Today was the first day since I've been in LA that wasn't unrelentingly sunny. Since I was starting to get some sort of reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder from all this sunshine, I immediately ditched the library to plot an outdoor adventure. I settled on Las Flores Canyon, which has a beautiful series of hiking trails through the canyon in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Altadena. One of the trails leads to Echo Mountain and the ruins of the long- abandoned Mount Lowe Railway. Along the trail are various segments of railroad detritus and anti-erosion dams. I include this part only to make use of the wonderful word detritus.
The vegetation here is an otherworldy mix of high desert, chapparal, and semi-tropical. There are house-sized prickly-pears next to delicate blue flowers and palm trees next to desert sage. Some of the plants look like they've been soaked in rust. Noisy western scrub-jays and mockingbirds bicker in the trees. A raven flies overhead.
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