Saturday I was up early as usual so instead of the regular Wilderness Park walk I drove out to La Tuna Canyon Road. I've seen people walking this place for about 40 years, this is the first time I've stopped to check it out, arriving at 7am. After a bit of road walking I went up and down the obvious ridge route, which crosses the road a few times as it goes straight toward the peak. This way is very steep at times and the recent rains left the track a bit wet in places so a bit of care was required to not slip downhill. After plenty of sweat and despair facing yet another up-and-down section I reached the lofty Verdugo Peak summit, graced by a bench and American flag. I wasn't sure that was the place until I brushed the dirt off of the benchmark, which immediately filled me with a sense of pride. I relaxed on the bench for a few minutes, looked at the views of downtown LA - which seemed to exhibit a burning building - and then trooped over to the next hill which is guarded by a fence and some threatening signs. I walked back down the road, although it seemed to take forever it's just a few miles. The creek sounded tantalizingly close although all the man-made drainages are well away from the road and I seldom saw any of the water. Somewhere near the bottom it's close enough to venture a bit off trail to visit, evidenced by plenty of use trails straight down the hillside. This is definitely the time to visit, pretty soon it will be much too hot for the ascent although a morning walk would be nicely shaded on the lower half of the road.
First part of the ridge route
Road crossing ahead, I took the very wide alternate path
Nearly at the summit looking back, yes it's steep
Benchmark
Rest stop
Downtown LA in the distance and the mighty LA River flowing
Close to the creek, this is a little zoom lens shot
It was jarring to pop over the last ridge and hear the freeway noise
"Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours".
Donald Shimoda
