I don't know if I can really call these hikes, since it was just wandering around some small wild areas surrounded by houses. Anyway, I was in La Verne one day and saw a marker for Golden Hills Wilderness Park so I checked out the place. It's not much - Cement marker that I saw, a wooden kiosk with wildlife pictures and no current information alongside a worn path that extends for a few hundred feet from the sidewalk to another point on the sidewalk. I also found some other trafficked area that looked like trail, unfortunately it only went from one street to another a quarter-mile away.
Information station
Secondary route past some houses
Still more houses but starting to look more like wilderness
End of the ‘trail’
Since I was in the neighborhood I walked over to the Marshall Canyon Trail, where I have visited a few times. This is popular with hikers and bikers on weekends because it provides plenty of shade and a small creek as it descends from Miller Ranch Road at the Claremont/La Verne border. It's also a long walk from the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park although the sun exposure at the beginning of that trek makes it a lot less interesting. Right now the trail is pretty overgrown and could use some maintenance, also the rope swing is gone from one of the large trees. It's still a nice place to visit, full of my favorite Live Oak trees. I sat at a picnic table for a while and had some breakfast, fortunately I had left one of my Jetboil stoves in the truck so I could heat up creek water for hot chocolate.
Plenty of shade entering off of Esperanza Drive
Creek crossing, one of two along this section
This used to be Sierra La Verne golf course, now just weeds
Broken tree crashed over the trail
A few days later I visited Upland Ford to get the recall processed for the back-up camera in the Maverick, which afforded me a couple hours to visit Cucamonga Basin #6, part of the San Bernardino flood control district. I remember when this project was begun, I rode my bike around it probably 10 years ago. It's a little better developed now, with plenty of native-type plants and sprinkler systems that help to maintain the wetland areas. During melt season it's also a spreading ground for the local community water, when I visited all the small basins were dry. I entered at the Sunset Point trailhead, going past the Ontario Peak and Cucamonga Peak overlook areas. This place does have nice views of the eastern San Gabriels as they begin their downslope to Cajon Pass.
View toward Saddleback from the trailhead
Mixed trails
There wasn’t a sign for the Cucamonga overlook
Confusing area as this seems to be part of the trail
In the midst of all this I also walked around the Wilderness Park here, going up Sycamore Canyon to Johnson's Pasture before coming back down though the WP. Internal moral to this story is they don't all have to be epic, sometimes it's great just to get outside.
Local walks
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JeffH
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"Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours".
Donald Shimoda
Donald Shimoda