along the northerly fire road from the parking lot. After a few hundred feet, the Musch trail branches off to the east. It’s well sign-posted, in pretty good shape and easy to follow. After roughly a mile, you’ll come across a small building and a paved road. The corral next to this is the camp site, and there’s an iron ranger where you can pay your fee.

If you’re ambitious, you could also get here along the Backbone trail from Will Rogers State Park, along the Rogers Road initial section, but that’s 9 mile hike. Milt McAuley’s Guide to the Backbone Trail is the best resource if you want more information on that alternative, since there’s a lot of junctions to navigate taking that route.

Thanks to an unexpected shortage after I’d already started on the martinis, I’m now attempting to make naan bread from scratch to go with my curry. This scuppers tonight’s blog posting plans, but stay tuned for posts on camping in Topanga State Park and automatic tag generation!

My parents have just arrived from the UK, and we’re all flying off to visit Liz’s family in Wisconsin tomorrow, so I’ll be trying to stay away from blogging for the next week. If you’re a new reader, the Defrag coverage  should keep you busy until I return. If you’re technically inclined, there’s also a series on the technical details of accessing Outlook emails,  and a step-by-step guide to writing an Internet Explorer extension, based on my experiences developing Google Hot Keys.

And finally for outdoors folk, check out some of my posts on hiking, biking and camping in LA, complete with tips on combining martinis and backpacking!

Liz joined me in Denver on the last day of Defrag, and we spent the rest of the week exploring Colorado together. We started off that evening with a visit to Pints Pub. When I first came to the US, I felt very odd visiting simulacrums of British tea-shops and pubs, they always felt like such an exaggerated, "Mary Poppins" version of the old country. I’ve been over here long enough now that I’m very happy to find even a half-decent Bangers and Mash, and the other details are no longer jarring.

Pints was actually a great place, they had an amazing selection of scotch, some really impressive draught beers, and good food. They’d got the right atmosphere too, there were the obligatory pictures of Churchill and policemen, but the furnishings, fittings and lighting were all very pub-like.

We then spent three days up in the mountains, doing some early-season snowboarding at Loveland and Keystone, staying at the Inn at Keystone. It was so early in the season that there were only a few runs open, and they were very icy, so it was a pretty challenging experience. Liz ended up getting pretty bruised and battered from falls, but we both found the martinis on offer at the Inn’s bar very soothing.

We spent the last two nights in Boulder, the hotels were packed so we ended up at the slightly tattered Golden Buff Lodge. It wasn’t a bad location, with a nice Indian restaurant nearby, but the heater sounded like a helicopter taking off when it started, there was no cable for the internet, and no sound insulation in the ceiling, so just the upstairs neighbors walking around was enough to wake us up. We still had a great time in Boulder though, we hiked from the Rangers Cottage up the Chattaqua trail on the first afternoon, and then did a big loop from NCAR up to Bear Peak and back on the Saturday.

The Bear Peak loop was tough, with about 2,300 feet of elevation gain over about four miles and starting at over 6,000 feet. The gain was concentrated in the climb up the peak itself, and the final half mile was a really steep uphill scramble. Here’s Liz coming down from the peak:

We took the Fern Valley trail back to NCAR, and that was shorter than the Bear Canyon route we took up, but involved about a mile and a half of extremely steep and slippy downhill that would have been a lot easier if we’d brought our hiking poles. The view from the top of Bear Peak was incredible though, both looking out towards the mountains and back towards Denver it was beautiful.

It was fun people-watching on the trail too; everybody looked like they could plausibly be part of the university faculty or students, and there was at least a dog for every person we saw, which made us think again about getting one ourselves. Even better, Boulder has a scheme where you can have your dog off-leash on the trails if you have a special tag hat proves it’s under your sight and voice control. I feel sorry for the dogs here in California, they never get to have any fun out in the mountains like that.