Walk: Santa Anita Canyon

Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be
Oh, do you see what I see?

These days, my weekends are filled with activities and chores: send my camera to be fixed, change the car's engine oil, sell those bottles and can, write my business report, read the chapters for my business class, drive around town to do this and that, etc. There never seems to be enough time to stop and think. However, on Saturday morning, my friend called me up and offered an opportunity for me to do that.

"Hey, what are you doing today?"

"Not much," my typical reply, despite all the chores, "Why?"

"I'm thinking if you want to go hiking."

A moment of pause.

"Hiking?" this is from a guy who complains about parking too far in a parking lot.

"Yeah, hiking."

And so the weekend's activity was decided. We were going to hike Santa Anita Canyon. I drove up the narrow and curvy canyon slowly with three cars trailing me. My friend did not like how slow I was driving, but he knows better than to say too much. For any passengers in my car, they know, it's better to be safe than sorry. We got to the parking lot around 11 AM, and paid five dollars for a parking permit.

Along the trail to the bottom of the canyon, we took some detour to visit few abandoned cabins. There were plenty of equipments, and rusted items filled with web cobs. I thought about how anyone could have live there in the early 1900's. It would have been a long and enduring walk up and around couple canyons. After about an hour, we got all the way down to the bottom of the canyon, where lie a spring with crystal clear water. A family with couple kids were playing around the spring. For me and my friend, we sat along the stream talking about our lives in the beautiful nature with small creatures in the spring.

It was not too long before we realized that we should have pack some food before coming here. The hike was exhausting, and it was already 1:30 PM. We headed back after 20 minutes around the spring. For my friend, who is not used to walking up hill for more than a mile took few breaks along the way. His legs were giving up by the time we got back to my car. As I drove down the canyon, three more cars followed me...

Oh, still waiting for my camera to come back, so no pictures.