Super Safe Hiking in Very Dangerous Conditions
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:27 am
With the ANF and much of the Santa Monicas closed due to extreme fire conditions, I had to look elsewhere yesterday for some outdoor entertainment. Fortunately, there is a local range that is apparently impervious to burning and is not entirely closed down...yet. Being in such close proximity to the ANF, I'm quite surprised that this range is immune to both burning and the devil winds, but alas it must be so as there was no closure order that I could find anywhere on the interwebs and it looked like business as usual as I drove to the trailhead. What is this mythical place where the bushes don't burn? Wildwood Canyon Park in the Verdugos.
As I entered Wildwood and started up the steep-in-places Vital Links Trail in my quest for Verdugo Mountain, I could immediately see how different the flora was here as compared to the ANF. If was lush, verdant, and quite resistant to the flame unlike the hellscape that is the ANF. I mean just look at this.
Anyway, the Vital Links Trail begins climbing right out of the chute and doesn't relent until you achieve the radio towers on the ridge about 1.8 miles and ~1,700 feet from the trailhead. It appears this trail see quite a bit of use as it is severely braided and eroded along its entire stretch. When you top out near the radio tower, there is a nice chair positioned so you can look over the haze of Burbank while you rehydrate before continuing on.
From the radio tower, I proceed north on the short spur that intersects with the main fire along along the ridge. I believe this is the Verdugo Motorway. Right at the junction, I crossed paths with a nice looking coyote that ran when I approached him. At the junction, I tacked right (east) and followed the Motorway to the summit of Verdugo Mountain roughly 1.6 miles distant. Candidly, the road walk isn't that impressive, but I checked out the Plantation Lateral and Wildhos Saddle along the way just to say I did it.
Verdugo Mountain itself is also not much to see as the summit hosts more radio towers and is completed fenced off. There are however, some benches on the south side that you can sit at and look at the smog below. Those benches were taken by others when I arrived at the summit, so I was relegated to a sad concrete slab on the east side. I stayed only briefly to have a snack and a drink, and then retraced my steps back to Vital Links. Going down was much quicker than coming up, but the down is quite unforgiving if you've got bad knees. A stick here is quite beneficial as the "trail" here is quite steep in loose in many sections.
Back at the car, I felt quite fortunate to still be alive, but I had cheated certain death by hiking the only place in Southern California that is safe from the ravages of wind and fire.
As I entered Wildwood and started up the steep-in-places Vital Links Trail in my quest for Verdugo Mountain, I could immediately see how different the flora was here as compared to the ANF. If was lush, verdant, and quite resistant to the flame unlike the hellscape that is the ANF. I mean just look at this.
Verdugo Mountain itself is also not much to see as the summit hosts more radio towers and is completed fenced off. There are however, some benches on the south side that you can sit at and look at the smog below. Those benches were taken by others when I arrived at the summit, so I was relegated to a sad concrete slab on the east side. I stayed only briefly to have a snack and a drink, and then retraced my steps back to Vital Links. Going down was much quicker than coming up, but the down is quite unforgiving if you've got bad knees. A stick here is quite beneficial as the "trail" here is quite steep in loose in many sections.
Back at the car, I felt quite fortunate to still be alive, but I had cheated certain death by hiking the only place in Southern California that is safe from the ravages of wind and fire.