Nike Hike

I saw some new caches up by the old Nike base on dirt Mulholland, and headed out there to grab one.

1837

The gate at the crossroads was locked, so I decided to just get this one, saving a few for another day and another couple miles of hiking exercise:

The weather was perfect: cloudy, breezy, cool

Since I more often drive up this section of road to the Nike base, I noticed some new things as I walked:

Here’s the entrance to the old Nike base, now adorned with signs describing its history:

I wonder where this paved path used to lead:

Some funky old posts at the side of the road:

The local flora is starting to show more color:

Down the hill and to the north is the Encino Reservoir:

This is the view from the cache looking back toward where I parked.

Looking down on the San Fernando Valley:

A Simple Hike, an Historic Nike

I took a 6-mile RT hike recently along a fire road south of one of the local Nike bases. The Nike project, developed during WWII and the Cold War, was intended to be a first line of defense against air strikes. The base is now a monument and historical site.

Wikipedia has more info.

I come up here every so often, as there are several hikes I can take and I can see the entire San Fernando Valley from up there. Being able to see so much of such a large city give me a sense of ownership somehow: it’s all mine to enjoy!

The hike I took affords sweeping vistas of the surrounding canyons and hills, and the fire road has minimal elevation gains/losses, so the hike is long, but easy. I found these caches along the way:

Ryan’s Cache
Ground Hogs Day
What’s in a name?
Room to Grow

Some of the view:

A nice place to live, if you can:

The signs herald the entrance to the Santa Monica Mountains Wilderness Area… sort of:

I experimented with my camera focus to get this shot of the sun in the clouds:

When I pointed the camera a little differently, it shows this instead:

The Nike Base:

Here’s another sun shot:

Now if I can just figure out how to get a good one of the moon….

By the way, there are two podcasts well worth listening to. Sonny and Sandy, with almost 200 shows produced, are still fresh and entertaining: Podcacher
The other one is more of a real call-in show: Geocaching Podcast Catch them in action on Tuesday nights. Spread the word about these significant contributors to the geocaching community!

Until next week!

14 miles, now that’s a big number!

I took this long hike with BWidger, GeoCraig, DonJ, Albackore, OLdweeb, tozainamboku, and RobbDogg. Yep, EMC and the 7 Geoguys.

We parked cars at the beach at the south end of Sycamore Canyon, then drove up to the trailhead for Sandstone Peak and Inspiration Point. The first leg of the hike was about 1.5 miles, all uphill, but on a good trail. We stopped to gawk at the horrible Sylmar fire that took many houses and covered the San Fernando Valley in smoke and soot.

Here I am at the highest peak in the Santa Monica Mountains with the new guy, Albackore:

It was a bit windy up there:

Sometimes the trail looked like this:

Sometimes it was an eerie, magical place:

Even the trees made this creepy music!

Looking back from whence we came:

Our lunch spot:

Hm… I think there’s a cache over there!

Here’s a topo of our epic walk, courtesy GeoCraig:

Two of the caches on the list
Henry’s Cache
Buddah’s Belly?
checked a couple more off a local challenge cache.
Santa Monica Mtns History Adventure

Finding a cache that’s been there 7 years has a mystique about it. Henry’s through here!

(photo by toz)
OK, we walked around the formation….

BWidger got this shot of me and the previous photographer with the Buddha’s Belly cache.

For more fabulous photos and pithy commentary about our hike, please visit the blogs of GeoCraig, OLdweeb, and RobbDogg!

I have so much to be thankful for, not the least of which is that I’m able to hike 14 miles, especially in such wonderfully diverse scenery. I have fantastic friends, both old and new, with whom I can go on my adventures. I have many more places to go and caches to find.

I wish you all a fun-filled and food-filled Thanksgiving!