Calabasas BM P300
Peak 1,529ft P300

Continued...

I was on my way from San Diego to Santa Barbara where my daughter was graduating from UCSB on Friday. I had stopped Wednesday night at my sister's place in the San Fernandon Valley for a short visit. We made plans to do a hike the next day but it would not be the early start I had gotten used to. It was scheduled to be 90F today, and an earlier start would have been better, but sis was not on board - more sleep took precedence over a little heat.

Calabasas BM

It's a little embarassing to call this one a hike. A water tank sits close to the summit with a gated access road on the north side from the end of Park Belmonte. Signed for No Trespassing, we ignored that and used the foot trail on the left side that goes around the fence and gate. We then hiked up the steep, paved road to the water tank in less than 10 minutes. We followed the perimeter fence to the left on a use trail that goes to the highpoint which is outside the fence to the southeast. Views were rather hazy over the SF Valley. The summit offers glorious views around the Calabasas area, home to many of the entertainment industry's rich and famous. It's not hard to pick out the ridiculously large homes peppered about that they call home. My sister found the outing underwhelming, wondering how I came to even call it a peak and why anyone would bother. I simply told her shes doesn't fully understand my addiction.

Peak 1,529ft

I was a bit ashamed for taking her to the first one, so I quickly found a better candidate online in the Westlake area about 8mi to the west. We returned to the Ventura Freeway, drove to Westlake and made our way to a small neighborhood park in Lindero Canyon that provides access to the Wistful Vista OSP. Lindero Creek emerges from under the suburban development at this small park to make a delightfully shaded riparian woodland. We were surprised to see water in the creek and the temperture was 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding area. Unfortunately, our hike would stay only a short time along the creek before the old ranch road we followed veered away to climb the hillside to the southeast. The grass and thistles on either side of our trail were tall, brown, and lifeless. It looked like it could all quickly go up in flames with the careless drop of a match. We took about 25min to make our way up to the rounded highpoint in about a mile. A water tank was located in a recess just off the summit, a nice way to keep it tucked out of view. I was ready to head back at this point, but Michele wanted to keep going along the continuing trail. I relented, despite the heat. "Why wouldn't you want to continue on the trail since wer're already up here?" she asked. I replied, "Because we already reached the summit and there's not another one in that direction. Like I said, you don't really understand the addiction." It was nice enough to continue on the undulating ridge, eventually reaching the end where some telecom antennae are located. There was a good view overlooking Westlake Village to the south and southwest, home to more of the better-off Southlanders. We spent almost an hour and a half on our 3.5mi outing, with about 800ft of gain. It was 84F when we finished up before 11a. This would do it for the day...

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