inglorious wanderer

To find Annie's Canyon Trail, exit at Loma Santa Fe Drive  from I-5 and continue towards the Pacific Coast Highway 101. Turn right on Rios Avenue. If you go past the railroad, you've  gone too far,  make a legal U-turn as soon as you can. Once you get back on Loma Santa Fe Drive and turn left too soon on N. Rios Avenue and go past the Solana Beach Amtrak Station, don't worry, you'd eventually get to Rios Avenue. At the end of Rios Avenue is a trailhead to the San Elijo Lagoon Preserve. The trailhead to Annie's Canyon Trail is a little over half a mile from the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Preserve trailhead.  The wooden sign that bears Annie's name, a lady from Solana Beach who must have advocated for the restoration of the area  is still sporting its Home Depot varnish. Annie's Canyon Trail has been a no trespassing zone for some time for restoration. Previously know for being the Mushroom Caves, the trail actually lea...

I am glad Marina Anderson offered to take my picture and I was spared making myself another pathetic selfie shot. I was hiking with Maestro Magellan and revisiting Daley Ranch. I first visited this "jewel of Escondido" almost four years ago. https://gopluckyourself.blogspot.com/2012/08/hikers-with-cause.html We all came with hats. We couldn't help but the defy the alerts for an upcoming days of heat wave. I am glad the leader, Maestro Magellan is not up to raise funds for children's cancer research. I have been joining his hikes for years and his hikes had always been more of nature walks to me. Maestro Magellan sort of warned everyone to climb the boulders at their own risk but not during his hike. Up close, it is so tempting to climb the boulder free solo. The boulder, about 12 feet in height, is the largest one I saw in the Boulder Loop Trail. Described with an "elephant skin" appearance because perhaps of the smooth and greenish discoloration in...

I feel that I have hiked most of San Diego's trails and I finally got the chance to drive all the way to Irvine to look for  the Turtle Rock. I was excited  to go by CA 73 toll road with a Fastrak transponder. The last time I went by the route, I was fined  $60 some two or three months after I went through the toll road without paying the $5 toll fee. Irvine is accessed through the CA-73, a toll road that cuts through  some Orange County canyons into Long Beach, California. Irvine used to be some cattle ranch owned by a rancher named James Irvine. Native Americans known to  Spanish conquistadores as Gabrielino Indians were said to inhabit the area some 12,000 years ago. Claims to the area known as San Joaquin Valley passed from Spain to Mexico and eventually to United States. Following a well maintained trail from the Turtle Rock community park, I came upon Bommer Canyon where I expected to see a boulder looking like a turtle perched on a sum...

I am hiking my own hike now and I am trying to build endurance for a 19.5 mile hike. The sign has always been where I passed it for the first time more than four years ago. I went pass the top of the mountain into the top of the table. The photo was taken by Tina Chitura on that first hike to top of the mountain on May 1, 2012. And since then I have always visited the trail and some others trails in San Diego. I couldn't tell a sugar bush if I saw one then. Nor I could identify a yellow mariposa lily among deer weed flowers. I said hello to a lizard. A bee seemed to prefer a wild  mustard flower over a foothill death camas flower. Another lizard caught by my lens. The sign that tells people to stay on the trails is not simply banning hiking or climbing off trails. The California Department of Parks and Recreations has proposed a rule to ban public access off designated areas in hiking trails. The rule, in my honest opinion, is already in place.