Story

Continued...

I was in the Los Angeles area to see my son run for Marquette in the Mt. Sac Relays invitational. He was scheduled to run at 7p at El Camino College in Torrance, giving me most of the day free. My right leg had been most uncooperative the previous day and I struggled to complete some really short hikes. Finding that Walmart was open late, I picked up a pair of crutches last night for $35 to use today. My leg would have preferred to simply rest, but that's close to impossible for me to accomodate while I'm on the road. Crutches in hand, my leg would be pressed into service despite its vehement protests. I looked ridiculous climbing grassy hills with the crutches, but it had the advantage of soliciting sympathy from the neighbors rather than their wrath. The peaks were all as close to drive-ups as I could find in the county, a collection of rather dubious "summits" I had left for a rainy day. Or an injury day, as the case may be.

Peak 2,140ft

This is a minor summit in the Verdugo Mtns, sandwiched between Interstate 210 and Foothill Blvd in a residential area. A water tank sits near the summit with a gated service road leading to the tower. Walking the road would make this a snap, save for the two adjacent residences that don't like folks peering into their yards from the road. At least one of the TR on PB indicated this. There are numerous No Trespassing signs posted along the road, most of them not placed by the LADWP who owns the land. As someone else pointed out, the ire of the neighbors can be avoided by climbing the grass slopes to the left of the service road. The grass was 4ft tall, making it difficult to climb with the crutches and the ludicrousness of the situation was not lost on me. It took me a bit more time than usual, but I managed to get to the top, take a few pics of the water tank and views, and get safely back down again. No upset neighbors.

Adams Hill

Adams hill is located in the SE corner of Glendale, another residential summit. There are two water tanks on the summit crest, the highpoint located adjacent to the northern one. There is a service road off Scenic Dr, but it is gated and adjacent to several residences. On the suggestion of others from PB TRs, I used the ascent from Marion Dr going up a steep, grassy slope to the southern tank, then following the service road to the highpoint. It so happened that there were four service trucks and as many LADWP employees. They were busy manuevering trucks around the narrow road while a few emplyees dumped a gallon of yellow liquid into the tanks (no doubt the same chemicals dispersed by chemtrails to control the population). They were very friendly and not the least concerned by my appearance, a little amused by my crutches. After visiting the highpoint, I saved myself some trouble by exiting through the open service gate and walking the residential roads back to the jeep, again looking a bit ridiculous hobbling down narrow and steep, sidewalk-less streets with crutches.

Bee Rock

This one is located in Griffith Park, just above the site of the old LA Zoo. This was the hardest hike of the day, covering almost a mile each way with 500ft of gain. The rock looks impressive from the parking lot with steep cliffs on three sides. Though I was able to find the Bee Rock Trail easily enough, I had some trouble keeping to it, and ended up on a use trail that climbed more directly to Bee Rock with some class 2-3 scrambling, again made difficult with the crutches. The top of the rock is surrounded on three sides with fencing to keep folks from falling to their doom, but there are several breeches in the old fencing that allow one to venture out onto the rocks for a more unobstructed view. I might have done so myself, but thought the wiser of it considering my current condition.

Olive Hill

There is a museum complex atop Olive Hill, a small bump located south of Griffith Park. There are indeed olive trees along the lower flanks of the peak, but a small forest of pine trees has been symmetrically arranged at the top. The highpoint is occupied by a museum building with a fence around it, currently closed, but one can get equal to the highpoint by standing outside the fence. No much in the way of views from the summit due to a lot of large trees on the hill.

Dominguez Hills

Not much to say or offer on this one. The highpoint is a massively flattened mesa in the middle of a large industrial park on the south side of Compton. No real views or reason to visit it. The drive to reach it was particularly nasty, going through downtown and some of the densest areas of the LA Basin. Even adding new layers of freeway atop the old don't seem to help much with the perpetual congestion. One has to love how the oil and car industries like to display huge american flags on their properties as if to signify they are as American as apple pie, and disparaging them is the same as being unpatriotic.

Signal Hill

Overlooking Long Beach, this small hill has some history to it, first (and still) as a producing oil field going back a hundred years, and secondly as the site of the first jazz-only radio station back in the 1950s. The summit is mostly home to upscale residences these days, but there are still several large telecom installations in service. The oil fields have not been retired either, as there a number of producing wells doting the hill and surrounding areas. There was even one in a parking lot of a shopping area that I passed by. There is a monument to the oilmen of a mostly bygone age in Los Angeles near where I parked on Skyline Dr. One can walk into the gated community as there are no gates on the pedestrian accesses. The highpoint is at an intersection inside this development and rather disappointing. On clear days there are good views from Skyline Dr (and the popular Hilltop Park to the west) of Longbeach and San Pedro harbors, with the Pacific Ocean and Catalina as a backdrop.

I enjoyed the track meet at El Camino College in Torrance that evening. Ryan ran a PR in the 10K event he participated in, finishing in 30:46. That's about 9min faster than I ever managed to run a 10K. Kids these days!


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